The Sit Down with John Morgan
In his time in Nashville, North Carolina native John Morgan has earned himself cuts with Jon Pardi, Dustin Lynch, Thomas Rhett and an outstanding 16 for Jason Aldean. Now though, he is riding high of the success of his debut album, Carolina Blue, which was released to high acclaim in April and featured his country radio number one ‘Friends Like That’ (featuring Jason Aldean). More recently, Morgan has also announced that he will be heading out on a nineteen date headline US tour following a busy summer festival season.
Hey there, John.
What's up, Ian? How you doing, man?
Not bad. Yourself?
Pretty good, man. Enjoying some nice weather in Nashville, finally.
So, we've got the same here. It's not actually raining today. The sun shining must be quite good this week as you're right in the middle of summer festival season out there.
Yeah, man. We've been hitting it hard chasing the heat around all summer, but it's been fun, man. We've had a busy year and I can't complain on the work front.
You play Voice of America Country Festival this weekend too. How much do you now look forward to this time of year, especially as you’re now moving higher up the bill?
This is going to be our first late night slot at a major festival, so I'm excited. It's always fun to see the growth as it happens and it's fun to see fans singing songs back - that's why we got into it! It's cool to see it kind of pay off a little bit.
Does it get tricky though picking the set list for these shows when your stage time can be changing from festival to festival?
Yeah, you're right on the money, man. It's hard to figure out which songs to cut. Sometimes we get a 30-minute slot, but it's also a good problem. It allows you to play your best songs at this slot and at the phase that we're in, that's a good thing for us. We get to play our heaters and get out!
Hey there, John.
What's up, Ian? How you doing, man?
Not bad. Yourself?
Pretty good, man. Enjoying some nice weather in Nashville, finally.
So, we've got the same here. It's not actually raining today. The sun shining must be quite good this week as you're right in the middle of summer festival season out there.
Yeah, man. We've been hitting it hard chasing the heat around all summer, but it's been fun, man. We've had a busy year and I can't complain on the work front.
You play Voice of America Country Festival this weekend too. How much do you now look forward to this time of year, especially as you’re now moving higher up the bill?
This is going to be our first late night slot at a major festival, so I'm excited. It's always fun to see the growth as it happens and it's fun to see fans singing songs back - that's why we got into it! It's cool to see it kind of pay off a little bit.
Does it get tricky though picking the set list for these shows when your stage time can be changing from festival to festival?
Yeah, you're right on the money, man. It's hard to figure out which songs to cut. Sometimes we get a 30-minute slot, but it's also a good problem. It allows you to play your best songs at this slot and at the phase that we're in, that's a good thing for us. We get to play our heaters and get out!
And then it must help off the back of Carolina Blue getting released back in April now.
It's been awesome to have new music out. It's been a while for me, just as far as getting songs out and stuff, so it's cool to have that out and finally have that project off my chest. I feel like there's I put a lot of pressure on myself, just in general, but really on that first record, I was like, man, every one of my favourite artists has that debut project, and there was something special about it. I just tried to do the same with mine, and I'm glad people are enjoying it.
How have you found that transition then from being a songwriter for other artists to now having to be greedy and keep songs for yourself and putting yourself out there as the artist at the front of the stage?
Right. It's hard, man. Sometimes I still try to keep the same approach as I'm very much a songwriter in my mind. When I go in to write, I just want to write the best idea, and a good song will find a home - somebody will fall in love with it. Regardless of whether it's me or if it goes somewhere else, I'm happy either way. Just getting a cut is as special to me as having a song go on my album.
Getting signed by Jason Aldean's Night Train Records must have given you such a big boost too in those final months before the release.
Yeah, it was a huge help. He's been a guy that's always been in my corner from the beginning, and it was fun to get some success together in that way, and not just writing a song for him, but getting the trenches together was a lot of fun.
You teamed up with Jason to rerelease Friends Like That. Was that a nervous question to still ask him when you approached him about doing that song?
