Q&A: morgen’s Sophomore EP ‘BRAVADO’ is There for Those Who Don’t Know What They’re Doing
WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE — in the weird transition that your early twenties brings. morgen writes about it in her latest EP, BRAVADO, helping listeners overlook self-doubt. A project that incorporates electric, pop, and rock influences that create a dynamic sound, the EP perfectly encapsulates the weirdness and awkwardness that comes with not knowing what you're doing.
Even though I talked to morgen over a Zoom call in my dorm room, I felt like I was sitting down with an old friend for coffee. Her energy and presence was bubbly and kind, with the same aura as the music that she creates.
morgen’s music makes you want to run and dance through a field of flowers, engulfing yourself in BRAVADO. The 18-year-old is on the adventure of finding her place in this world, moving out of her family's home and relocating in LA to make the transition into living alone. BRAVADO is a time capsule of this metamorphosis into being an independent early adult. The EP is perfect for warm weather, dancing in the rain, or for when you are going on a hot-girl walk.
Read below as morgen talks music as a time capsule, plans for touring, and how the cover art for BRAVADO came to be.
LUNA: What does your songwriting process look like?
MORGEN : I feel like a lot of artists can agree [that] it genuinely depends on who I'm working with and what the fuck I'm doing. If I'm working with an artist or somebody else in the room, then it depends on how their flow is. I'm a Gemini — I like to people please; I like to … see what's up. I flow with whoever is in the room. But when I'm alone, I usually start with some sort of key, some sort of chords, and then I flow into a melody [and from there] into some lyrics. It just really depends on the situation. And sometimes I'll be in an Uber somewhere and I'll just be writing lyrics, and then I'll use those in a session — seriously, [it] fucking changes every single day.
LUNA: That's awesome! I love how it’s just a spare moment. Is there a story in this EP? How did you decide on the order of the songs or the story that is conveyed?
MORGEN : It's really funny because, with this project, it was kind of all thrown together. There wasn't really a storyline to begin with — it was something that kind of just came to me. BRAVADO, to me, was a lot about moving away from my parent's house and stepping into adulthood, which was really different than I had expected it to be. I had expected it to be a lot more freedom and that I could just do whatever the fuck I wanted to do. You know, [like] it'd be so fun and entertaining, but with freedom comes this expectation to do everything all the time.
You have to have a level of competence, and sort of like “bravado” means in a literal sense — it basically means a false sort of confidence. That's the whole point of this EP … just like, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I seriously … have no idea what I'm doing. I've never known what I've been doing. I look and act like I know what I'm doing, but I have no clue. Adulthood or early adulthood in a nutshell is kind of you're just like… you turn 18 and all of a sudden you have all these requirements to be a person, and … you move away from home, you have all this freedom, and then you're just like, “Well, shit, I guess I have to know who I am now.”
LUNA: That segues into my next question — I was wondering what it’s like to have your adolescence be encapsulated in this music, acting as a time capsule?
MORGEN : It's so weird, bro. “Mom Jeans” is a really funny song for me because I wrote it about a year ago and I was in this masc lesbian phase of my life where I was like, “Oh, I throw out anything girly.” I was primarily wearing sweater vests, baggy pants, binders, everything. I was a masc lesbian. It's so funny because I wrote “Mom Jeans” with the intention of being like, “This is self-love.” There's this line where it's like, “I don't feel like me in a miniskirt,” and like… bitch, I'm wearing a miniskirt all the time — I literally live in miniskirts now. It's so funny because I was anti-sparkles and now I'm going back to my six-year-old self and I'm wearing tiaras and sparkles.
It's so interesting having your adolescence encapsulated because you look back on it and you have to promote these songs that aren't even who you are now. It's so funny because in these videos I'm posting to TikTok about the songs, trying to get an audience around my music, … I'm just listening to these lyrics like, “Wow, that's really where I was, and I'm not there anymore but that's okay.” That's part of artistry that's why the EP is the way it is. That was my adolescence, but now I'm in a completely different place in my life, which is so good. And it's such a great reminder because I'm like, “Wow, I've grown so much.” So that's lovely.
LUNA: Your cover art for every piece of work you've published is so interesting and eye-catching. How does that process work?
MORGEN: Here's a funny thing about me: I don't know what I'm doing, and I've decided that I'm a graphic designer. I’ve dated a graphic designer and she helped a lot, but even before I met her I was doing these collages on this sketch app that I had on my iPad. I swear to god, bro, this is how the industry works — you can make anything out of anything. I paid $0 for this. I started collaging on the sketch app a while ago and making funny little things just because it was fun. I started [collaging] in-person and printing things out and posting them … that's how I did “Mom Jeans.”
