“I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Which is ironic, since I’m Jewish.”
Morgxn doesn’t try to hide his excitement. The rising musical star has come to Los Angeles on his latest tour to play the fabled Troubador rock venue. Historically, the club serves as a major stepping stone for musicians, having elevated the careers of then-unknown acts like Elton John, Radiohead, Guns N’ Roses, Weezer and Linda Ronstadt to international stardom.
Nashville native Morgxn has already enjoyed the taste of success. Last year, his single “home feat. WALK THE MOON” charted at #10 on the US Alternative charts. This year, he performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to a warm reception and released the single “A New Way” to help promote GLAAD.
Dressed in a black sweatshirt, skinny slacks, blue-tinted eyeglasses and wearing opal nail polish, he takes a seat next to us at the Troubadour bar, his nerves aflutter before his Los Angeles show to chat about the state of his life. His tour will continue in Phoenix September 17 and in San Diego September 18.
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So you’re about to do your first show at the Troubador.
To say I’m excited would be putting it lightly. I feel it’s a deep honor, and a deep sense of history.
How are you feeling about your life at the moment?
You know, when we announced the tour…I don’t book these shows. When they told me “In LA, you’re playing the Troubador.” I was actually at home in Nashville with my Mom. We had actually planned to go see [Rocketman]. So my life has been synchronistic to say the least. It’s been following the dots, and not knowing how they will connect, but they connect in these weird synchronistic moments. For me, seeing that movie the day the tour was announced and finding out I’d be playing the Troubador, I mean, how am I feeling? I’m feeling like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
What’s the reception to the tour been like?
Well I think what surprises me the most is that since this is all new for me—Vital being my first album, the first body of work I’ve put out—obviously, I know “Home” has had market success on charts. But that’s not really what got me into music. For me, I just wanted to express something, and I didn’t know how. I think on this tour in particular, what has surprised me is I’m playing songs I’ve never played live, because when you open for people, you only have half an hour to go in and be like how loud can I be? How much attention can I grab? With this headline tour, it’s been more about creating an arc and a flow, so I’m able to sit at the piano and play a song, which I haven’t done because everything is so fast. The first night of tour, I played this song called “Blue” that people were singing the words so loudly that my hands stopped playing. I couldn’t find the notes. I was so blown away that they were singing this song that to me is a deep cut. But I also like the deep cuts. They’re where I exist.
So it’s a realization that the words and the melodies that have been swimming around in my heart for the last few years have found their way into the open and are starting to connect with people. That’s beautiful.
Yes it is. So what’s your routine like before you go on stage?
I was just listening to a David Lynch audiobook, Catching the Big Fish. I do meditate. I feel like that’s a fools admission because I’m also a mess in my head. I have a song, “Out of My Mind” which is written “OMM” because I do meditate, but I’m also out of my mind. Part of my routine of getting ready for anything is to warm up. I do shut out all noise and all distraction and conversation and I try to just remember why I do what I do. I think it can be really hard, especially in this modern age. I actually turned off all notifications on my phone, not because I’m a martyr of being present, but I want to give myself a chance to connect to something deeper.
That’s awesome.
I have a deep sense of history thinking about all the people who have been on this stage, and the whole last year I’ve had with “Home” and radio and getting to speak to tons of stations. In a way, that’s made this not just feel like oh, cool song. It’s like this is a song from my heart touching people. Radio made that happen.
You know, when I was in college, the idea that you would mention an LGBTQ artist on the radio, or that an artist was queer was really far removed. We had Melissa Etheridge. George Michael, Elton, but they were all older and more established. Now queer artists on the radio we take for granted. Do you find that label in the context of playing your music to be a double-edged sword? It’s cool that you’re being visible, but you might find resistance to that in the music business who think it makes you unmarketable.
That’s an interesting question. The thing I will say is that I spent a lifetime playing other parts and feeling like I would never be able to see the light of day by being myself. Whether that’s what theatre ingrained in me, or being from the south. I just posted a story, a father wrote this son a note. He’d overheard him talking to his boyfriend saying he would come out to his family. His father wrote this beautiful note saying “The only thing you need to plan to do is bring home orange juice from the store, because we’re out.”
