Myles Morgan On Artist Longevity, Evolving Music Artistry and Being Neurodivergent
In an interview with multi-talented Myles Morgan, he discusses his journey in becoming a musician, artist longevity versus current cultures and refusing to be put into a box for popularity or identity. His wild and strong spirit translates into the music; emotive, passionate and resonant. With over 11k monthly listeners on Spotify and growing, he is a rising star emerging from London to worldwide audiences, showcasing self-taught talent and tenacity. Neurodivergent and hearing-impaired, Myles represents what it is to thrive beyond labels and barriers placed on individuals by society.
Some of his upcoming live performances are The Troubadour on 9th September and Servant Jazz Quarters on 8th November. If you have a deep appreciation for live bands, instruments and compelling vocals, these shows will cater to just that.
You can check out his tracks at https://open.spotify.com/artist/7KPw4tKwK8ONgnrmduQiZf
Image via @shotbylarita (Instagram)
How and when did you start your journey in becoming a musician?
“Well, I’ve always liked music and tried to sing, but my sisters were like, ‘shut up and be quiet you cant sing’ (laughs), and I couldn’t at one point but I dunno, I just kept working away at it. I went to college, I wasn’t really into guitar music before I went college, I was about 17, 18, and met these people that listened to guitar music and I was really like intrigued by it all. So was like, ‘yeah, what’s this guitar music, can you teach me’ and they were like, ‘yeah, buy a guitar and we’ll teach you’ and stuff like that. But they didn’t teach me, they tried to but they’re not music teachers so, they didn’t have the patience for it. So, I just jumped on YouTube and just taught myself how to play guitar at 18, and started learning Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines and stuff like that, and old songs like Billie Holiday and stuff like that, but yeah, so I started my journey there.”
Okay, so what were you into before you discovered music?
“Like, my parents would play Reggae all day, fucking Rap from my brothers and UK Garage because they’re DJ ‘s - Notorious B.I.G, Michael Jackson, Barrington Levy; like what you would find in a traditional Jamaican household, even though it’s not fully traditional as I’m mixed race, but like, that’s what I said about the Black thing, that everyone just sees you as black, and my mum embraced it even though she’s not. It’s like her thing is Reggae, she went to go and see Bob Marley when she was young and stuff like that, proper like that both my parents are big big Lovers Rock fans.”
So you come from a family that loves music, it was like a natural path for you?
“Yeah, I saw in my brother’s record collection once, East 17 (laughs). I was like ahh, so even though he had all the traditional Jamaican, Sizzla and all that, I can [still] go through my brother’s record collections. One of them was into Amy Winehouse and The Spice Girls so you know, very eclectic. Music comes from all angles”.
That explains the richness in the sounds of your music. You can tell it is inspired by multi-genres because to be quite honest, your music feels like film score, it really does.
“Ah, thank you. I love that you say that because that’s what I aim for in my music, to make them feel like cinematic. Like when you watch a movie, I want the same experience when you listen to music, very drawn into this one experience.”
You definitely capture that really well, even like a soundtrack feel because each track takes you on a different journey; it changes tempo, the saturation of instruments, it is just brilliant.
“Well I don’t ever like to do the same thing twice, once I’ve done this sort of thing like, I don’t want to do it again. I want to try and explore more territory, terrain, different areas. I’m like cool, done this jazzy thing, lemme try and do this grungy thing, I done this grungy thing and then.. I dunno. My thing is I love Arctic Monkeys, Jamie T, Mac DeMarco - all them sort of artists but I like a broader range of artists as well. So, when it all comes together, and you’re taking bits from each one. You’re not just like, ‘ah, I like this person, I’m gonna copy everything that they do’, I’m taking bits from everything and that’s why it’s so visceral, raw.”
So, you’ve pretty much answered this question already in how would you describe your genre, but listening to your music, I couldn’t fit you into one, do you feel the same?
“Yeah I feel exactly the same, I’m a sponge. I listen to everything and hopefully it comes across in the music. I dunno, I get pinned to like Indie, people be like, ‘you’re Indie,’ and some like, ‘you’re Jazz,’ and ‘your soul.’ Yes, I’m all of those things.”
