Name: Sarah Morrison
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Sarah Morrison's new album Attachment Figure is out via Ramp Local.

If you enjoyed this Sarah Morrison interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

All of those often-quoted inspirations find me when I sit down to work on a song. It’s only when I write that I realize how much I’ve been consciously or subconsciously ruminating on political subjects, relationships, dreams. The impulse to write is usually there, but it’s not until I’m doing it that I realize where the inspiration will come from.

I love to try to hypnotize myself whenever I can. It yields some interesting results.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a visualisation of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

It can go either way for me. Sometimes, I set out to make a song “about” something, or will try to write a song that conveys a specific feeling or memory, but sometimes lyrics come from spells of writing without thinking.

Again, it’s that hypnosis writing that takes over sometimes that reveals something more wise and concise than anything my conscious mind could have come up with.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research'; or create 'early versions'?

The prep phase usually looks like keeping a notebook full of quotes from the news and poems and bits from conversations. I try to make connections between those bits and file them under one heading. Usually the connections are what make a song.

That’s the beginning of the lyric writing process, which is the only part of the songwriting ordeal that requires any prep. Usually the music comes without thinking as much, or rather it uses a much different kind of thinking process.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I need absolute quiet. I hate noise when I’m trying to think. I’m really sensitive to sound. I also love drinking coffee when I write.

Lately I haven’t had time in the mornings to write due to work, but I find that the first few hours of the day are the most productive for me. Writing in the morning and reading at night is usually what works best.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

The first note is the deepest … ah!

Honestly, it’s not that hard to find the beginning of a song. That’s the part that usually feels the most right to me.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Lyrics require a lot of thought and space. The music comes slightly more naturally and requires less thought.

I usually have several melodies or chord progressions that I have been playing with. I like to match the lyric packages to chord progressions that feel like they should go together.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

I’m not the best person to ask, but I like lyrics that don’t bullshit or bore the listener. Too many songwriters don’t take writing lyrics seriously enough.

For me, I’m totally taken out of a song if the lyrics feel insincere in the context of the music. Not sure how I know, since there are simplistic lyrics that melt me, but it’s a feeling you get that lyrics aren’t written with any intention. I just wish for more interesting lyricists to be borned unto the world.

From your experience, are there things you're doing differently than most or many other artists when it comes to writing music?

That’s a hard one to answer! I think we’re all trying to write the best we can!

What might be different about the way I write may come down to my background in poetry. I have a degree in Creative Writing and am reading poetry as much as I can. So, when I’m working on a song, I do have my creative writing workshop dialogues happening in my head.

Writing a song is a lot like following a poetic instinct, but with some different guardrails to work within.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Lately I’ve become so much looser about where my lyrics come from. My early musical gods were more traditional singer-songwriters, and I think I used to be more inclined to format my songs like them, trying to make a point or tell a story. Not sure how effective I was though, haha.

That’s been changing in the past few years. Reading different types of poetry and listening to music that is more impressionistic and dreamy has made me really excited to try to let go more in my writing.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

I was lucky enough to take a poetry workshop with the brilliant Barbara Hamby. She taught me to write the first draft of a poem on one side of a page, then flip it over and try to write the same poem from a different angle.

I’m sure this happens to a lot of writers, but sometimes when I’m writing, my ideas are coming faster than my words, and the more words you write, the more limited your avenues become as you try to make your thing make sense.

I find that putting some avenues on hold while you finish an idea, then flip over your page, so to speak, is the best way to look at your poem or song from all angles. You can choose one or the other, or you can find a bridge between both takes.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I think I spend so much time whittling away at my songs that when it’s done, it feels like they’ve already had time to rest between my several attempts to get it right.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

I’m new-ish to the belief that production is just as important as any other part of making a song! Well …your song has to be good by itself. BUT! Production can make it into the beautiful butterfly it was always meant to be!

I started recording and mixing my own songs when I was 17 and put out a couple albums basically by recording everything myself. I cringe listening to them now! They deserved better.

Now I ask smarter people to do the mixing and mastering.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I will let you know when I find out! Well, it’s been hard getting back into the creative swing of things since my album just came out.

I never know how to feel when I release music. By the time the music is released, it feels like the fun part has already happened. I always expect to feel accomplished on the day of release, but it’s usually just a weird ego trip all day that literally makes me sick.

It’s scary jumping into a new set of songs. I know that they will tell me something I don’t know about myself, which is exhilarating but a little terrifying.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Yes … of course making music is different than making a great cup of coffee, but I imagine there’s a coffee pervert out there who gets as much out of making and drinking the world’s greatest cup as I do listening to the best music in the world. However, I don’t think you can get that much better at making coffee throughout your life. Once you know you can make the best, there’s nothing else to explore.

When you’re making any kind of art, you shouldn’t develop muscle memory. I think you should be worried if making art becomes too easy, and it shouldn’t feel like a finite task. What I express through art is everything I can’t express through any other thing.

I wonder if all artists feel this way, but when I go too long without writing I feel like I’m letting all the beauty and the questions I have wither away. I feel a lot even when engaging in mundane tasks, but art and music help me prove to myself and to an audience that there is in fact a lot of depth in day-to-day life.

Maybe I should write a song about coffee.