Tangit – Moa. Congratulations first, for winning the Naga Idol. Tell us a little about yourself.
Moa - Basically, I'm from Dimapur but I was born and brought up here in Mokokchung. My childhood memories are from here. Its been about 10 years I've been in Dimapur now.

Tangit – OK. Where have you done your studies?
Moa - I have done my studies partly from here but my college days were in Patkai. Then from there, I did both my degree and masters from Bangalore so that's how I'm here.

Tangit - You are known to be a great singer all over Nagaland but before you became the Naga Idol, what were you doing before you came to this platform?
Moa - Basically those days, simple singing, I should say. But it all started from the church where I met good friends of mine in contact with music. So that's how I learnt how to sing, play the guitar and all those. My parents were very keen on sending me to music school or college. Then they decided to send me to Patkai Christian College where I also did vocational courses for 2 years. That how I got more acquainted with music and there I studied western classical music ... partly to do with church music. That's how my interest grew further.

Tangit - So with your church music background, you turned to pop.
Moa - That's right.

Tangit - Among pop artists, whom do you like best? Who or what sort of music have you been following?
Moa - Apart from western classical music that I was involved with, when I initially started singing rock songs, it was basically more of Queen and Freddie Mercury. He's no more. He's basically one of my idols. Tried out Deep Purple, Whitesnake.... Thats how it started.

Tangit -Great. The past year 2006, when MDACC started this project on finding a Naga Idol, I had seen you at Kohima when you came up for the audition. I had seen you with many of your friends that time. Nobody thought that you would be one of the contenders.
Moa - Me neither

Tangit - Anyway you have come to this position now so at that period of time, when you were vying for the naga idol, what feelings and thoughts you had in mind ?
Moa - When the first ad came out for the auditions for Naga Idol 2006, we were all excited actually. In fact many of my friends... we used to have lots of discussions. We need to have this kind of shows and platforms so that at least the youngsters can come up to a certain extend and it's been a good learning experience. It teaches you to be more of a better person and of course we can't be perfect. We have lot of limitations but this kind of competition brings in professionalism in our work, in our interaction, in our singing style, lot of changes not only to me but to a lot of my contemporaries.

Tangit - You have any word for the organisers on how to go about for this second version of the Naga Idol? Any suggestions you have?
Moa - Suggestion as such regarding the audition patterns... I was just thinking that if we could have some kind of segments, segments about the songs... sort of, like one segment could be on blues, one segment could be on pop, something like that so that through these segments, we can bring about the best in a person because many of the performers, they usually come from just one background of singing.

Tangit - All right. Just trying to remind you of one thing. Yesterday they have announced the results of the American Idol and we are trying to be indigenous in our Naga Idol. We have taken the name Naga Idol but we are indigenous. We are different. We do not actually follow what the American Idol does. As we look at them, they don't have this segmentation in their program. They just have a singing competition. They can sing any type of music. So do you have any suggestion?
Moa - I've come across this way back when the auditions were going on. There should be segments in the songs but when we are following the random order of our song selections, it becomes a little difficult for us to follow the pattern. Why because some people were singing gospel songs for instance. Some people were singing heavy rock, some people were singing pop songs... it becomes tricky for the judges even to give certain comments. All the songs are of different genres and if I might be perfect in my genre, I would do the same genre on and on. Then I get more points. If there could be any flexibility, possibly changes, it would be better .

Tangit - You think there should be an age limit, age bar for example? Last year, we had an age bar, 14 and above. We did not have the upper age bar. There should be an age bar?
Moa - I don't think there should be age bar. Why because every one has their dreams so it may be a kind of opportunity for the person to come forward and to sing in front of a crowd of people. If you lose, it doesn't matter but again even if a 60 year old man or woman has the feeling of becoming an idol ...

Tangit - After becoming Naga Idol, have any changes come into your life?
Moa - Lot of changes actually. You become more responsible because people look up to you. When you talk, when you sing, when you interact with the people, people expect some thing out of you. Sometimes we find it difficult to move around also but one good thing which we would really like to acknowledge is that people acknowledge us wherever we go. Even till today, already completing a year now, the memory is still fresh with the people so it gives us a good sense of acceptance from the people.

Tangit - We have heard of the project of yours, of the album to be produced as the Naga Idol sponsored by the MDACC. How's it coming along ?
Moa - It's in the process but definitely we are planning to bring it out when the first segment of the auditions start. It'll go hand in hand

Tangit - What genre of music is it based on, your album?
Moa - It is based on pop, rock, maybe some ballads, more of ballads, love songs, heart breaking songs.

Tangit - Wish you all the best.