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PJ Morton Interview

PJ Morton Interview
By Porschia Baker

Coining his music Soulful Pop, 27 year old New Orleans artist PJ Morton makes music for himself primarily because he loves to hear the sounds of stories coming together. It is this self-filling ability alone that’s enabled him to remain musically honest, from both heart and mind, in the industry. However, as much as he gives to himself, he gives to his fans just as much during his engaging high energy live performances and on his live studio instrumentally induced albums. As the old adage goes, believing is half the battle. It appears that PJ Morton will continue to triumph simply because his belief in himself is just as strong as his faith. Next to unmistakable talent and diligence, perhaps this is what’s opened pathways for him to work with artists, like India.Arie, Fred Hammond and LL Cool J, as well as across genres. It’s quite clear that he will continue moving forward with his feel good music while building upon his own precedent without halting.

Nu-Soul: What type of foundation did you gain from your Church upbringing that you wouldn’t have received from the music industry?
PJ Morton: First of all I was able to hone my craft in church because that’s where I started to play and I was actually able to learn people’s reaction to certain types of music. You learn a lot of emotions in church. It’s quite soulful; that’s where I get my soulful side. You learn people’s emotions in church and I think that helped me for when it came time to get on stage and connect with people. I don’t think you get that just jumping into the industry. That comes over time. It taught me the importance of people period. Being a pastor’s kid, I had to be around a lot of people. Long before I was making music, I had to be personable, be nice and appreciate people for where I was. You know, the people were the reason we were able to live. It’s a whole bunch of lessons I learned right there at church that helped me be a better artist.

Nu-Soul: How did you get into writing and producing?
PJ Morton: The writing or production came at 14 or 15 years old. I had writers around. The guy I looked up to in church was a song writer and that kind of gave me a visual; somebody who I could actually touch who was doing what I was setting out to do. So I got into it about 14 or 15. I would go into the studio and use my little allowance to pay for studio time and that was before I knew about giving songs to artists. I just wanted to hear the songs I was writing. I just wanted to hear what they sounded like with everything put together. I guess that was the young producer in me wanting to hear everything come together to tell a story.

Nu-Soul: At the time when you were producing, where you also singing and playing instruments?
PJ Morton: Yes, I was. That’s how it’s always been. I kind of got into music selfishly. It was my pastime and that’s how I always looked at it, which is probably why I was a loner. When you talk about my creative side, I’m usually by myself.

Nu-Soul: When did you first decide to put together an album?
PJ Morton: I started to do these songs and they were songs I didn’t see any artist around doing that type of music so it was kind of hard to pitch those songs to people. After a while the songs started being personal to me and I guess I got really attached to them and I wanted to say what the songs were saying opposed to anybody else saying what I was writing. Stylistically, it was something people weren’t doing at the time and me being attached. I was singing on the demos so they just became my songs.

Nu-Soul: Do you think it was an emotional attachment as well?
PJ Morton: No question about it. They became my little babies that I didn’t want to give away.

Nu-Soul: Can you tell me a little bit about “Let Go, Let God.”
PJ Morton: That’s actually a song I wrote and produced for someone else. I sang background on it. A group called Men of Standard that I play my very first song on, when I was 15 or 16, were working on a new album and because we had worked together for so long [I kind of knew] their style and they asked me for a song. I waited to the last minute. I wrote “Let Go, Let God” based on situations that a lot of people could connect to. I ended up being to late for that album, but then there was an artist Dwayne Woods was looking for a song. I was like ‘I got this song that I wrote for somebody else and I don’t know if it fits you.’ He told me his story and it fit perfectly. That song actually won Song of the Year, last year at the Stellar Awards. It was awesome to win [that award]. It’s a songwriter’s award. I guess, with that being the first thing I did at a young age and feeling so strongly about words and telling a story with lyrics, it meant a whole bunch to me to win and award for songwriting specifically. If I could win any award, that was the one that I’d rather take home.

