Q&A: Morgan Nagler on Latest Single, “Orange Wine,” and Her Creative Process
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY CHLOE GONZALES ☆
Photo by Christian Stavros
“SOMETIMES IT’S NOT UNTIL YEARS LATER THAT I LOOK BACK AND REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT.” – Morgan Nagler has opened herself up to her own music after spending years collaborating with others. Now under her own name, Nagler seeks to listen to herself and find the sound that she wants to craft with every song. Her new single, “Orange Wine” howls about what it’s like living in Los Angeles in the modern age.
“Through music, you’re able to really establish the context of the words and the feeling behind that.”
The Luna Collective had the pleasure to talk to Morgan Nagler about her latest single, “Orange Wine,” and the process behind her tracks.
Photo by Christian Stavros
LUNA: Could you introduce yourself?
MORGAN: I am Morgan Nagler, she/her, from Los Angeles. I was actually born in Oregon. I consider myself a writer first and foremost and just think that art is the highest form of life, so I’ve dedicated my life to all forms of art, whatever the cost may be.
LUNA: As I was reading about you, you seem to have a lot of collaborations with artists like Phoebe Bridgers, The Breeders, and more. Do you feel like that takes away from you as a musician as people attach you to these individuals, or does it empower your work?
MORGAN: I feel like it’s empowering because I have been fortunate enough to work with some, potentially all, of the people that I look up to. I feel so lucky for all the experience with co-writing that I’ve had because it’s all part of the story. What I’m really after is the feeling of when you finish creating something. So all those other things involve that feeling, and so they kind of are all the same. For a long time, I was mostly focused on my artist projects and I was in several different indie bands, but then over the past handful of years, I’ve been solely focused on doing co-writing. So this feels really kind of cathartic and kind of like a coming back to home moment to be releasing music again, and for the first time, just under my name. So it feels like all of those things are big parts of what got me here.
LUNA: That’s beautiful, it’s like a holistic perspective! You say you’re a writer, do you have a specific label like songwriter or poet that you prefer?
MORGAN: Songwriting is my favorite form because I think giving melody and context to the words is a beautiful way to expand upon them. But I think poetry at heart, if I had to boil it down to the smallest thing possible, it would be the words. I’ve found that through music it's the best possible way to give those words their dues.
LUNA: Like their environment.
MORGAN: Yeah, language is funny because, think about a text message or something, things can be interpreted in completely different ways. So through music, you’re able to really establish the context of the words and feeling behind that.
LUNA: And what’s your songwriting process like? How does it start?
MORGAN: It’s all different, especially when I’m writing with other artists. For myself, if there’s a guitar around it normally comes all at once and I’ll kind of figure it out. But often I’ll be in my car or somewhere and I’ll have some words with melody and use the voice note app to record them and then when I get to a guitar, I’m able to kind of see where that’s going. But interestingly, when I’m writing on my own, I almost never have an idea in mind about what I’m going to write about. When I pick up a guitar, I normally just see what comes out whereas with other artists—sometimes you do it that way—it’s usually much more helpful if you can discuss a concept ahead of time. But normally it comes out, and then sometimes its not until years later that I look back and really understand what I was talking about.
LUNA: Definitely, there are some other artists I’ve interviewed who say similar things, like a stream of consciousness almost. It just comes out of you but then you ascribe meaning to it later on.
MORGAN: Or something major shifts in your life after you’ve written it and you’re like, “Oh no, I knew that somewhere in my unconscious. I knew that was happening, even though I didn’t actually know, and that’s what I was expressing there.”
LUNA: It’s such an interesting phenomenon, I wonder if scientists have put a name to it or if it’s spiritual or psychological.
MORGAN: I don’t know how much you know about shadow work but my good friends studied psychology and so I’ve been doing shadow work with her. And it’s fascinating because there’s so much that our unconscious is aware of and that we have suppressed for some reason over the years. So if you’re able to remove the analytical part of your brain while you’re writing and kind of let it flow through, things do come out that you really aren’t necessarily aware of in your conscious mind.
LUNA: So fascinating! And how has living in LA changed your creative process or the way you approach music?
MORGAN: I find LA endlessly inspiring. I feel like it’s one of the few cities where there’s literally everything; whatever you’re trying to find, you can find it. I really think the city offers anything anyone could be looking for, and so it’s just kind of like a bottomless well of inspiration. Right now I’m living outside of town and more in nature, which is always very inspiring, and it kind of allows the calm for thoughts and things from the unconscious to rise to the surface, because you have the space and there’s much less noise. In regards to being a musician, there’s so many people to collaborate with. I have so many musical friends that are just my best friends.
LUNA: I also really enjoyed the artwork for both of your singles. What made you decide to go for that medium [painting] rather than photography and other mediums? And who did it?
MORGAN: Yes, Nicky Giraffe [painted them] and she’s absolutely incredible. She’s with the giraffe sisters and they also make films and videos and do all kinds of really beautiful art. My manager is also awesome and friends with her. He’s been very creatively involved, which is such a breath of fresh air, and it was his idea. He felt like the songs were giving paint.
Artwork by Nicky Giraffe
LUNA: I was also comparing the two singles [“Orange Wine” and “Cradle The Pain”] and it seems like the singing style changes between the two. Was that an intentional style change? Does it lend itself to the song’s meaning?
MORGAN: Like I was saying before, how the sonic palette can inform the words, “Orange Wine” is a song about being kind of overwhelmed. I wrote that one with Kyle Thomas from King Tuff, who also produced both of the songs. And I had come to him with a version of the songs and he said, “What if we write, like, five more choruses?” So that’s why there’s so many choruses at the end with different lyrics. And it’s exhausting to sing it and it’s supposed to be because there’s so much going on and it’s also in a different range. It’s higher and it sounds different in that way, but “Cradle The Pain” is a much more kind of zen lyrically and a relaxed, slower delivery.
LUNA: Beautiful, just the layers of meaning and reasoning behind these things.
MORGAN: How do you feel when you’re saying these words? What do they mean? You know?
LUNA: Exactly. What do you want your sound to sound like though? Is it like a whatever happens, happens mentality?
MORGAN: Very much so, kind of in the way that I said I usually don’t know what I’m going to write about when I pick up the guitar. Maybe I’ll make a concept album at some point, but it usually kind of just it is what it is. Sometimes it almost sounds like a country song, sometimes an indie song, I don’t usually think about that until the song is finished. So I kind of just want to let it be what it is, and then try and support on what that is.
Artwork by Nicky Giraffe
LUNA: Like not boxing it in or making it something that it isn’t.
MORGAN: Yeah, like trying to not put unnecessary limitation.
LUNA: I also watched your music video for “Orange Wine” which is like very camcorder-esque, snippets of things. How much of a vision did you have going into the video? Because it seem very spontaneous or /very loosely scripted.
MORGAN: Yeah, it wasn’t really scripted. My manager directed it and did such a great job. And I think the reason it comes off like that is because we actually just went on a trip together for the long weekend and we were doing things that we would do, but he was also filming sometimes.
LUNA: Like a little vlog moment.
MORGAN: It just made it natural. And his thought was to kind of capture the essence, you know, of this being the first time I’m putting out music under my name. Just capturing the essence of a video, kind of like the songs. He has such a great eye. So we went to fun places, and it was kind of easy to find cool things to shoot.
LUNA: Is there anything we can look forward to in the future?
MORGAN: I am working on more songs, so more music coming. I also have tour dates–I’m opening for Rilo Kiley in May and have a date opening for Kurt Vile in June. I have my first headlining show at Zebulon also in June.
