Artist More More discusses their creative process, particularly how global events like the pandemic influenced their new music, shifting from earlier, less fitting songs to a more intense, punk-influenced sound reflecting current anxieties.
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welcome everybody to live on kexp at
home i'm
cheryl waters and today i am so excited
to be joined by an artist from toronto
that i fell in love with a couple years ago
ago
a new song just out recently and i'm so
happy to have more more joining me live
on kexp
at home seth nyquist welcome
how you guys doing i'm doing wonderful i
was so overjoyed to hear your new song
don't cry which came out recently and
i'm so excited that you were available
to do this session with us thank you so
much for joining today
i'm happy to be with you guys um
again you have a new song don't cry that
just came out recently
and it's been not that long but a little
bit since you've had new music for us to hear
hear
and i'm just living with those beautiful
eps playing them over and over and over
i understand that you are experiencing
some writer's block um maybe as a result
of the pandemic
certainly we have the subsequent
lockdown the worldwide protests
was that something that was going on for
you and if so
how are you able to kind of push through
that block
um yeah it's definitely something that has
has
affected us all and um
at the time i had had an engineer
staying with me in toronto
uh from new york and uh when the
pandemic hit he
had gone back to new york to be with his
family for
a month and then was wasn't able to get
back into the country
um so i've i kind of was like holed up
in this house
that i've been renting to to record the
record and um
previously to the the news of all this
all the chaos that's happened in the
world um
i'd been writing a batch of songs um that
that
after the fact didn't feel
like fitting to the time and i i feel
i'm always very connected to what's happening
happening
with within my own life and others
what's happening in the world when i'm
writing so
i felt that to release anything that was ignoring
ignoring
the the most current state that we're
all experiencing together um
would be very it would be strange so
i i kind of pushed those songs aside and then
then
felt i had to write this one does it
feel like those songs could be something
that you'd go back to
at a later date yeah there's definitely
musically there are some things but um i
feel like lyrically
i i'm working on on some of those ones again
again
and changing some of those ones you've
said in interviews
that music helps you make sense of
things and you talk about kind of taking
a left turn
because of the state of the world right
now and writing these new songs
tell me what the lyrics and the music
are like on this new song and if you
have others that you're working on as well
well
tell me a little bit more about them um
we'll also i'll start with the music i
felt that
struck really struggling at the time on being
being
so isolated and um i felt that
i wanted to reflect some of that like
energy that first
was sadness and then kind of hardened into
into
something a little bit more intense um so
so
hence why the the tempo is kind of
upbeat and the drums are
are banging away um i felt that yeah i
wanted to encapsulate
some sort of chaotic feeling um
a little more punk a little bit more on
edge to something that i've
like anything i'd done previously like i
i feel like i was angry and i and i felt that
that
a lot of people would be able to share
that feeling
um and lyrically um
i i like to allow people to interpret it
uh the lyrics
especially because it's a new song i
want them to interpret it the way they
want to um [Music]
[Music]
it's kind of like making i don't know a
movie of a
um a depiction of us of some sort of
like a book right and i
and i don't want to like close
in this world as it's taking off in its
own way um
because i often learn from other people
and how other people perceive things it
kind of excites me again
um but yeah i think i was really trying to
talk about the pandemic and the feelings that
that
um were arising well i was experiencing it
it
and am experiencing it when you talk
about the music exciting you
it sounds like you had a pretty intense
connection with music at a very young age
age
can you talk about your musical
discovery and appreciation
going back to childhood yeah um
i feel like yeah when i was a kid i was
and i felt music was the one thing as i
i developed because i think like a lot
of these feelings came before
i met like i can remember um
but as i developed i feel like music has
been something that has been constant
in my life and there have been a lot of
things that have
happened that um kind of
yeah were unexpected so i think it was
something that i could rely on
um and
yeah it's always been a very personal
thing for me
your songs definitely evoke a lot of
emotion in me
and they do feel like they're written by
somebody who
music is very personal to you've put
together some beautiful renditions of
some of your songs for us today
and i'd love to share some music right
now with our listeners
i believe his first two heavens only
wishful and
outside shall we listen to some music
now sounds good
[Music] so
so
i'm just a poor boy [Music]
waiting for answers [Music]
spent some days with run aways
with the lights on this first dangerous
you could kiss the lips of faith
the less we know the less it drains
us close your eyes
[Music]