[Laughter]
I think it’s a beautiful thing how visibility has grown. There are parts of the country and parts of the world that still need to see visibility. There’s still so much work to do. I actually have someone on my team who is queer who being a part of creating the message and helping to get things out there. I don’t see that a lot. I see a lot of queer art with a straight, white man as a gatekeeper for all that’s going out. I think that’s definitely a place that needs work. I would also say that being an artist who is enjoying the time in life where being queer and visible is not something like George Michael who suffered because he couldn’t let out that really important part of who he was.
Right.
I’ve always felt like an outsider in every way. Growing up in Nashville, I was different and made fun of for a lot of those things because just on the surface I was a chubby kid. I had a higher voice. I loved to sing. So I was already a target. But even in the outsider community that is the queer community, I still feel like an outsider. There’s an insider’s space within what media has called the queer thing, that I don’t feel a part of. I think there’s still so many fringe and different expressions of queerdom that I’m still not seeing. So the question makes me think how wonderful the visibility is, but within the visibility there’s still a hierarchy that I think is fun to expose. What version of queer is actually what mainstream is accepting as queer? There are so many different colors.
Great point. As accepted as we’ve become, obviously, being queer isn’t monolithic. We look, sound and have different needs from one another in some respects.
Oh, a 100%.
Related: Singer Morgxn on his anthemic, heartfelt alt-pop
But it’s interesting that they’re starting to understand that point, that we’re not just skinny, femme white guys. Queer people look like everything and everybody.
You said it. You pinned the tail on the queer conundrum. With all the visibility that mainstream has seen, I wan to ask how we can deepen our understanding and awareness of the queer world without needing to have a poster child. To me—and I’ve thought about this a lot—the X in my name, and the reason I’m so attracted to the X is sort of because I don’t think labels are set up to help the person expressing themselves. I think it’s more about how society can feel comfortable having all these new terms to categorize people. For me, I feel like I grew up with so many forms of labels and structures that I was told would help me come to terms with who I am.
How so?
For instance, I came out as gay. I had my first experience with a man when I was 17 and it took a few years to shackle off that southern guilt. But when I came out as gay, I now look back and wish that I didn’t feel a need to throw a label on myself. Really me coming out as gay was me trying to explain myself and make other people feel comfortable with what I was going through. That label is really limiting as to how I identify now.
How do you identify now?
Human. I like the word queer.
Yeah, it’s more of an umbrella term.
It’s also a term that I realize can be triggering to a lot of people, because it’s also an insult I’ve been called. For me, reclaiming “queer” is part of my healing. It’s fun to heal yourself and own these phrases that were insulting.
Sure.
I don’t even joke when I say I identify as human. Throwing any label on myself at this day, for me, would be limiting because it’s going to change. I am inevitably going to shift and evolve. I feel like the cop-out answer would be to say I’m queer and call it a day. The truth is my identity is constantly in motion. That’s what I’m trying to embrace every day.
So I want to talk a little bit about your music…
What?
Well obviously. That’s what you do. That’s how you express yourself.
I appreciate that.
Observation of fact…
You’d be surprised how many people don’t want to talk about music.
That’s a shame. So when do you feel most inspired? How does a song begin to form in your mind?
Well, if I was lying, I would tell you I have the answer. If I told you the truth, every song has its own journey. To put parameters on creativity is not how I go about doing it. To me, creation, songwriting, and making art is so much about the discovery process. Sometimes that starts with a word. Sometimes it starts with a melody. Sometimes it starts with a drum groove. For example, “Out of My Mind;” I had just come off tour and into the studio and the producer already had a drum groove going. It just felt right, it had this energy, but I didn’t know where it was going. So I was just like “loop that and let me get on the mic.” Rather than write it down and try to make sense, I just wanted to see what comes out naturally. He hit record, and I kept singing until I got to
[He breaks full-on into song]
“Out of my mind! Out of my mind!” And I was like that’s it. Cut that, put it aside, then let’s go back and hit record and see what is on my mind. Which is something that, growing up in Nashville, I had a lot of people giving advice on the “right” way to write songs. I was told to write what I know, which I hate. I write what I don’t know in order to better understand. Everything is an exploration. So “Out of My Mind” was sort of an admission in the moment of what was on my mind. “Holy Water” actually started with, I had the crystal black rock tourmaline. And the word “tourmaline” is an interesting word. Even saying it right now I hear the melody. And I was just like I would love to write a song with the word tourmaline. That word inspired the weird query that led to “Holy Water.”
