BEACON is MORGXN’s third-studio album. The album, due on February 2nd 2024, features previously released title track “Beacon,” along with dance hit “Modern Man, ” the uplifting “Young & In Love” and “Fading.” Last year, in a self-imposed act of tough love, the artist did the unthinkable: He moved back to Tennessee. “I’ve got a hit song called ‘home’ that’s sending me around the world, and yet I was terrified of going home,” says MORGXN, who wrote and recorded all of BEACON from his hometown (the title track was even penned on his childhood piano)

MORGXN gets real with MUNDANE and talks everything from how this record was born and recorded to upcoming single ‘To Be Human.’

Photography: Ruth Chapa

Graphic Designer: Diana Flynn

 

Tell us about “To Be Human”? What prompted you to write this?

This was actually the first zoom session I did during the pandemic and with Mikky Ekko who I’ve been a fan and friend of for a while. I think this might have been how we met. But sometimes I can’t tell when you write a song you feel like you’ve just always known some people. It was confusing and bewildering and I’m so happy I FOUGHT my fear of the pandemic to show up and have this song come through.  

What do you think it is to be human then?

Wooooooweeee, like I don’t know? I’m a mess right now. Not like a cute Instagramable mess – like a high-anxiety walking ball of nervous energy. But maybe that is what is human to me. I’m so sick of every ad and every photo being some unreachable standard. As if what people want is to feel inadequate all the time? Being human is a beautiful mess of all of the feelings at the exact same time. 

Last time we spoke you had an amazing collab with SARA BAREILLES. What did you learn from working with such a great artist?

She is a professional. We shot the Kimmel performance during Covid and she came in with her parts learned and we never waited on a wrong note. I so respect someone who has had more success than I can imagine and who is the most human and real ever. I aspire to that level of humanness.  

Your album is almost due. Why the title Beacon? What does it represent to you?

I thought the album would be called Backbone. Track 2 on the album. But when I think of what this album represents – beacon is a reminder that sometimes we have all the light in the world and then sometimes we are so lost. It’s a journey that is also a circle sometimes. I realized that the word BEACON is inside of the word BACKBONE (remove K and the other B) and that felt like a perfect symbolism for “sometimes you’re the boat and sometimes you’re the beacon” — some times it has to just clear through the fog. 

What’s the storyline and theme of this record?

I had been reading about the hero’s journey (made popular by Joseph Campbell and others) and realized I had been singing about home for so long I had forgotten what home was. I forgot who I was without any of the labels I had created for myself. Sometimes a journey is just arriving at the same place you started and realizing you are not the same person at all. And that’s my version of coming back to where I’m from- it’s rediscovering who I am in this place having lived a lifetime outside of my home. 

What have been your sonic inspirations throughout your life?

A lot of them. Portishead. Postal Service, James Blake, Stevie Wonder – and then really good songs like “I can’t make you love me” or “I will always love you”

What are some specific sounds and sonic atmospheres you wanted to evoke with this record?

I wanted to record this album with a full band and real instruments. I liked a lot of the early 2000s British rock bands like Keane or songs like “Bittersweet Symphony” – anthemic and organic with my own voice that’s something I am sometimes too shy to showcase. I wrote over 100 songs for this album and really spent a lot of time with how they were a part of my own Hero’s Journey back to this place. 

You have been a LGBTQ+ activist in nashville for a long time. What do you like about the city and its community?

I have trouble of thinking of myself as an activist when there are organizations and people who are working harder to make this a more inclusive city. Inclusion TN is one of those organizations. But I am someone with a voice and I will not stop speaking up when I see people in need. When I moved back here it was all about abortion access. And then trans rights. And the stupid drag ban. There is a FIGHT happening here and I am honored to raise my voice with a lot of great people here standing up for others. 

How do you think your music, words, and actions contribute to the community?

I would like to think that I can help point people to issues in our city and that together we can make a change. I got to sing for the inauguration of one of the most progressive mayors in Nashville’s history. That makes me excited for being in this city at this time. 

Why did you decide to get back to Nashville out of all places?

I think I’m still figuring out the answer to that question. It’s something I thought was a huge defeat – having to move back home. But in moving here I made the record of my dreams and met the love of my life. Sometimes you can’t see how things will play out – you just have to go on the journey. I’m on that journey right now. And this is that album.