chaos comes and collects the hues [Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
don't be the reason
close your eyes and see it through
i can feel the cold there when the night
i can feel the cold there when the night
your [Music]
[Music] [Laughter]
[Music] [Laughter]
[Laughter] [Music]
[Music] um
leaves just fall
lost my waking
place me still
where it starts to end lonely
looking outside i'm scared to die
sky won't know the light and leaves me behind
behind how
how can i find the sun
[Music]
lost control
hear it calling in [Music]
[Music]
the room was small
walls were closing in
won't you wait
[Music]
i don't have the heart
[Music]
felt it all the while
it takes hold of me [Music]
looking outside i'm scared to die
sky won't old light it leaves me blind
how can i find the sun
how can i find the sun
looking outside [Music]
[Music]
looking outside i'm scared to die
the sky won't old light it leaves me blind
blind
how can i find the sun
looking outside [Music]
[Music]
looking outside and what's the ears the sky
sky
won't old light it leaves me too
how can i find the sun
oh so beautiful it's more more live
on ke xp at home those videos are so
gorgeous and you sound
amazing thank you for recording those
for kexb
of course thank you um two of my
favorite songs
i still remember the first time i heard heaven's
heaven's
only wishful was a couple just over a
couple of years ago
and i was nearly moved to tears and then
just couldn't play that
ep enough and then just about a year later
later
i heard outside and then more songs from that
that
and i fell in love all over again and as
i said earlier i'm so excited
that you have new music you've released
the two ep since 2018
and i'm wondering how you describe the growth
growth
from last year's record to don't cry
and any other music that we might hear
coming out soon
my process is relatively the same but
i'm always
i i feel like the the leap from maybe
heavens to someplace else
is there's a like another jump from
someplace else to this next project um
and where
i feel like i've really focused on production
production
and really just building worlds around
each song
you obviously have an intense passion
for music that goes back
um since you were very very little but
you've talked in interviews about how
you push back against pursuing music
even though some people clearly
recognized a talent
for it and they wanted to push you in
that direction
but you kind of pushed against that tell
me tell me what what that was about for you
you
um i think it was yeah i think it was a
mixture of a lot of things that i'm
still like trying to unpack um
i think at the time like my earliest
memories would be
i i was someone who always wanted to do
like their thing like their own thing and
and
music at the time very selfishly was mine
mine
and i didn't really want anyone to
interfere with that
um and i think as
yeah as as i got older um
i just felt that i i had to pursue it
because it was kind of
my only means of survival um
so that's kind of when i started writing
my first my first songs
or sharing my first or sharing my songs
in general yeah
i'd always been writing i found it
interesting to ris
to read about how you would immerse yourself
yourself
in a single artist or even an album for
an extended period of time and just
listen to that
one thing over and over and i'm
wondering if there's been a silver lining
lining
in this lockdown period where you can
listen to music purely for yourself
yeah um well i feel like
yeah in terms of listening i'm always
i've i've never
like i've kept on and held on to that so
i'm always
kind of obsessing over certain i don't know
know
either lyrics or or sounds like drum
sounds or synth sounds and
other people's music one of the themes
that pops up over and over
in interviews with you is honesty
and that definitely caught my attention
because that's something i think about a
lot for myself
and what that means to me and that feels
very important to me
also in my life i feel like i have
started thinking about that in an
intense way
a bit later in my life than you are at
your age now and
but i was definitely you know caught by
that and interested in that it comes up
in almost every
interview with you and i'm wondering
what that means to you and obviously
it's not just about
your music but it translates to how you want
want
to present your music as well um
yeah because i think honesty um
is our is kind of all we have i think
it's like our identity i think the more you
you
shift away from that um the less you
are able to i don't know communicate your
your
like true feelings and emotions or
opinions and
um like i said when i was i was younger
i was
i've always been very sensitive to um [Music]
[Music]
to that and i and i find that
my favorite artists were artists who
were i i just felt were ultimately
honest because i think
my taste was all all over the place it
was never
i was never into genres i i was into to
sounds and artistry and i think
to me as a viewer if it comes across as honest
honest
whether i like it or not is something
else you know
who are some of your favorite artists um
uh i feel like yeah
ian curtis is a big one um
he's yeah he's someone who gets me
through a lot kurt cobain is a huge one
um burial is a huge one um
i would say uh
porter's head is a huge one um
pink floyd uh i've been listening to
joni mitchell
um uh
wu tang 36 chambers is a record i would
listen to all the time
oh those are all so amazing
yeah so i feel like it's a little bit
all over the place