Very cool. I listened to a lot of your songs, and found some recurrent themes in your lyrics: loneliness, yearning, anxiety, reflections on the past, and what could have been. These themes of isolation. Where does that come from?
Oh. Well. You’re looking at him.
Ok.
It comes from living in this world yearning for connection, and some days, totally striking out and not understanding how to connect. Especially in the structured forms of connection that we have like the internet and social media, I often find that I don’t know how to connect. I’m deeply searching for real connection.
Do you think of yourself as a lonely person?
[Long pause]
I think of myself as a person who often feels lonely for sure. You know, there was a point in my life where I really tried to avoid sadness and loneliness. I think it was living in New York and being constantly surrounded by stimulus. I found myself really alone. Then moving to LA, and as quiet and sprawling as the city is, it’s also…your thoughts become really loud. They can overwhelm you with all the space and isolation the city has. I think I hit a wall where I was like I’m either going to continue running from myself, or I’m going to breathe and accept the three-dimensional qualities of myself. I feel sad. I feel lonely. I feel joy. I feel excitement. They all co-exist in this person. So do I feel like a lonely person? No. Do I feel like a person who experiences loneliness? For sure.
That only speaks to your humanity. If you didn’t feel lonely from time to time, I’d worry.
Especially in this city.
Great answer. Jumping off that, you’ve recently gone through a life transition in losing your dad. When you go through a period like that that is naturally difficult, how does that affect your work? How does it affect your writing?
I am not a perfect person by any means. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. But one thing I think I did right was that when my dad passed, I took all the time to feel the depth of grief and sadness and pain and anger that come with it. I didn’t rush it. If I could say I did one thing right, it’s that I allowed myself the messy journey that was and continues to be the grief process. I was actually working on music before he passed, thinking I was going to release an EP called Vital which included the songs “Vital,” “Bruised,” “Kiss-Kiss” and “Love You with the Lights On.” When he passed, I scrapped that idea. I sort of let that idea go. Everything followed, not just thinking of my life in song. A song like “Roots” was weeks after he passed. I almost cringe at how angry and brattish I sound in it. “Me Without You” was a year later, and I think sort of maturely sums up feelings of loss an inability to express how much someone means to you. I let myself have that process.
That’s healthy.
Songs like “Home” existed in different forms, but it wasn’t until he passed that I took the sort of choir I recorded on it and changed the bassline of the song. That became the backbone of the song. Your question, how does it change you…it changes you completely if you let it. I had to let it happen, but it led me into a chapter of my life that became the chapter I ended up calling Vital. After letting it go, it came around again and became the more complete idea of Vital. It wasn’t just about the surface joys of yearning and desire. It also became about loss and identity and searching and losing something and finding it again.
So where do you go from here? Would you ever consider writing for the stage? I know you were an actor before you were a pop star.
I’m actually developing…am I going to say this?
Please.
I’m developing a project with the Nashville ballet.
Oh wow. What can you tell us about it?
Nothing.
Yay men in tights. You’ll have to keep me posted on that one.
It will not be tights. It will be electronic and very visual and visceral. So, there’s that. Where do I go from here? I’m going to continue showing up. I’m going to continue the adventure of discovery. Everything that has happened until now has been a discovery.
Ok, last question, and I don’t want you to kiss & tell. But how does being on the road, a recording artist affect your dating life? Conventional wisdom is pop idols get laid all the time.
I mean, nothing without consent.
[Laughter]
I’m not one to kiss and tell, but the only thing that has changed about my dating life is that it’s a more global approach.
Morgxn’s tour continues, next with a show Sept. 17 in Phoenix and Sept. 18 in San Diego.