Who are some of your dream collaborations, people you’d love to work with?
“Damon Albarn, Blur obviously, Gorillaz… Like when you hear Damon Albar, you know it’s him and so, that’s the sort of thing that I like - like when people hear my music, they know it’s me, my voice.
Are you independent or with a label?
“I’m by myself at the moment, I release my music through my own record label (Blaow Recordings) which mostly distributes my own music, but I do put friends music out on that label that I’ve come across on my journey. So it’s more like a communal record label if you could say? Yeah.”
What do you feel are the benefits of being an independent artist as opposed to being with a label? And would you consider being with a label in the future?
“Yeah! I suppose the perks of being by yourself [is] you’ve got no one telling you what to do. That’s the reason I started off with acting and acting is a bit rigid. You’ve got people writing your lines and telling you what to do but then when I stepped over to music, there’s no one telling me what to do but myself and that’s the free art form there, it’s like boom. I don’t know, they say that you can’t make this shit up (laughs) but like literally you’re making it up out of thin air, just like grabbing bits, I suppose that’s the freeing part of it. But yeah, I’d love to be with a label because they could potentially put me in front of someone that could propel what I’m trying to do and get it out faster, and snowball what I’m trying to do.”
Image via @shotbylarita (Instagram)
A big thing with artists at the moment is social media plays a big part in reaching out to new people, but not everybody is a fan of having to go through social media- how do you feel about it as an artist?
“Well, I don’t.. like, I didn’t fuck with it for a while. I was like, ‘ah fuck this man, like this is long, why do I have to do this stuff,’ and was like ‘why isn’t my music getting many plays or stuff like that’, so I guess it’s just a part of keeping up with the times I guess. As much as I don’t like social media, I know how much it’s important to propel your music into the right places and grow a fanbase. But yeah, I hate doing that stuff, I hate promoting my music (laughs). But if I don’t do it who else is gonna do it, you know? So social media.. yeah.. ah, I can’t imagine what it would have been like back in the 90’s (laughs). But no, it wasn’t, it’s now and you’ve got to utilise now and how everyone’s on their phone all the time looking down and that’s where most people are gonna be. And how are you gonna attract that attention, by people looking down on their phone, you gotta do it that way. I wish I could just - if I had a label, going back to that I’d probably have to do that thing less because they’d be pumping money or whatever their connects are, so could concentrate on the music.”
How has your heritage, that diverse background, influenced your taste in music and how you approach things creatively?
“When I first got into music and was like experimenting with like wearing skinny jeans and listening to all this other music, people was like, ‘what you doing, you turning white or something’ (laughs). I’m like, ‘nah man, I’m just like, shit resonates with me I wanna try it out,’ ‘like nah man, you’re a coconut,’ or whatever, like Black on the outside, White on the inside sort of thing. I’m like nah man, I fuck with this sort of stuff man, there are other people with my skin colour that do like the same music, but it’s just like not so frequent innit, I don’t know.”
It’s about not wanting to fit into a box, isn’t it? Like freedom of expression - and the thing is, a lot of these genres, Black artists either originated it or were part of it from the beginning but then it’s like..
“Yeah! I know what you mean. It’s like most of the people that I’m inspired by were inspired by like The Beatles but they were inspired by Black artists, like Little Richard and stuff like that. There is a prevalence in Black people playing guitar, but it’s not documented enough, I think. I see people doing it, but it’s just the documenting. I dunno, it’s hard to answer that question. It’s weird because even though I do go hang out with a lot of White people and rockers and stuff like that, I still feel more accepted in the community I came from because that’s who I am. And I’ve tried to wear skinny jeans and do all that and was like’ ah, this aint me’. It was fun, I was young but the thing of putting on a tracksuit and walking down the road, like that’s me. But it took me from experimenting and stepping into other people’s worlds to see where I’m more comfortable. But even though I’m not doing Reggae music or fucking RnB, I still kept on [with] the guitar music, if that makes sense?”
