Bob Moses

Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance both attended St. George's School in Vancouver but were only acquaintances there, despite sharing similar tastes in punk, grunge and minimalist electronic music. Howie later studied at Berklee and played in the rock band Coalition before moving to New York. Vallance moved there separately, working in trance and progressive house, releasing on Ultra Records and remixing Sia, before working for producer Philipp Jung.

The two ran into each other again in a Lowe's hardware store parking lot in New York and started writing together in Howie's apartment. After contributing a vocal hook to one of Jung's tracks, they showed demos to Francis Harris of the label Scissor & Thread, who suggested the name Bob Moses after the New York urban planner. Their debut EP, Hands to Hold, appeared on that label in 2012, followed by a second, before they signed to Domino Records in 2014.

Their music sits between deep house and songwriting-driven indie rock: four-to-the-floor rhythms and warm analogue synths underneath Howie's low, restrained vocals and guitar. The pair are known for performing as a live band rather than a DJ act, building tracks on stage with instruments and hardware.

'Tearing Me Up', from their 2015 debut album Days Gone By, brought them wider attention; a remix of it by RAC won a Grammy for Best Remixed Recording, and the original reached number 16 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. The duo performed it on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016. Their records have generally kept the same balance of club-length grooves and conventional verse-chorus structure.