Yeah, definitely. There's always the chance of him saying no! I just believed in the song, and I was watching what it was doing organically on some of these streaming platforms, and I just really saw a lot of growth, and that was encouraging to me that it gave me the belief in it enough to step out and say to Jason this is a song we could do and fortunately he agreed. I remember when I first sent him that demo a few years ago when we wrote it. It's been a minute since I did, but when I first sent him the demo the week after we wrote the song, he was like, man, that's a hit. It's cool to see him call it, as for a young guy like me he proved his trust to me in that sense, too. I know songs, so it was a big learning experience for me. It was a lot of fun, man. I enjoyed it.
It's been awesome to have new music out. It's been a while for me, just as far as getting songs out and stuff, so it's cool to have that out and finally have that project off my chest. I feel like there's I put a lot of pressure on myself, just in general, but really on that first record, I was like, man, every one of my favourite artists has that debut project, and there was something special about it. I just tried to do the same with mine, and I'm glad people are enjoying it.
How have you found that transition then from being a songwriter for other artists to now having to be greedy and keep songs for yourself and putting yourself out there as the artist at the front of the stage?
Right. It's hard, man. Sometimes I still try to keep the same approach as I'm very much a songwriter in my mind. When I go in to write, I just want to write the best idea, and a good song will find a home - somebody will fall in love with it. Regardless of whether it's me or if it goes somewhere else, I'm happy either way. Just getting a cut is as special to me as having a song go on my album.
Getting signed by Jason Aldean's Night Train Records must have given you such a big boost too in those final months before the release.
Yeah, it was a huge help. He's been a guy that's always been in my corner from the beginning, and it was fun to get some success together in that way, and not just writing a song for him, but getting the trenches together was a lot of fun.
You teamed up with Jason to rerelease Friends Like That. Was that a nervous question to still ask him when you approached him about doing that song?
Yeah, definitely. There's always the chance of him saying no! I just believed in the song, and I was watching what it was doing organically on some of these streaming platforms, and I just really saw a lot of growth, and that was encouraging to me that it gave me the belief in it enough to step out and say to Jason this is a song we could do and fortunately he agreed. I remember when I first sent him that demo a few years ago when we wrote it. It's been a minute since I did, but when I first sent him the demo the week after we wrote the song, he was like, man, that's a hit. It's cool to see him call it, as for a young guy like me he proved his trust to me in that sense, too. I know songs, so it was a big learning experience for me. It was a lot of fun, man. I enjoyed it.
With Carolina Blue, you've got a writing credit on every single song. Did you put that pressure on yourself to make sure you did have a writing credit with your songwriting background?
It was definitely something I wanted to be the majority of the record. I didn't necessarily go into it with the mindset of I have to write everything. I usually don't have that. I guess my approach is I want songs that beat out what we have. If it beats out what I got, I'm not opposed to cutting it. We went through some songs that were different, but at the time, I didn't have a ton going on, so you don't always get the best song sent to you when you don't have a lot going on from some of these hit writers. Maybe that'll change now.
You work with Brent Anderson on this record to co-produce with yourself and he also co-wrote a couple of songs. Was that a really important game for you to have him on board?
Yeah, man. Brent's just one of those guys that's just so talented, man. He's one of those guys that I just love being in the room with when we're in a creative flow. He is so good at just keeping the wheels rolling because I'm good at getting in my head on certain things and getting hung up sometimes. He's like, man, we got it, let's roll. For me, it was great having somebody like that who I trust as well. He's earned my trust in a lot of ways, especially in the writing room. He knows what the hook needs to be. Most of the time, I really trust his word on it. Just a great guy as well. Great producer. We had a lot of fun. One of my favourite things from this album and getting to co-produce it was that I got to play a lot of guitars on it. Brent's also one of the best guitar players in Nashville. Having him in the room for guitar days on each song really made me level up and have to hold myself to a higher standard because he was sitting there watching me. It was fun, man. It was very much something I needed to get off my chest and just prove to myself that I can do a project on the production side and everything. Writing as a studio musician as well, I can do it. My goal was to prove to myself, not only everyone else, but just to myself that I could do something of that calibre at the end of the day.