Yeah, but then you’ve got greats like Jimmi Hendrix who didn’t do so called conventional Black music. So, [there’s] lots of inspiration where they aren’t considered the ‘norm’ - even people like Skunk Anansi, there’s a diverse background of people.. Goldie, one from Midlands.
“Yeah, like I grew up with it and sort of like shunned it for ages, after guitar music, other music seemed not so great anymore because I found this new thing, but then thought, ‘you know what, I need to bring it back home a little and no forget where I came from’, if that makes sense?”
So there’s been a lot of talk about pay gaps for artists and content creators coming from Black backgrounds, less money is put behind them. What are your feelings about this topic?
“I don’t know. I mean the person I’m seeing currently works in copyrighting and those sort of industries, even music industries when you walk into those buildings, it is mostly whitewashed, and she says it herself, she’s like there are people that are Black that are applying but I just don’t think they want us there, it’s just conditioning really. It’s always been this way. I don’t think it will change anytime soon, hopefully it will but most industries, its harder for a Black person to get into them from what I find, in my experience. I’ve approached record labels, film companies and its like argh! It’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and if most of the people in the industry are White and don’t have Black friends or they have that one Black friend, how you gonna get in there? So, that’s the way I feel about it. I don’t know what I can do about it but this is just speaking on my experience. People are like, ‘why don’t you get into these things and try it?’. I’m like, ‘I have, I have.’ What, like try again. I feel things have changed a little bit, but not much, I still walk into the place, and it’s like gleaming, you know, sorry to use that word but it’s true yeah, it’s whitewashed.”
Makes sense. Right, so I know that you said that you play guitar, self-taught, that’s amazing. Have you ever had any traditional lessons, like singing lessons?
“It’s all self-taught really. But my uncle, he tried to get me into Jazz and playing the Jazz stuff and try give me lessons, but I wasn’t really interested when I was younger and then like, I dunno, Just started speaking to him and was like ah, this is a nice way to remember him, to try and get into them jazzy songs that he used to get me into, ‘cause I just shunned it for ages. I was like these jazz chords are just way too hard, I’m not doing that. And then I saw some kid play, like who was coming up in the scene playing like these Jazz chords and he’s much younger than me. I’m like, if that kid can do it, I can put some time in and learn these Jazz chords, and so yeah, no formal training from anyone apart from my uncle in my early days, but just literally YouTube. Wanna make something? YouTube (laughs). You know.”
What’s your creative process when making a track? How do you start out normally?
“Well, usually I draw inspiration by listening to music and that inspires me, could be a song on an album, like, ‘I wanna make something like this.’ And then I try and go and make it, and it’s nothing like what the song is. And I’m like ‘ah!’. So every time I make something it’s never gonna be the fucking [same]. I can’t copy it no matter how much I try, it ends up just being my thing. So I feel like, that experience, just tryna rip people off and doesn’t end up rippin’ ‘em off and then I’m like ‘ah, got this Myles Morgan’ sound here, it’s fucking sick- let’s carry on tryna rip off people (both laugh). Nah but it’s true, but also not always, might just be playing around with [the] guitar for couple hours and then some chord sequences comes outta that and you lay some lyrics over it. Then you put it into a computer, you make some rough demo of it, and you got a really really rough demo of it and like diggin’ it and then you bring it over to the band and like, ‘yeah we’re feeling it,’ I give ‘em like a bunch of them and am like, ‘which one are we feeling’ and they’re like ‘this one’. Then, we take it into rehearsal room and like, ‘guys do this’ they’re like, ‘nah, like why don’t we try this, and this and that,’ and I’m like, ‘argh, nah I don’t really like what you guys are doing.’ And at the end of the session, we go home at the end of the day and will like watch the video back of our footage and be like, ‘fuck, them guys are right man’ (groans) like, I’m so stubborn. But you got the original chord and you just want it to be like that but when I finally do let my barriers down and let go, the song takes on a new life and just opens up and becomes this nice, magical thing. ‘Cause it’s boring making music by yourself, I wanna make it with other people, it’s nice to have that input. Yeah, it’s trying to let them in - I’m very precious about it. But the thing is I’m learning not to be so precious about it.”
