Morgan James: Tea Time Interview with Elizabeth Zharoff

welcome back to the charismatic voice today we are continuing with our tea time interview series and i am so happy to introduce you all to morgan james morgan say hello hi everybody hi thanks for having me yeah of course of course thank you so much for agreeing to do this uh and to kick it off uh let's talk about our tea i found oh yeah morgan is a tea friend i am i like i like a little tea with my honey really is how i drink my tea so my husband jokes he's like wow are you gonna put any tea in there um i'm thinking um candied almond so it's basically dessert yeah that's basically dessert what are you drinking this is a milk oolong today first step oh yeah that's going so good so good we're a big coffee and tea house oh both oh yeah do you have a do is there a clear winner between the two um probably coffee my husband is like a major espresso aficionado and we have every fancy device you could possibly get your hands on at our house for for making various beverages so and now that we're home all the time it's it's nice that we actually can enjoy the things in our kitchen that's very true yeah what's your favorite device for making tea well i have this i have this very bougie breville tea maker i always wanted it and you know i i really don't need that you know a suitable cup of tea can be made very easily without a device but yeah this this device you know breville makes great great appliances and so you put your loose tea in it it heats it you tell it what kind of tea you tell it how strong you want it and then it it heats the water to exactly the temperature you should have a certain kind of tea you tell them how many servings and then it dips the tea lowers the tea into the water and takes it back out so it doesn't get oversteeped i know i know everyone that comes over laughs at me and then they see it in action and they're like i actually need that so it's pretty cool i love an intuitive device you know i just um i i love technology and i think that's amazing yeah oh man i'm gonna add like another question or two now that i know that that's that's perfect oh man oh that's so cool we're gonna have a big combo uh okay uh check question there it is over there yes so i have a ton of questions for you okay when i was writing questions i was like oh man this is don't don't dig too much don't you know don't go overboard with the questions but i do have a lot and then at the end we even have some questions from our patrons so oh great excited awesome all right so first right other than tea and coffee which is very important to start with yeah um you were born in boise right i was born in boise idaho yeah yeah that's so fun that's actually not too far from where i was born in wenatchee washington oh my gosh i know so uh i know in my experience it was kind of wild to say i want to have a career performing music coming from a part of the country where that's just hard to imagine in a lot of ways so what inspired you to pursue a career in music well you know when i was about 12 we moved to california where there were so many more arts programs coincidentally not before that but they there just were and i got involved in choir and theater and speech and debate and i got totally hooked um and because i was in a place in northern california where there were great programs and great teachers i think that really made the path clear um my parents were both my parents are both artists my mom's an actress and a poet my dad was my drama teacher so i came by pretty naturally and of course they they were very very encouraging but they were also very uh reticent to you know be waving the banners just yet because they knew how hard a life like that could be yeah so um they wanted me to be a doctor or a vet of course like every parent probably wishes but they were once my once the die was cast and they could see that i was totally hooked they were incredibly supportive and um so yeah i think it was the programs and teachers that made it made me feel like it was possible you know yeah yeah for sure that okay um and then i read that you ended up going to juilliard and it i think i read that you applied pretty early on in your life and then really fought to get your spot there can you tell me a little bit about what that process was like and then also what particularly you studied at juilliard yeah you know i i wanted to i knew i wanted to go to juilliard freshman year of high school and everybody kind of looked at me like i was a little like oh that's very sweet but you know i didn't have any formal training you know and and i so all things considered i was not um really on a strong musical path outside of being in choir in lessons you know so everyone was kind of like oh you know it's very hard to get in there and kind of trying to get my expectations lower so i applied you know my junior year when i was 17 or so um or you know beginning of the senior year and um the process i don't know if it's still this insane but the process is for voice and piano and violin some of them were highly trafficked uh disciplines you have to send in a pre-screening tape with arias and songs on it because it's a classical program and then you have to wait and see if you're invited to audition which i was so my dad and i flew out for my first trip to new york city and i went to the audition and i of course picture like 18 year old morgan and like a velvet gown with pearls and absolutely no fashion sense or fear whatsoever just completely fearless and then you kind of go through they put you through the ringer once you're there to see what your aptitude is for language and ear training and theory and and then you wait and see if you sing again which i