Ronny Moorings

Ronny Moorings
Ronny Moorings of Clan of Xymox in concert in 2008, in Orlando, Florida
Background information
Born	(1961-05-20) 20 May 1961 Roosendaal, Netherlands
Genres	Dark Wave Electronic music Gothic rock Industrial rock Film Music
Occupation(s)	Musician, Composer
Instruments	Guitar Keyboard Bass
Years active	1981–present
Labels	4AD, PolyGram, Metropolis
Associated acts	Clan of Xymox Pieter Nooten Frank Weyzig Anka Wolbert
Website	www.clanofxymox.com

Ronny Moorings (born 20 May 1961) is a Dutch musician best known for his work with pioneering darkwave band Clan of Xymox. After the departure of founding bandmates in the early 1990s, Moorings has been the principal singer/songwriter.

Music career

With Clan of Xymox on 4AD

While a sociology student in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 1981, Moorings met fellow musician and graphic designer Anka Wolbert who shared a similar taste in new wave music at the time.^[1] In 1983 the two recorded a five track EP entitled Subsequent Pleasures - an apparent homage to Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures - and gave a copy to Brendan Perry after a chance encounter in an Amsterdam restaurant.^[2] Perry invited the pair to perform as the opening act for the inaugural UK tour of his own new project, Dead Can Dance, in 1984.^[3] Also while in Amsterdam, Moorings and Wolbert met fellow musician Pieter Nooten, who contributed several tracks of his own, making Xymox a trio. These songs formed the crux of the 1984 tour and the 1985 Debut LP Clan of Xymox, released on UK label 4AD. Lengthening the band's name to the title of its debut album, Clan of Xymox would go on to record two albums while signed with 4AD, achieving charting success in Europe and the United Kingdom.

With Xymox on Polygram

In 1988, Moorings, Nooten, and Wolbert signed with New York-based record label Polygram while agreeing to shorten the name once again to "Xymox". Their Polygram debut Twist of Shadows would prove to be the most commercially successful of their career, with "Imagination" charting on the Billboard Hot 100 and the band achieving regular MTV rotation.^[4] As Xymox bandmates engaged in side projects, Moorings assumed greater control, claiming Twist of Shadows was "made entirely independently, without the rest of the musicians, who were then on vacation."^[3] After the release of 1991's Phoenix, Nooten and Wolbert left the band, leaving Moorings as the sole songwriter. After a few experimentations with electronic music style recordings, Moorings released two albums in London: Metamorphosis (1991) and Headclouds (1992) on ZOK/ X-Ult records.^[5] In 1994 he moved back to Amsterdam and resumed touring in the Netherlands with girlfriend Mojca Zugna and old band mates Frank Weyzig and William Van Antwerpen.^[6] Shortly after in 1996 Moorings wrote music for the CD-R game Total Mayhem by Domark.^[7][8]

As Clan of Xymox on independent labels

In 1997, Moorings resurrected Clan of Xymox with the release of the album Hidden Faces partly produced by David M. Allen, infusing elements of gothic rock, industrial rock, and EBM music into new releases, eventually settling on Metropolis Records as principal distributing label. In 1998, Moorings collaborated with Patrick J. Collins on the music tracks for the Revenant CD-R game on Domark, released in 1999. In 1999, the album Creatures was released on Pandemonium Records (EU) and Metropolis Records (USA).

Ronny Moorings kept on writing, recording and releasing records on a continual basis: Notes From The Underground (2001), was followed a year later by Remixes From The Underground (2002), using solely material from the album Notes From The Underground. Most songs are remixed twice by the likes of Front 242, Assemblage 23, Iris etc. allowing you to pick and choose between frenetic and slightly more restrained versions of songs says Genevieve Williams in her editorial review.^[9] The follow up album Farewell was released in 2003. Gothic Paradise called the album "Overall an excellent work bringing all of the previous styles that Clan of Xymox has presented us with and melting them together into the excellent Electro Goth mix. With bombastic approaches at times to accent the angst-filled vocals or club-friendly music, the dynamics are perfectly presented to leave the listener with never a boring moment."^[10]

Other albums followed in quick succession. 2004 saw the release of The Best Of Clan Of Xymox, featuring re-recordings of songs released on 4AD. In 2006 a studio album Breaking Point and a DVD named Visible - edited, filmed and produced by Moorings and Mojca Zugna - was released.^[11] In Love We Trust was released on Trisol Records in Europe and Metropolis in the USA in 2009. Two years later in 2011 the album Darkest Hour was released. It featured the track "Delete" on video, filmed and edited by Ronny Moorings.^[12] Gothic Paradise called the album "solid gothic rock mixed with moving undulating layers of synths and moving dance beats."^[10]

In 2011, the track "In Your Arms Again" from the LP Darkest Hour was included on the soundtrack to David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.^[13] In 2012, Moorings revisited early new wave and gothic rock inspirations on an album of covers entitled Kindred Spirits. 2014 saw the latest studio album release on Valentine's Day named Matters Of Mind, Body And Soul, which explores Ronny's signature, melancholic sound.^[14]

Personal life

Moorings was born in Roosendaal, Netherlands. After studying in the Den Haag Social Academy for one year, he moved to Nijmegen in 1979 to study Sociology at the University of Nijmegen (K.U.N) and then in 1983 Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. In 1989 Moorings moved to London where he met Mojca Zugna. They lived there till 1994 and moved together to Amsterdam until 2005. He moved with his partner Mojca Zugna to Leipzig, Germany in 2005.^[15] Having lived in the Netherlands, London, and Leipzig, Moorings is fluent in five languages. Moorings is a self-taught musician, stating in a 2012 interview "My first synthesizers I bought when I was 19. Any formal musical training I never had. I still cannot read musical notes… I just like to follow my emotions and ears instead of looking at notes to see the theory behind it."^[16] Moorings has one child with longtime girlfriend Mojca Zugna, who has served as the Clan of Xymox bassist and graphic designer since the early 1990s.

References