In saying that, it’s hard as a creative not to be precious about your work, it’s like any other art-form.
“Yeah, I’m open to change, interpretations as long as the song is served with the initial intention, it’s not strayed too far away from the track, you know?”
Do you have any mixtapes, EP’s, albums pending?
“Just working on recording the album at the moment. Released like four tracks that were meant to be an EP but released it single by single - collectively they’re an EP. But we’re just having trouble with the studio at the moment. ‘Cause we go up to Cambridge to record and it’s a bit of a way to record all the time. So we’re just trying to find somewhere London based. We’ve had a few experiences where we’re not happy so, we’re just shopping around for the right experience. But like, I just got some mixes back yesterday and we weren’t happy with them. We were like ah, just spent like four months recording and we’re not happy with it, so, just gonna have to go somewhere else but it’s just part of it. I’ve read interviews before where people’s like, ‘ah, I just have to keep re-recording the song until it’s better,’ but that’s the craft enit, you don’t wanna settle. I know what I want and what I heard last night is not what I was happy with so..”
Yes, and with all your releases so far I can hear the attention to detail, so I know you’re a creative - where it’s a work of art to you, it’s not just a song.
“Yeah! I can’t just record it and put it out. It’s interesting ‘cause there was an ar- eh, John Lennon where after he recorded, it would just go into the mixing desk and be like, ‘we’ve only got a rough mix here, it’s only just been recorded,’ it’s like, ‘that’ll do,’ take it down to the recording plant, print it and press it. It’s just like I love that approach to it and I have that approach to the recording side but I can’t be that erm, adventurous as John Lennon ‘cause I’m not The Beatles, so I have to just refine it a little bit more, you know for my audience (laughs).”
You did mention (pre-interview) that you’re neurodivergent, dyslexic. Do you find that creativity is a way of helping with that?
“Well yeah, I got dyslexia and everything and I saw this really cool video the other day of how can we affirm that it’s not a disability, it’s actually a power, and all the dyslexia has given you is that you see things differently from everyone else. And so you’re able to come up with solutions, songs very much differently from what pretty much everyone else does. And all it is, is dyslexia is a different perspective than most people have and I suppose that’s a fucking superpower, enit. So, I thought it used to hinder me but it doesn’t, it actually fucking gives me an edge to my music I guess (laughs)”.
It hinders you when you’re told an conventional way of doing things and not everyone fits that convention.
“Yeah, that’s what I mean- I got kicked out of school, like one of the ones that disrupted the class and stuff like that and that and just that way of doing things ‘ent for me, I need to do things on my way. Quite young to be fair when I was diagnosed, when I was in like, halfway through secondary school or something like that. This is the thing, I was born at twenty-six weeks, I didn’t spend that much time in the womb so I’m completely deaf in my left ear. So when I was about five or six I went to my parents, ‘how come people hear out of this ear and not the other ear’ - down at the hospital, ‘your son is deaf’, blah blah. So as I was growing up, in primary school and secondary school, I had a support teacher with me in most of my lessons sitting with me. I had to sit at the front because I’m deaf and I used to go to special classes and stuff like that. But erm, my theory is all this dyslexia and everything it’s just a thing that you can’t..no one is ever gonna figure it out and just want to put in a box and be like, ‘this is it,’ and you’re never really gonna understand the underlying issue but well, they aren’t anyway. But I’ve dug deep into it and it’s yeah, as much as it’s been a pain all my life it finally is, has become my strength, somehow - yeah. Some people have two ears, I don’t, I’m definitely going to listen to music differently than most people. The attention to detail is just because I care about it and I’m not here to put music out fast and like get fifteen minutes of fame. The longevity comes from the detail and yeah, I could put it out just half-heartedly but like I know if I just work a bit more at my craft, I can make it sound nice, you know.”