was called back to sing again and then you go home and wait you know and um i had applied to a lot of other great schools but my heart was really set on on juilliard i just for some reason i thought this is where i'm supposed to be and i want to be in new york i want um i want to be a part of that legacy you know that name and those people that went there and i didn't really know what it was going to be like you know so um so long story short i uh i was i got a letter i got accepted all these other places and but i was waiting for that juilliard letter and i got a letter that i was wait listed okay and everybody said oh it's such an honor to be waitlisted of course i was devastated because i wanted the big packet you know that said i was gonna be able to go there and um my parents said you know it's not meant to be and and it's okay and somebody might drop out and leave a spot for you you never know i was like nobody's gonna you know say no nobody's gonna not go and uh so i started sending them all this supplemental material because again i was even more fearless and stubborn than i am now and so i was like well they must they're wrong you know just the cockiness of being 18 and i started sending them all this material saying i i need to be there it's part of it's my destiny and and i don't know it i don't i'll never know whether they made an extra spot or whether um or whether i wore them down or whether someone dropped out you know i i don't know i i was told by admissions that they just made an extra spot so that's what i'm gonna gonna go with that's awesome so that's my that's my romantic juilliard story and then it was just you know yeah that then my my whole path was that really felt like my whole direction began you know now uh it's really interesting to me knowing how you sing now and knowing that back then if you went to juilliard it was classical so that's i find it fascinating that you got your roots in classical training was that really intentional did you want to specifically go for classical singing for opera first or did you always want to go towards more blues musical theater singing i i mean i didn't even i didn't know how to belt i didn't know that this other voice was inside me you know i i it certainly wasn't premeditated it was all you know um the uh the mother uh the um necessity is the mother of invention you know and so i came to learn to build and learn and and kind of develop an expertise in these other styles while going down the path i wanted to go and get a classical music degree the same way a ballerina wants to study ballet regardless of the other you know genres that he or she are going to pursue because i thought it was the best foundation for a lifelong voice a lifelong technique rather than something temporary or something for a season or for a show i didn't i didn't want that i really wanted that classic training that um music background i wanted to really really dig in and have that that that i thought i could really plant my feet on forever you know that foundation do you think that that foundation has really helped oh my gosh yes yes absolutely it's essentially the same technique i sing with the same technique i sing classically in every single one of my lessons every week i sing with the same technique that i always have it's the style it's the genre that changes you know um the modifications are in style they're not in technique the instrument runs the same you know and and it's some different gears maybe you know and and but you still need gas and oil and all the same things that you need to run the car you know and but but i i learned i kind of realized pretty quickly that i didn't want to be an opera singer and i didn't have the capacity or interest to be an opera singer um so then i was in a little bit of a conundrum i had a conundrum because i wanted to do theater you know theater music and there they don't prepare you for that at juilliard so there were just many years of trying to figure out where i belonged ah yeah i just have to say i you took the words out of my mouth it was so perfect the way you said hey it's the same foundational technique it's a style that changes it's like the cherry on top that changes it's something i tell so many people yeah and uh and i also always use the car analogy it was perfect thank you oh yeah yeah that's great that's great yeah yeah it's like you have to you know kind of gas in the car and then yeah yeah you know and and i always tell young students like when i'm trying to get people to um take care of their voice right you know i i say you know we're born with this beautiful ferrari like in our throat but it can be driven off the road very easily you know you still have to be be careful with it and you and you have to take great care in order to make it an instrument that will last a lifetime you know yeah so i always get on that vocal health soapbox i was going to ask you about that later but why don't you talk about it now what do you do to take care of your instrument well you know i um i try to drink a lot of water i try to get rest the standard things i have multiple steamers you know and various things that i travel with like that um when i'm on the road i don't drink uh alcohol um when i'm singing every single night you know yeah um i i don't eat any dairy you know i try to reduce the amount of acids and things that could upset my throat and just and i sing every single day you know i i go to my lessons i maintain in that way um and i try to really really keep it in shape who do you currently work with for your lessons um derek rosenblatt is my teacher and he's been my teacher for 13 years awesome and he really i'm you know and i had i had one teacher cynthia hoffman at juilliard