It was definitely something I wanted to be the majority of the record. I didn't necessarily go into it with the mindset of I have to write everything. I usually don't have that. I guess my approach is I want songs that beat out what we have. If it beats out what I got, I'm not opposed to cutting it. We went through some songs that were different, but at the time, I didn't have a ton going on, so you don't always get the best song sent to you when you don't have a lot going on from some of these hit writers. Maybe that'll change now.
You work with Brent Anderson on this record to co-produce with yourself and he also co-wrote a couple of songs. Was that a really important game for you to have him on board?
Yeah, man. Brent's just one of those guys that's just so talented, man. He's one of those guys that I just love being in the room with when we're in a creative flow. He is so good at just keeping the wheels rolling because I'm good at getting in my head on certain things and getting hung up sometimes. He's like, man, we got it, let's roll. For me, it was great having somebody like that who I trust as well. He's earned my trust in a lot of ways, especially in the writing room. He knows what the hook needs to be. Most of the time, I really trust his word on it. Just a great guy as well. Great producer. We had a lot of fun. One of my favourite things from this album and getting to co-produce it was that I got to play a lot of guitars on it. Brent's also one of the best guitar players in Nashville. Having him in the room for guitar days on each song really made me level up and have to hold myself to a higher standard because he was sitting there watching me. It was fun, man. It was very much something I needed to get off my chest and just prove to myself that I can do a project on the production side and everything. Writing as a studio musician as well, I can do it. My goal was to prove to myself, not only everyone else, but just to myself that I could do something of that calibre at the end of the day.
Before California Blue, it had been about two years since you put out your first EP, Remember Us. Was it been important to have that gap in time between releases rather than what some artists do of do an EP and then six months later drop an album?
A lot of that is from when you take the financial side of it into consideration when you are at this level where you've just signed and they're thinking about going with a single or whatever the case. You've got to look out for the finances. A lot of times that means not going all out and pumping out a song every week because it's expensive. At the end of the day, even just cutting a single, you're looking at several thousand dollars. For me, I look at that kind of stuff. I've seen other artists try to be strategic about what they put out until it catches fire. Then they start dropping songs more frequently. It goes back to my point earlier where when you do start getting some success, the you start getting sent some better songs by these outside writers as they want in on that. It's an interesting process.
You didn't actually include any of the tracks from the EP on Carolina Blue. Was that always the intention?
I had four years of being just a songwriter. Just having that time leading it up and building it up to me putting out a debut album. If I wrote something that nobody immediately fell in love with or it was something that really spoke to me and was something I would say as an artist, I just hung onto those songs, put them in my back pocket in hopes that one day I would get to cut a full project. When I did, I would have some style tunes to start out with. That was my approach. We took probably 50, 60 outside songs and just beat them to what we had. It just so happened that none of them got beat out and everybody liked what we originally started with. That was a cool feeling too.
You've obviously been on some quite big tours recently. I know you were with Kane Brown the other week. How cool has it been to get out in front of other people's crowds and things?
It's awesome, man. We had to go out with Aldean and tour with him for two years. I did an acoustic set for him in 21 and in 22 we went full band. We had that 25-minute slot to play the heaters and get off. It was a lot of fun to just try to steal some of his fans. That's always our goal. We try to cherry pick fans and try to win them over to what we do. Get them fired up for the headliner. It's a lot of fun. I love that slot because we got something to prove. We go out there with a chip on our shoulder. I've got some guys who are really great musicians and we've been buddies for a long time. We have that chemistry together of playing in different bands over several years. I grew up with a couple of guys. It's a lot of fun to just put yourself out there and just try to perform at a level where people ask, why are you not headlining? That's the bar that we try to hold. It's cool to go out and see these other guys who have breached that next tier - guys like Kane and Riley and all these guys who we've been out with. It's fun to even take notes on what they do and how their operation runs. Who are they hiring? What's their next hires? All the business stuff, that's where I try to really take notes on some of these guys because it's a big part of it that you don't really get teed up for before you move to town. That's been very helpful for me.
