Kevin Morby talks Christina Almeida through the songs that inspired his fifth album Oh My God.
“‘Oh My God’ is a phrase that can mean so many different things in so many different moments,” says Kevin Morby. “Like when you’re happy, sad or surprised, and so each song is kind of its own expression of that.”
Oh My God is the fifth solo record from the Texas-born singer/songwriter, but comes from a more affirming and reassured place than anything he’s written before. “I feel that with all my other records I was still struggling as an artist, trying to stay afloat. This is the first time I got some comfort provided by music. Certain successes, no matter how big or small, made my life in a certain way where it provided me with the comfort and structure to do this record”.
Morby explains that the record’s genesis was only tangible some way through its creation: “Once I had three or four songs without trying to have a concept, I realised that I was already creating this world. It's almost like you come up with the foundation of a house and then you can start putting up walls, pictures and all the rest.”
“I’m always writing cinematically; I can see the songs acted out. Sometimes I’ll be writing and I go ‘This would be the perfect song for a scene in a movie.’” The new album was released in conjunction with a movie of the same name, directed by Morby's friend, the director Christopher Good. “We’re from the same town and worked together in the past, on the music videos for "Dorothy" and "City Music", that collaboration helped both of our careers a lot. Now to create a movie, it feels like a full-circle moment – just like the record.”
For his nine songs, Morby has chosen tracks that influenced the record, either sonically or thematically. His choice of songs range from Éthiopiques, a compilation of Ethio-Jazz, to Dylan’s religious phase with "Pressing On." They come from different times and countries – some of them overheard organically, while others were found when deliberately immersing himself in certain artists and works, such as Leonard Cohen.
The common thread between them is their relation to Oh My God. “They are all songs that somehow influenced the record. Some of the sonic palettes would be similar to something we are trying to create on the record; others are there because of their instrumentation, like with Mulatu Astatke where we knew we wanted a saxophone in that sort of register.” Within these nine songs, Morby reveals part of his process behind the creation of what may be the seminal album of his career so far. Melodies, sonic landscapes and cinematic themes, all tied together as one
“Ghost Rider” by Suicide
“I think this song is an early example of me hearing something and realising that a song doesn't just have to be guitar and bass and drums - a song can just be whatever you want to make it.
“I actually first discovered Suicide through Bruce Springsteen; he spoke about how much they had been a big influence on his record Nebraska. The song ‘State Trooper ’is very similar to it and he said in an interview that he was trying to do what Suicide does.
“This was a reference because of its sonic palette. In the back half of my song ‘Savannah’ there's this spoken word moment that happens in this underlying low bass tone that I'm talking over and it was definitely influenced by this song. It has a tremolo on it and the song’s shaking in this way that ‘Ghost Rider’ does."
“Ené Alantchi Alnorem (I Can't Live Without You)” by Mulatu Astatke
“This song is from one of the Éthiopiques compilations and I really got really into them a few years ago. I was touring around Southern France and Spain and I remember listening to that music for the first time and seeing the beautiful landscape out the window. There’s just so much emotion and feeling in his playing and it really made me want to have saxophone on the record.
“It's interesting sometimes with instrumental music, how it can almost make you feel more than a good lyric will make you feel. It provokes something that touches you on an almost spiritual level. I think that's the goal as a musician - whether it's instrumental or it has lyrics, you're always trying to touch someone in a really deep way; you want to try to get at the core of somebody.”
“That’s Us / Wild Combination” by Arthur Russell
“This song was a sonic influence on the record. The vocal sitting on top of things that aren't a conventional band, with some electronic instruments, some keyboards and some beats. The voice is still the main focus, but there's stuff happening around it that isn’t conventional. It was definitely an inspiration to some of the songs on this record; it was like a sonic headspace.
“I’ve been a fan of Arthur Russell for a long time. I don't remember who showed me him but maybe it was on a highschool mixtape. Sometimes you just hear somebody; you can tell that it's unique, it's interesting and you want to know more about it.
“With 'Nothing Sacred / All Things Wild' for example, which is the third song on Oh My God, I first tried it with an acoustic guitar and it wasn't really working, but then when we used just an organ and my vocal and that seemed to really work. Something like that would be really influenced by something like Arthur Russell.”
