The Moffatts were a Canadian
country music and subsequently
pop/rock band, composed of brothers
Scott,
Clint,
Bob and
Dave Moffatt. Eldest brother Scott was born on
March 30,
1983 in
Whitehorse, Yukon,
Canada. Less than a year later, on
March 8,
1984,
triplets Bob, Clint and Dave were born in Vancouver. Although born on the same date, Bob and Clint are
identical twins while Dave is a
fraternal triplet.
Growing up in Tumbler Ridge and later Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, The Moffatts learned singing early in their lives and singing country music with their mother, Darlana and father, Frank Moffatt, first appearing on-stage in 1990. In 1992, after performing at large-scale country music festivals, the group was nominated for five awards by the British Columbia Country Music Association.
In 1992, the Moffatt family moved to Branson, Missouri where they performed at the Osmonds theatre. In March 1993 they moved to Nashville, Tennessee were they became regulars on TNN's Nashville Now with Ralph Emery. In October, they joined the cast of the Country Tonite show at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. In 1994 Country Tonite opened a new theatre in Branson and the Moffatts became a part of that cast. In June 1995 they released their first country album, titled The Moffatts. In 1996, the brothers' parents divorced and the boys lived primarily with their father, who also managed the group until their 2001 break up.
In their teens, the group dropped out of the country music genre and recorded a new album, Chapter One: A New Beginning, and began singing pop/rock music. Prior to their teens the band would only sparingly perform their own instruments and had a back-up band, but now chose to go it alone with Scott on lead guitar, Clint on bass guitar, Dave on Keyboards and Bob on drums. Lead vocals on the album were shared between Scott and Dave, however live they all took their turns. Chapter One sold more than two million copies worldwide and almost went double platinum in their native Canada. It was produced in part by the Berman Brothers (who also worked for Hanson and The Real McCoy) in New York and Toronto. One single on the US version, the Glen Ballard-produced "Until You Loved Me," appeared in the Drew Barrymore film, Never Been Kissed. "Misery" in Chapter 1: A New Beginning (US Version) is a sound track of Teaching Mrs. Tingle starring Katie Holmes. Chapter One was also very popular in Europe, which allowed the group to write and record a song with German teen idol Gil Ofarim.
The follow-up album Submodalities was released in October 2000, and contained a more classic/harder edged rock flavor than typical "boy band" fare. The transition between the bubblegum pop of their prior album and the harder edge of the new was captured in the 2001 documentary, Moffatts: Closing of Chapter One. The Moffatts wrote or co-wrote almost all of the album songs. Bob Rock, who has produced albums for such superstars as Metallica and Bon Jovi, produced Submodalities. The first single, "Bang Bang Boom" at that time was the fastest rising single to # 1 in Canadian music history and topped the retail singles chart in Canada.
Throughout the nineties, The Moffatts made over 5000 live performances and hundreds of television appearances worldwide. In addition to these performances and interviews, the band also appeared as themselves on the
NBC TV show Hang Time in 1999, performing the song "Girl of My Dreams" for the school. In 2000, they again played themselves on the
Disney Channel show
So Weird in the episode "Destiny". Fi, the lead in the show, was an obsessed fan, while her mom Molly Phillips, played by
Mackenzie Phillips, was performing with The Moffatts. During the same year, the group appeared in the documentary,
The Closing of Chapter One, detailing their move from pop to rock. They performed "Guns of Love" on
Good Morning America in July 1995.
In August 2001, the group broke up following their concert in London, Ontario. Scott Moffatt had enough of the comparisons to boy-bands and felt that the band wasn't receiving the credit they deserved as both musicians and entertainers, and now that he had completed his five year commitment to the band, chose to quit. Dave Moffatt recently appeard on Canadian TV program Entertainment Tonight Canada revealing that the band broke up because his father was not able to accept his sexuality. Dave also revealed that "The Moffatts" was his father's dream, and that he had pushed himself and his brothers into it.
After the break-up, two of the triplets, Bob and Clint Moffatt, briefly joined a group called Pusch and performed at the 2002 Winter Olympics. The band was later renamed Hidell [1], and lasted slightly over a year and released one album. Bob relocated to Ban Phe, Thailand, where he began working on an English singing contest with an educational organization called TEFL International. Bob convinced Clint to join him in Thailand and start a band called Same Same under the Thailand label. Same Same had chart-topping hits in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Scott Moffatt resurfaced in an Ontario-based band The Boston Post, named after the old New England newspaper. The original lineup included Shawn Everett on drums, Jon Gant on guitar and Neal Gupta on bass. They released an EP titled It's 99PM in 2003. A video interview with Scott Moffatt from the Holiday Train show in Sparwood, BC on December 13, 2005 confirmed that he planned to go solo and was recording in LA. On April 10, 2006, song previews from the upcoming indy release The Allegory of the City were put up on his music page along with the promise of a limited edition version soon being available for pre order. The new songs are all acoustic and reveal a folk rock/pop vibe that still has the typical Scott Moffatt feel. He's done everything on the record himself; all instruments and vocals are done by him and he also did the production and mixing. The CD will be available worldwide but where and when he'll be doing shows or a full tour is unknown. The album is available at www.myspace.com/scottmoffattmusic. Scott is currently in Thailand producing a rock band called Slot Machine.
Dave Moffatt eventually relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, at first with aspirations of attending the University of Winnipeg and then deciding to launch an acting and modeling career. In addition to hosting karaoke nights at a local gay bar, Dave also appeared in a 2005 Winnipeg production of Miss Saigon and was a contestant on Canadian Idol, that country's version of American Idol and Britain's Pop Idol, making it into the top 32 before being eliminated.
In 2004, the Canadian Pacific Railway announced in a press release that Bob and Clint were "reunited" and appeared under the name "The Moffatts" for the railway's Holiday Train program, a mobile fundraiser for community food banks. In 2005, Scott also joined the tour (see this photograph (Clint to the far left, Scott and Bob to the far right).Although the group has shut down its main website, the Moffatts remain popular in Europe; its German fansite, linked below, is quite active.Dave is currently working with his band Lights Out Love. They have recently released music exclusive to their myspace. www.myspace.com/lightsoutlove