Nu-Soul: Did you ever receive any pressure to write only Gospel music?
PJ Morton: Yeah, for sure. It wasn’t necessarily from my family. It was more from my church family; from the people that followed my father. My parents were very supportive of me being R&B, but people around felt like they knew what my parents would think [and that’s where I] got the backlash from. Ultimately, they got what I was trying to do and understood that I do quality music, quality love songs and life songs. I’m inspired by God. Whether I’m doing Gospel music or writing a R&B song, it’s going to be good music, it’s going to be good quality music and it’s going to come from God. I actually just finished a book that’s coming out, in June, called “Why Can’t I Sing about Love.” It talks about those stigmas that they created in church about secular music so I want to shed some light on that too. It’s the same price that Al Green, Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke fought. It’s an age old fight.

Nu-Soul: So is this an autobiography?
PJ Morton: It’s not autobiographical, it’s not about just my life. The introduction tells my personel story, but generally it’s what the bible says on love songs and concepts about love songs that people have kind of looked over. As a Christian, I want to make clear for Christians and non-Christians because a lot of times, non-Christians or people who don’t go to church, expect Christians to only do Gospel music. That’s not only God’s music. God reigns over all types of music. It’s for everybody: the fans, the musicians, the songwriters. I pray that a lot of people get the book and get the purpose of the book and really get the purpose on secular music in general.

Nu-Soul: Where do you get inspiration to continue to write uplifting songs?
PJ Morton: I think even songs about pain make people feel good. With love, there is a lot of pain and I’ve written about that as well. Even those songs help people get through the pain, opposed to sitting in the pain. I guess [I get the inspiration] because that’s the ways I live. Even though going through hard times, ultimately knowing everything is going to be okay so that’s always the tone. Staying honest and truthful in my music, it just comes through. I can’t take the credit and say that it’s on purpose. It comes through because that’s who I really am. I really love life. Even when it gets hard, I still love life and am happy to be here on earth. I think it comes through naturally.

Nu-Soul: How do you remain honest and truthful, in the industry when people are coming at you sideways sometimes?
PJ Morton: Like I said I got into it selfishly and I’ve been able to remain selfish in my creativity. I never got deterred by the money because I was blessed enough to have things even going up. It wasn’t a big search for the money and I wasn’t able to be compromised by that. I just do it for the music and I think that’s how I’m able to stay as pure as I possibly can. I do this because I love it. That’s it. When I started doing music, I was just for the fun. I don’t let the pressure get to me. I just do what I do and continue to have fun with it. That’s how I stay honest.

Nu-Soul: Currently, are you still working on “Son of a Preacher Man,” as strictly gospel?
PJ Morton: Yeah, we’re still working on it. I mean it’s actually finished as far as song producing. We still have some mixing and mastering to do and also how we are going to release it, but hopefully it’ll be in September. That’s my plan, for it to be released in the fall. I can’t wait to give the world this record. It’s special to me. It’s something different from my other records, but then all my records are different from each other. I think that’s the only consistent thing with my music. I consistently evolve and explore different things.

Nu-Soul: How does this one stand out compared to your other albums?
PJ Morton: I stay pretty live driven on my records; live in the studio. This time around there is a lot more beats. I went a little more electronic. A little more futuristic, but then I balanced it with a live string and horn section. It’s a great mix and a very current record where music is right now. [I have] live violinist and cellist cutting to these beats. I can’t explain it. I can’t wait to give it. If I had to explain it, I would be Kanye West meets Stevie Wonder. If they had a baby, this would be their record. Of course people are going say what they think it is. That’s what I feel it is, if I had to put something on it.

Nu-Soul: What is something you haven’t done with your music that you’d like to do?
PJ Morton: I haven’t done any big collaborations that I’d like to do at some point. There are some artist out here that I’d like to experiment bouncing ideas off of and do some collaborative things. I’ve kind of kept it solo. I’ve had a few duets on my album, but true collaborative efforts I haven’t really done. I’m planning on exploring that.

Nu-Soul: Who are some artists you’d like to collaborate with?
PJ Morton: I’d like to collaborate with Kanye West, of course Stevie Wonder, John Mayer is somebody who I love, Chris Martin from Cold Play. Do collaborative things, not just feature them on a song. I’d like to create something with them. Those are some of my top right there.

Nu-Soul: Of all the instruments you play which best parallels your personality?
PJ Morton: The piano still. The piano is my foundation, is what I learned to write songs and is what I learned how to do first so it’ll always be the foundation of my music. I can always go to the keys whether it’s me by myself or me with a full band. I’m always on the keys to best express myself.

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