Josh447
Cool
Donston
The whole gay vs queer vs bi vs fluid vs no labels stuff is generally exhausting. However, I don’t like that he’s another industry person who chooses to see “gay” as something problematic, limiting, one dimensional and almost shameful, while throwing no direct shade at any other identity. This constant criticizing of the gay identity creates a subtly homophobic air within the “queer community”. It makes people who wish to embrace a gay identity, or people who are legitimately homo in every way, or people who simply have overall homo romantic/sexual/relationship preferences and ambitions all feel some level of shame or feel pressured to stay detached from “gay”. That is something the “queer community” really needs to make sure to keep in check when discussing identity and sense of self. Make sure you’re not accidentally promoting anti-homosexuality, internalized homophobia, anti-gay rhetoric or same-sex preference/ambition shame. Nonetheless, I do agree that identity is too often not about embracing one’s self but about trying to get the world to understand you and about falling in line with expectations. “Labels” have become a problematic thing, especially when it comes to social media. Folks can live their lives honestly and fully without attaching themselves to a particular word if they choose not to.
His music isn’t really my thing.
Raphael
I agree 100%! I’m so tired of this “no label” BS. Apparently the only label acceptable is straight, other than that, it’s “limiting” yourself… All I can think when I hear someone saying that is: “internalized homophobia”.
About his music… I like his voice, and he does have a few goods songs, but all the others have this pop/electronic vibe that I don’t like. If he played more the piano on his songs, and had more of an acoustic vibe, they would sound a lot better.
Donston
Why do people insist on interpreting things the way they want? I’m obviously not anti no labels. In fact, I say directly in the post that dependence on “labels” is often problematic and that you can be real and live your life freely without attaching yourself to one. I’ve said in other posts that fluidity is real for some and that the gender, romantic, sexual, affection, relationship spectrum is too diverse and individual for us to be so identity reliant. What I’m not here for are “queers” constantly and only attacking or dismissing the gay identity. If you’re gonna go at all identities then go at all identities. I’m not here for anti-homosexual propaganda. I’m not here for telling homosexuals or people who know that they have overall same sex preferences and relationship contentment that they need to retain a social and political hetero attachment. I’m not here for people thinking that their approach to identity is the only correct way. And I’m not here for people covering up things like convulsion/confusion, internalized homophobia, same-sex preference or ambition shame and self-misandry with cliches.
Raphael
First thing, you need to calm down. If this happens a lot with you, maybe you’re the one that doesn’t know how to express yourself, don’t you think!? Also “queers” don’t dismiss only the gay identity! It seems now that everything that’s not straight, it’s considered “no labels”.
Donston
People keep expecting everyone to have very one-note opinions on things. And I just don’t roll like that. I’m probably closer to “no labels” than I am on the side of giving identity a ton of weight and power. But from what I can tell, “gay” is the thing that makes most “queers” most uncomfortable. They may not care for any other identities. But “gay” is the only one that some are willing to out-and-out attack. Yes, it is sometimes driven by internalized homophobia or self-misandry or self-misogyny or not wanting to deal with the weight of “gay”. And you shouldn’t be telling people to align their sense of self and their approach to identity with yours. But a lot of people do experiment and do contend with fluidity for certain portions of their lives. And a lot of people “feel gay” and know that they have overall same sex preferences and ambitions and comfort, but they’re not truly homo. Identity is a very awkward thing for many people. We do need to understand and sympathize more with that kind of stuff.
UlfRaynor
Yet Donston, in every one of your post you paint being a homosexual as somehow limiting and something that can change over time.
Exactly how does your opinion differ from evangelical christians who believe homosexuals can change their sexual orientation, which I might add, the APA still states is an immutable characteristic, fluid for some but set for others?
Donston
I have experienced some degree of fluidity in my life and so have some of my friends and family and co workers. It’s a reality for some people. It’s time to just accept that and be okay with it. The funny thing is that a lot of people become more conventionally homo as they age. So, it’s not merely about “de-gaying”. Your perspective is just as off as Morgxn’s and those Evangelical Christians, trying to force people to adopt the same approach to orientation and identity politics and lifestyle. Whatever identities you do or don’t embrace and wherever you are in the gender, romantic, sexual, emotional, relationship spectrum-it’s your thing to handle and be okay with. Everyone is different. Everyone has their own journey. Everyone has their own sense of self. Everyone has their own struggles. We need to stop focusing so hard on trying to prove something or trying to get people to embrace or not embrace whatever identity. I simply take issue with the numerous A to D listers over the years who have either attacked “gay”, promoted the closet, attacked the reality of homosexuality and/or have flat-out said that people shouldn’t be okay with being seen as “gay”. That type of shit is very problematic.