With those opening slots, you don't really know how many people are going to be there. I guess you're always thinking if you can get 100 or 200 more followers from that, that must be such huge step forwards.
Yeah, man. We're just after one fan at a time. That's what our whole motto has been for the last five years that we've been on the road. We're going to go play these little clubs in the middle of nowhere, we’re going to play these county fairs and our job is simply to make fans. That's it. We've had a good chunk of time over the last couple of years to do that and really establish a core group of fans that really believe in what we're doing and show up to shows. If we're in their state, they're there. That part of it's been really fun for me to see, too. There are some people who are really dedicated to my music and what I do and appreciate it. It goes right back to them because it means the world.
You're now just two months out from your own headline tour with the Friends Like That Tour. How cool is it to know that it's now so close?
Oh, dude, I can't wait. What I'm most excited about for this tour is that not only are we headlining, but we will have a driver that will drive us on this tour! No more shifts in this Sprinter van! That one's going to be sweet. It's going to be awesome. I'm getting to bring out some buddies of mine too. I thought it was pretty fitting for the Friends Like That Tour to bring some of my friends out. Brent will be out for a couple shows. I've got my good buddy, Jeb Gibson, who's a tremendous songwriter and artist who was also my first roommate in town. We're going to bring him out for half of the tour. Then we've got Ryan and Rory coming out for the other half. There’s some really good acts that I'm excited to showcase and shine some light on. These are guys that I think are really doing well at what they do and fitting in their lines. I'm excited to get it going.
It goes coast to coast as well. For you, it must be really good to know that this grind that you've done is paying off because there is that demand the whole way across the country, not just in a particular region.
Yeah, man. I credit it to a lot of things, but I was thinking about it the other day and that's really the thing that I have seen so much benefit from is the radio promotional side of it. They are getting fans to shows and doing giveaways and stuff like that. It really goes a long way and it gets people fired up to hear the song that they hear on the radio live and know the words. It's fun for them and it's fun for us. I've really enjoyed this year and getting to see a lot of that build up and then hopefully all these fans will still show up for the headlining tour.
Hopefully it can extend into coming overseas a little bit into next year because it would be awesome to get to see you over here.
Man, I’d love that. I heard some talk about that being in the works, but I won't hold my breath. I'm hopeful, but we'll see.
Hopefully we can have you over here soon. It would be awesome to catch your live set and have a beer in England.
Man, that sounds good to me.
Thanks so much, John, for your time. It's been great to chat.
Thank you, Ian. I appreciate your time, man. Talk to you soon.
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A lot of that is from when you take the financial side of it into consideration when you are at this level where you've just signed and they're thinking about going with a single or whatever the case. You've got to look out for the finances. A lot of times that means not going all out and pumping out a song every week because it's expensive. At the end of the day, even just cutting a single, you're looking at several thousand dollars. For me, I look at that kind of stuff. I've seen other artists try to be strategic about what they put out until it catches fire. Then they start dropping songs more frequently. It goes back to my point earlier where when you do start getting some success, the you start getting sent some better songs by these outside writers as they want in on that. It's an interesting process.
You didn't actually include any of the tracks from the EP on Carolina Blue. Was that always the intention?
I had four years of being just a songwriter. Just having that time leading it up and building it up to me putting out a debut album. If I wrote something that nobody immediately fell in love with or it was something that really spoke to me and was something I would say as an artist, I just hung onto those songs, put them in my back pocket in hopes that one day I would get to cut a full project. When I did, I would have some style tunes to start out with. That was my approach. We took probably 50, 60 outside songs and just beat them to what we had. It just so happened that none of them got beat out and everybody liked what we originally started with. That was a cool feeling too.
