Morgxn
On a phone call during January’s snowstorm, quickly rising pop singer-songwriter Morgxn states plainly that Beacon, the record he’ll release on Friday, is the one he always wanted to make. The path to get here, though, was not one he expected to take.
“It took me moving back home,” Morgxn tells the Scene. “I’m from here — I’m a third-generation Nashvillian. But for me, I had to leave home in order to find out who I was.”
Circa 2011, Morgxn was looking for a place to hone his chops as a pop songsmith, and where he felt welcome as an out queer artist. Ultimately, he made the call to move to Los Angeles instead of staying in Nashville to build his career.
“A manager at the time here in town basically looked me in the eye and was like, ‘You will never make it in music as an openly gay person in Nashville,’” he recalls. “And I didn’t want to hide who I was and never have.”
Throughout the 2010s, Morgxn called L.A. home and released a slew of electronically enhanced pop singles. He collaborated with other artists on remixes and contributed his rich and gentle tenor voice to others’ tracks, while touring with musicians like dance-pop solo act Robert DeLong and R&B-inspired synth-centric duo Good Great Fine Ok. In 2018, he released his debut album Vital, and it began to feel like his star was reaching new heights. Then pandemic lockdown began in 2020, and just a few weeks later he unexpectedly lost his record contract. Even without COVID, the timing would have felt especially ironic.
“I’m dropped from my label the same day that Billie Eilish tweets about my song ‘Home,’ ” he says. “I’ve got all this attention, and my phone is blowing up from friends and the internet and whatever — but at the same time, I’m like, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna get music out anymore. I don’t know what to do.’”
That’s when Morgxn decided to come back to Nashville, bringing with him a vault of more than 100 unreleased songs and a deep need to hit reset. With help from his canine companion, he narrowed down the tracks. “My dog, who sings along to the songs — we have gone viral several times — if she wasn’t feeling the songs, they didn’t make the cut,” he says. Morgxn tapped producer Marshall Altman to help shape his collection of demos into an album. They recorded the LP with a full band. For Morgxn, one of the crucial details was including a full string section, which added a sonic fullness to match the deeply felt lyrics.
Morgxn
“The start of this album was sort of based around the idea of the hero’s journey,” says Morgxn. “And for me, it was like putting myself in my own story and in my own life, and then heading into the unknown.”
Along with making Beacon, Morgxn kept busy with activism in support of causes including trans rights, abortion rights and antiracism. He says it felt heartening to be surrounded by like-minded people in a place where he once felt rejected because of his identity. Mayor Freddie O’Connell even used “My Revival,” a single that will also be on Beacon, as his entrance music when he won last year’s mayoral runoff election.
“I wish I could go back and tell the hurt, bullied, othered kid who grew up in this town that one day the most progressive mayor in all of Nashville’s history is going to walk out to your song,” he says. “You’re going to sing at his inauguration because you are a part of what makes Nashville’s revival, the revival that it’s having.”
“My Revival,” an infectiously melodic and moving anthem about standing in one’s power, is a standout on Beacon, though highlight stacks on highlight across the album. “Modern Man” interrogates traditional masculinity over a disco beat. “Backbone (It’s Not Over),” an intense piece with a gritty, driving groove, is another key piece of the album’s genesis. The word “backbone” came to Morgxn at a difficult time, seemingly at random, but eventually revealed its significance — a reminder that he possesses the strength he needs to persevere — through song.
“‘Backbone’ is really the song that crosses the threshold and starts the chapter,” Morgxn says. “It’s a word I wrote in my journal the day my dad passed eight years ago. And I wrote nothing else. I had no idea what it meant. I searched for years to figure out what it meant. And I think that the journey of this album begins the day it’s released.”
Morgxn kicks off that journey with a full-band release show at The East Room Friday night. It’s fitting that he’ll be celebrating in his hometown; a few days later, he has solo acoustic gigs set for New York’s Rockwood Music Hall and L.A.’s Hotel Café.