The cover for “Mom Jeans” is actually a thing that I made. It's more time-consuming than just chopping things up on the screen. So I started doing more shit like that on my iPad, and then it morphed into me doing that for every single cover art, and it's been really fun. I end up making something I really love out of literally nothing — I just kind of chop and paste, copy and paste, over and over and over again. But yeah, I mean, that's a process with all that stuff. I recently collaborated with my ex on the cover art for “Make U Mine.” That's how it works for me — it's kind of how I approach everything, [with] that mentality of “Let's see how fucked I can make this.”
For the main EP cover I did recently, I picked it up and it was so funny because I didn't realize it until I was making a sign for my EP release party. I was like, “Oh, this part is missing, but no one's gonna notice it,” This is why I am not a graphic designer, because I miss shit all the time. But anyways, that's the story of the cover.
LUNA: Do you have plans to eventually go on tour? Is there a certain song you love performing live that you can't wait to perform to a bigger audience?
MORGEN : I really want to go on tour. It's been something that's been talked about a lot but unfortunately, in the music industry right now, I can't speak for everybody. But the thing about the pandemic was that all these artists didn't get to go on tour for two years and they're all going on tour now. All of the artists that came up during the pandemic want to go on tour and there's no spots available. But it makes it a lot easier to focus on creative stuff. I'm doing a lot of live shows right now. I'm in LA and Santa Cruz, which is my hometown; there's been talk about maybe [doing] an Australian tour [this year]. Now we'll see what happens. Hopefully playing some festivals this summer. It'll be really fun. I'm excited.
LUNA: TikTok has affected the music industry so much as far as promoting music. Is there pressure with how you use TikTok and social media? How do you cope with that?
MORGEN: It's intense having to post consistently, every single day… [it’s] really hard. If artists … are like, “I love posting, it's so fun” … shut the fuck up. It's like, sure, you can say that once in a while. I love interacting with my fans. I love talking with people on the internet. It’s so fun to hang out with people and talk, and I love DMing people and commenting. But it gets really challenging to come up with content every single day that's entertaining. Every song has to be a new trend, so, you know, you have to come up with a new trend every time you're trying to promote a new song. You have to promote it over and over again, and if it doesn't work you have to come up with another fucking trend with your song.
Nobody cares about the backstory of your song, nobody cares about this, nobody cares about the song itself. If it's not trendy, interesting, or if it's not pleasing to the eye, nobody cares, and that sucks but that’s social media. But … I'm grateful to have it as well because it got [me] fans, and I did go a little bit viral with “Mom Jeans,” which was super sick … it got me an audience. I can't be more grateful for that. It's fucking challenging. It's challenging as fuck… Every single day I have to post, and it's taxing.
LUNA: That's a lot of pressure, but you're doing great. What is your potential favorite song or favorite lyric on this EP if you had to pick?
MORGEN: I have a favorite song and I love [it] because it's changed… I originally really loved “Sick of Me” to “Make U Mine.” “Lilee” has consistently been one of my favorite songs I've ever written, and it’s my favorite song on the EP, 100%. [“Lilee” is] where I feel like my music is going and leaning towards that direction — more indie, more fun, quirky, girly. That's definitely my favorite song on the EP.
That was my favorite project to shoot — we did the whole music video at my friend's house. I did my own makeup and it was really fun. I got to direct and design the whole thing, and I love that shit, man.
LUNA: I love how your music makes me want to run through a field of flowers.
MORGEN : That makes me so happy, bro. That's so sweet you say that because I envision my happy place as this. I used to work on this farm in Santa Cruz and there's this one hill in particular I used to go up during breaks. I had this field of flowers that I … would escape to, and it was every year. They wouldn't plow it up until I think … mid-March. Oh, it was so beautiful. Anyways, it's covered in flowers always. That's my happy place, and so whenever I write music, it's funny that you say that because that's what I'm envisioning. When I was writing “Lilee,” that was where my mind went. So I'm so happy you said that because, seriously, that's my place of peace.
LUNA: I have one last wrap-up question: Do you have any pieces of advice for people listening to your music who are also going through growing pains as you're moving through this transition?
MORGEN: Trust the process; just know that you're not alone. I know that people say that shit all the time, but seriously, trusting the process is huge. Also, things that are good for you then aren't going to be good for you in the future. You're going to look back and be like, “Why did I do that?” Because you needed to, is something I've learned. Recently, I was in a relationship that was really good for me at the time and beneficial to me at the time, and then I ended it. I was like, “Why was I in that for so long?” Because I needed to be in it for that long. You need to have these experiences and you need to grow, and that's okay — girly, it's okay. You'll be fine. You're gonna look back on this shit in like, five, six years and be like, “Wow.”
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