but obviously touring
is on hold right now and it sounds like
when you were younger
that you prefer to sort of remain in the background
background
in the music but obviously you needed to
get out
in front of an audience was that an easy
process for you and something that
you've enjoyed um
yeah i think it's something that i've uh
because i would
perform periodically as a kid so i feel
like i was always able to do it i think um
um
when i started touring my own stuff um
i really started to enjoy it because it
was nerve-wracking because i'm
relatively like introverted but
i i don't know i make so much of the
music myself that it was an opportunity
to communicate with
and like see other people which i i've i
missed dearly and enjoyed a lot while i
was doing it
you said a little while ago that you
really like to leave
the interpretation of the lyrics and the
songs to the people that
are listening to them and
i'm wondering if any of your fans or
people have reached out to you
talking about what the songs have meant
to them and it's kind of surprised you
or tickled you in some way
um trying to think of a particular experience
experience
exchange but um yeah people reach out
all all the time
um i think one that jumps to mind is
uh someone a doctor had sent me
a a lot extended email about uh
my music helping him through a divorce
which was pretty wild
and unexpected um but yeah
i i quite frequently get people reaching
out to me um
yeah i feel like that's that's one that
really jumps out at me or
popped into my head for some reason your
music is really emotional i mean it
makes me
i listen to the songs and i feel like i
want to cry but i'm not necessarily
sad but i found sometimes i do feel a
little sad sometimes it makes me happy
it's an interesting
mix of emotions i feel like it kind of
hits me at a really
cellular level and
i feel like also it just brings up a lot
of visual images for me
and i feel like your music is very cinematic
cinematic
um there's a real cinematic and film
element to it and i know that you make
gorgeous videos i want to talk about
those after we listen to the next two
songs but
it also makes me want to ask um the
videos that you've created for us today
with these songs those are acoustic
that's not
exactly how we're used to hearing your
music on record
and do the songs start out like that
it's really beautiful to hear them
performed like that
um some some do
like outside did um a lot of them
because i'm producing them at the same
time um
and as you can see i have all these like
keyboards i'm kind of doing i
i kind of am doing it all at the same time
time
um but
yeah i would say majority are kind of
get are pieced together at the same time
they're not done in that way and how
often do people get to hear them like
we're hearing them today
do you i actually have never had the
opportunity to see you perform live
which i
so hope that i get to do in the not too
do you perform like that often no
actually i think that was kind of why i
wanted to do it
is um i don't think i've ever really
performed like that
no um and most of those are yeah i was
just trying to do it
like one take kind of deal um
just to experiment well let's listen to
a couple more songs um we have one from etp
etp
past the hours coming up next and
whatever comes to mind
more [Music]
[Music]
you can't please me [Music]
[Music]
as the words left our lips
wouldn't pass the eyes close to me
i'll see i can tell looking closely
don't you wait oh
[Music]
how soon it will come
you lose what is gone
they will all drift behind
i can tell looking closely
don't you wait oh
hold me up [Music]
[Music]
i wanna touch the sky [Music]
heavens a wish
paradise is lost in me
but haven't i missed
floating down what you into [Music]
[Music]
something inside that you've been through
whatever comes to mind is where it came to
you're running for your life till it
finds you [Music]
[Music]
whatever comes to mind that you can't wish
whatever comes to mind that you can't wish
oh [Music]
the sky blows a kiss
take a step and see the shade
the colors all drip
feel it all until it's done
whatever comes to mind that you can't wish
looking for something that you can't miss
whatever comes to mind that you can't finish
whatever comes to mind that you can't wish
[Music]
[Music] [Laughter]
more more live on kexp at home also
so beautiful looks like you put a lot of
thought into where you would shoot those
they're so visually
compelling and you live in toronto so i assume
assume
all those locations are in toronto
has that been sorry no go ahead
yeah it's all it's all in my
neighborhood oh it's so beautiful
is toronto a great place to grow up and
make art
um i would say so yeah
i feel like a lot of great artists that
are coming out of here right now
i think about how much yeah boy i
i love so many bands coming out of
toronto i mean for years there's so many
great ones
um i just keep being drawn back to the
visual element of that i mean just
making these beautiful videos and you
took so much care and time
to make them look as beautiful as they
did and i've heard you talk about
songwriting as a visual creation process
for you and i'm wondering if you can elaborate
elaborate
upon that because it seems like the
visual element is a really important
aspect for you is it
tied into also creating the song itself
like the song writing process um in
terms of what you're
alluding to earlier with the um like
playing acoustic or writing with
sounds can whether it comes from like a synthesizer