“Goodbye Sadness” by Yoko Ono
“This was another sonic influence on the record - the saxophone, the guitar. If you’re painting a picture it’s like 'What colours do you want?' Every instrument is a colour and with this we’re only using a few different colours. It's in how it sounds and how it feels to listen to, it's not necessarily about the actual instruments, it's about what it visually feels like.
“Yoko’s record was produced by Phil Spector and on Oh My God the subject matter is a little absurd and it's fun to be sort of playful with it. Back to the cinematic thing, it exists in this big, bombastic universe and mimics the Phil Spector sound.
“I just read the Jeff Tweedy book and I really related to him saying that basically his whole life and everything he does is essentially influenced by two different records. One's a record of just train sounds like cabooses, it's not music, it's just train sounds. The other one, I forgot, I think it's Johnny Cash or something.
"Yoko used the heartbeat of her unborn baby on a song she made with John Lennon and I really relate to that; I'm really into the atmosphere of songs and how everything in the world can be its own music. I saw a quote from Neko Case recently where she said 'When you're an artist and work for yourself, your job never ends!'”
“A Young Girl's Complaint” by Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Guebrou
“Like Mulatu Astake, this is just music that's in its own universe. I don't really know how to play the piano - I never took lessons or anything - so it's all just based on music that I like, but a few songs on Oh My God are definitely influenced by her way of playing, this really quick hammering on the keys, that's kind of unconventional.
“I was on tour and we went to visit our friend Heidi in Amsterdam. She had a record on a small, little portable record player and it was playing Emahoy’s music. It was this beautiful piano music and I felt like I'd never heard anything like it. The scene was really nice: she was hanging clothes up in the backyard. it was a nice day out and it just hit me really hard. I asked her ' What is this?' and then I became obsessed with it."
“True Love Leaves No Traces” by Leonard Cohen
“I think this song is fun and sort of ridiculous, it's bombastic and big. There's so much reverb on ‘True Love Leaves No Traces’, it's crazy. He’s on the record cover with the women and he called it Death of a Ladies' Man! It's so beautiful and it's very well written, but it's kind of through this filter that you can't help but just kind of laugh loud.
“There’s that song called ‘Memories’ where he sings “Your naked body...” and it’s just ridiculous; it's playful and fun in a way that only Leonard Cohen really knew how to be. If you listen to some of his interviews he's such a poetic man and he knows exactly how to say whatever he wants to say. Sometimes he chooses to say funny things and that record is kind of like that to me.
“When you discover albums like this, you're like, 'There's actually really great songs in here, the production is insane, but what he's saying is really cool.' He was in his fifties at that point; he was drinking too much wine and smoking too many cigarettes and it's fun to see that documented.”
"Pressing On" by Boy Dylan
“I think when you're looking back at someone's career, it's very easy to appreciate all the different stops along the way. Dylan is one of the first people that I discovered as a teenager, who really changed my life and made me want to make music.
“"People are only starting to love the records from Dylan's religious phase, but 'Pressing On' was a big reference for the new record because of the choir. Obviously, that's a very holy sound, and we wanted to create something similar."
“Tower of Song” by Leonard Cohen
“‘Tower of Song’ was another one where the sonic palette influenced us, with this big vocal and not much happening around it - there's nothing to distract you from what he's saying.
“Lyrics are usually my number one thing, but this is actually the record where for the first time I was being influenced by a lot of the music rather than lyrics. I had that taken care of in my mind or something, it was more about sounds and felling.
“When I wrote ‘Beautiful Strangers’ I don’t think I’d heard ‘Tower of Song’, but I remember a lot of people comparing the two songs and that led me to that record. It's about creating a minimal sonic palette, where the lyrics are the most important thing.”
"Hanky Panky Know How" by John Cale
“This is another song that we started listening to early on in the studio, we wanted to create a universe similar to 'Hanky Panky Know How'. It's a beautiful song, it's another one where the production is like Death of a Ladies' Man. The chorus is so strange, what does that mean, you know? But somehow he still finds a way to make it beautiful and for whatever reason, that influenced us.
“There's also something about the way he delivers it. When he sings it, you feel something - ‘Oh, that's so good! but what's he saying?’ And then you look it up, ‘Hanky Panky Know How’ and you have no idea what it means! Sometimes it’s just about the way things sound and feel. You can say anything as long as it feels good."
Oh My God is out now via Dead Oceans
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