You've obviously been on some quite big tours recently. I know you were with Kane Brown the other week. How cool has it been to get out in front of other people's crowds and things?
It's awesome, man. We had to go out with Aldean and tour with him for two years. I did an acoustic set for him in 21 and in 22 we went full band. We had that 25-minute slot to play the heaters and get off. It was a lot of fun to just try to steal some of his fans. That's always our goal. We try to cherry pick fans and try to win them over to what we do. Get them fired up for the headliner. It's a lot of fun. I love that slot because we got something to prove. We go out there with a chip on our shoulder. I've got some guys who are really great musicians and we've been buddies for a long time. We have that chemistry together of playing in different bands over several years. I grew up with a couple of guys. It's a lot of fun to just put yourself out there and just try to perform at a level where people ask, why are you not headlining? That's the bar that we try to hold. It's cool to go out and see these other guys who have breached that next tier - guys like Kane and Riley and all these guys who we've been out with. It's fun to even take notes on what they do and how their operation runs. Who are they hiring? What's their next hires? All the business stuff, that's where I try to really take notes on some of these guys because it's a big part of it that you don't really get teed up for before you move to town. That's been very helpful for me.
With those opening slots, you don't really know how many people are going to be there. I guess you're always thinking if you can get 100 or 200 more followers from that, that must be such huge step forwards.
Yeah, man. We're just after one fan at a time. That's what our whole motto has been for the last five years that we've been on the road. We're going to go play these little clubs in the middle of nowhere, we’re going to play these county fairs and our job is simply to make fans. That's it. We've had a good chunk of time over the last couple of years to do that and really establish a core group of fans that really believe in what we're doing and show up to shows. If we're in their state, they're there. That part of it's been really fun for me to see, too. There are some people who are really dedicated to my music and what I do and appreciate it. It goes right back to them because it means the world.
You're now just two months out from your own headline tour with the Friends Like That Tour. How cool is it to know that it's now so close?
Oh, dude, I can't wait. What I'm most excited about for this tour is that not only are we headlining, but we will have a driver that will drive us on this tour! No more shifts in this Sprinter van! That one's going to be sweet. It's going to be awesome. I'm getting to bring out some buddies of mine too. I thought it was pretty fitting for the Friends Like That Tour to bring some of my friends out. Brent will be out for a couple shows. I've got my good buddy, Jeb Gibson, who's a tremendous songwriter and artist who was also my first roommate in town. We're going to bring him out for half of the tour. Then we've got Ryan and Rory coming out for the other half. There’s some really good acts that I'm excited to showcase and shine some light on. These are guys that I think are really doing well at what they do and fitting in their lines. I'm excited to get it going.
It goes coast to coast as well. For you, it must be really good to know that this grind that you've done is paying off because there is that demand the whole way across the country, not just in a particular region.
Yeah, man. I credit it to a lot of things, but I was thinking about it the other day and that's really the thing that I have seen so much benefit from is the radio promotional side of it. They are getting fans to shows and doing giveaways and stuff like that. It really goes a long way and it gets people fired up to hear the song that they hear on the radio live and know the words. It's fun for them and it's fun for us. I've really enjoyed this year and getting to see a lot of that build up and then hopefully all these fans will still show up for the headlining tour.
Hopefully it can extend into coming overseas a little bit into next year because it would be awesome to get to see you over here.
Man, I’d love that. I heard some talk about that being in the works, but I won't hold my breath. I'm hopeful, but we'll see.
Hopefully we can have you over here soon. It would be awesome to catch your live set and have a beer in England.
Man, that sounds good to me.
Thanks so much, John, for your time. It's been great to chat.
Thank you, Ian. I appreciate your time, man. Talk to you soon.
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