Byron Bay alt-rock four-piece Moreton recent track “See Yourself”, featuring world-renowned Irish singer James Vincent McMorrow, is a lovely, heart-wrenching dark slow-rock track.
We sat down with Georgia from Moreton who gave us a little insight into songwriting, music and all the little inspirations along the way…
The reason I write for Moreton has very little to do with music. Music is just a state of being. The family legend goes that I sang before I spoke words. I’m self-taught, I can’t read sheet music, I don’t know the chord names on guitar, I can’t practice. I just respond to moments when I feel inspired to write, and most often, that inspiration does not come from music. I confess to aestheticism – anything beautiful and visual gets me moving. Anything bittersweet, fragile, tenderly human. It’s all about noticing, realising, and then making sounds and words from that place. What you are experiencing and how, that is your creative channel, unique to you and you alone. These are a few of the things that never fail to prompt a response from me.
Cinema.
Whether pacifying my insomnia or just too curious to resist, I find cinema one of the most potent art forms on earth and I am OBSESSED with it. To see reality (or fantasy) constructed for the screen heightens the way I notice the real world. I love looking at the blurry things in the back of scenes. I love the lighting choices, the costumes, and of course a perfect script. And actors – I am obsessed with good actors and their methods – Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Williams, Tilda Swinton. Watch Moonlight, Casino, Bright Starr, In the Name of The Father, Ex Machina, Onegin, There Will Be Blood (Soundtrack by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood!). Anything directed by Martin Scorsese, Sophia Copella, Paul Thomas Anderson or Jim Jarmusch can only lead you into magic. And doco’s too – the recent Jim & Andy about Jim Carey’s performance of Andy Kaufman blew my mind. Cobain – Montage of Heck is the best Kurt documentary out there, imo.
Gardens.
Nature is an obvious one, I think all artists are inspired by it at some point and its definitely my biggest muse, but in particular gardens and gardening. The difference with gardens is that there’s always a human story happening around a garden too. For example, my grandmother’s garden makes me think of childhood and play, and memory, it makes me think of the passing down of maternal knowledge between generations. Walking down the street and looking into gardens makes me wonder about people’s lives. Pass the ripe tomato vines, the tidy and unkempt, a sharehouse, with someone smoking on the lawn chairs. In the big botanical gardens, there are rose gardens with elaborate names etched into plaques. And always intriguing human moments to notice – young lovers in the sun, someone late for work, a sad girl sitting on the bench with a diary (oh wait that’s me)
Paintings (and colour)
If you are ever near one of Yves Klein’s works in his famous International Klein Blue, stand at it for as long as you can, and see if that blue doesn’t rattle your heart. I hear ?uestlove has one at his house – goals! I don’t have synesthesia (I wish) but I am ruled by colour, and particularly blue. That’s why I’m pretty obsessed with paintings and painters, because their kind of the conductors of colour aren’t they, outside of nature itself. Chiaroscuro and its use of black, Klimt’s shimmering golds, Brett Whileley’s Sydney Harbour blues and whites – they are universes unto themselves and there’s a lifetime of songs to write just about how they look, let alone the stories of the artists and paintings themselves.
Novelty Instruments
Changing instruments is such and fun and playful way to change how I’m writing. Especially when it’s something you don’t really know how to play, cause you can’t fall back into any habits or take yourself too seriously. At the moment I’m playing around with an old German auto-harp that I found at a second hand store. Whenever I visit my Mum, I play her old piano that is so loudy and heavy sounding. I love this recording of Joni Mitchell on her dulcimer, so now that’s on the list too. And we used a Mellotron a lot on this new record which has probably been my favourite synthesizer to arrange with. On my dream list is also a pedal steel, a full sized harp, and an Ondes Martenot. And if can’t change instruments because I’ve only got my guitar, then I love looking up different tunings to play around with. Nick Drake used some really beautiful ones.
Radiohead – Live at The Basement.
This footage is my holy grail – I always come back to it when I want to feel inspired. I don’t like to imagine myself in other people’s music, but in this footage, I imagine myself and it feels so good and right to do so. Radiohead are my favourite band hands down. This footage is something I’ll always strive for, whether or not I get anywhere close is not the point – the connectedness between them, the cozy but electric energy, the technical ability yet the ease of delivery, the instrumentation, jumping between instruments, the beautiful gear. I remember someone giving it to me on a USB in London and I didn’t watch it until I was stuck on long bus ride, and I wept with utter abandon throughout. I always come back to watching it when I want to connect with what I love about music, songs and why the hell I’m doing what I do.