OzJosh
Yes, you can dress it up in all the diversity-flavoured bullscrap you like, the truth is that in 90% of cases (allowing for unicorns) this is the new internalised homophobia. I get that there are any number of reasons why someone can have issues with a gay identity, especially given the way it has been appropriated and commercialised and marketed, but deciding you are somehow special, different or above it all is just a lazy cop out. How about we make a note to revisit “Morgxn” (the wanky name says it all really) every year and chart just how unique and fluid his special queerness turns out to be? We’ve seen it all before – from David Bowie declaring he was bi to gender-bending Boy George colouring outside the lines to Sam Smith deciding he’s non-binary… and they all end up having rather unremarkable, unsurprising and entirely traditional “gay” or “straight” relationships.
Rex Huskey
yawn
UlfRaynor
And you just proved my point Donston, you continuously marginalize immutable homosexuals with broad statements like “The funny thing is that a lot of people become more conventionally homo as they age.” implying that we nonsexually fluid homosexuals are somehow the exception not the norm for most homosexuals, you have even done your best to redefine the word gay as not just meaning homosexual but an entire spectrum of sexuality’s and love interest, again all meant to marginalize and appropriate the true definition of the word, that was created by homosexual men.
Rex Huskey
yawn, if you can’t say it in two to four sentences, leave in your azz. it will evacuate in the morning.
Cam
Ugh, the “No labels” thing. Next he’ll start talking about how great the closet is. (Eye Roll).
UlfRaynor
Indeed, he is perfectly conforming to the SoCal “everyone is fluid” and being gay is now a negative label to be shunned even by people who have formerly identified as gay.
It’s just a trend, a new fad, another way of trying to convince themselves they are more “evolved” than all the other mo’s.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Once upon a time there was an anthem Gays proudly proclaimed…
I am what I am
I don’t want praise, I don’t want pity
I bang my own drum
Some think it’s noise, I think it’s pretty
And so what if I love each sparkle and each bangle
Why not try to see things from a different angle
Your life is a sham
Till you can shout out
I am what I am
I am what I am
And what I am needs no excuses
I deal my own deck
Sometimes the aces sometimes the deuces
It’s one life and there’s no return and no deposit
One life so it’s time to open up your closet
Life’s not worth a damn till you can shout out
I am what I am
Rex Huskey
shut up you worn out has-been old fool!
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Rex, I’ve told you many times, ya gotta stop this obsession with me. Sorry, it’s not mutual. Everything about you turns me off. Especially calling yourself “Husky” that’s a feel good term for fat little boys. Am sure you are a pathetic morbidly obese slug. Living in your Mother’s basement. So waddle back down there with a box of Bon-Bons and binge.
And again sorry tubby, just not into you
Cam
@Rex Huskey
And here again we have the right wing troll account that always defends anti-LGBT bigots, upset because somebody posted something saying we should be proud.
Of course you would support the closet.
Rex Huskey
i love (truly) to read y’all’s foolish and ignorant responses to me. if queers dont think like your troika plus, y’all huddle and coordinate a piss attack.
i think you are all disgusting and the worst purveyors of queer freedom work.
Rex Huskey
are gay pop star qualifications the same for gay porn stars?
valentino888
The irony is that the 85 new labels are considered “no label.” Truth is, everyone was pretty much covered with gay, bi and straight. We should have kept it that way. This “non-binary” and “fluid” nonsense, not to mention the 24 new letters added to the LGBTQ thing is a cry for attention. It is a little embarrassing to be honest. “The straights” just roll their eyes and think we’re a bunch of nuts. And while what they think is not important – it is admittedly becoming easier to see what they must be seeing. We have wonderful ancestors who called themselves gay, bi, lesbian and did great things for us. We should be proud to be part of that and not try so desperately to stray from it.
Donston
I’m certainly not comfortable with every trend. But at a certain point you do have to accept that how people communicate with each other evolves, as does sexual and identity politics and knowledge of orientation. Those things have never stayed the same from generation to generation. Simply being bitter towards the “younger generation” and constantly talking about how things used to be doesn’t get anyone anywhere. However, it’s not as if those identities are dying. I just think there’s a widespread problem with people not genuinely listening to one another and not being real about their hang-ups. People being honest, being self-comfortable and living the lives they wish to live has got to be more important than what someone does or doesn’t want to call themselves.