for four years and then i kind of bounced around trying to find a teacher after college and i was very mistrustful of of teachers and of the of what is going to be right for the next phase and i came to find derek and we're just a match made in heaven and i love him and he is he really taught me you know i used to say a lot oh i can't sing that oh i can't sing that you know and i would put these strange limitations and i never say that anymore someone else might sing it better but i'm not gonna say i can't you know there's always gonna be a way he he always he has so many tools for me and we have so many tools together as a team so that nothing's impossible you know i love that yeah he's he's awesome and finding the right teacher is just so important you know it's like a therapist it really is you know i was i've been reading i always like to read a lot about voice and various vocal research going on but they're actually hormones that your body releases when you're singing and it these hormones make you essentially trust the people that you're singing with or working with that's part of why there's this like uh feeling of community that's really strong within choirs and also why you have that big bond between a voice teacher and a singer develop really important wow i didn't know that but you know i had such a i had a bad relationship with my teachers at juilliard and um as a lot of people will say about this particular teacher and about you know about conservatory i don't think everybody has a great experience at conservatory and it made me very mistrustful and very insecure you know it took this um i came in this fearless strong you know curious person and i kind of left juilliard um very broken and it took a long time to mend that you know and um mend that relationship the teacher-student relationship and meant the relationship with my own voice oh gosh there's construction that's lovely you know you're in new york you can hear construction every day every day i mean yeah you know it took a long time for me to to accept my classical voice yeah and like it you know i just hated that voice because i was just told so so many times at school that i was just not good enough and and um yeah so that's been a great part of getting older is i'm like i walk away from my lessons and i feel pride again you know i feel joy yeah that's awesome yeah yeah that's super awesome man what a fantastic voice teacher to be able to help help you come back from that too yeah absolutely yeah really cool um let's see so can you talk a little bit about that transition um from classical training to musical theater um and how did you know especially i have a lot of questions actually about musical theater and some of the rules in there um we might dive into a little bit like the adams family if you want to talk a little bit about it yeah sure so that direction maybe yeah sure yeah whatever you want so what what was the impetus to go into musical theater after studying opera well i always loved musical theater i mean that was really you know if truth be told even when i went to school i knew i knew deep down i wasn't going to be an opera singer i always wanted to go and be the next barbara cook or you know be following the footsteps of otter mcdonald or um judy kuhn or marin maisie or um uh rebecca luker and um i love those women those classic women yeah and um so i always i loved i was always a musical theater nerd um and but getting when i graduated from school all of a sudden we were in a different era of musical theater and the musical theater soprano was gone it was not not only not just just not popular but there was not outside of phantom of the opera which is its own beast you know there were no classic golden age musicals on broadway nobody was getting those rules it wasn't popular and so i was like okay i want to be in musical theater but there's no place for me so it's very strange very strange but so i went into that process of building a book and getting an agent and learning how to audition because julia didn't prepare me to audition for musical theater so i had to totally find find that on my own and through classes and people and you know yeah yeah yeah so how did you end up in the addams family that was your first big broadway show right that was my first broadway show but you know that was 10 years after moving to new york so i mean i did a lot of regional theater and i paid my i was and i was a waitress and a babysitter and a bartender and a tutor and and i spent many many years unemployed you know auditioning and for years and going through different ups and downs and oh this will be the break well that'll be the break i had so many near misses that was gonna be gonna be she coulda woulda shoulda you know and so it doesn't like there's a huge gap in there where i'm doing regional theater and learning how to be a leading lady and doing um summer stock and and getting my card and getting you not even doing a lot in between that and that's when i met mary mitchell campbell who was the music director of the adams family and met her in a show out of town and when they were doing workshops i i learned pretty quickly that workshops were kind of the way in you know so that you needed to be on the radar of the composers that were making current shows yes so she introduced me to andrew lippa and brought me in for that first workshop and then i was involved from the beginning for adam's family is taking time to see the child within who's always been there smiling back at me and when i close my eyes i just remember i keep on finding wonderland awesome super the loudest thing you've ever heard i've heard opera singers that were louder but i know i know i don't know what to do they're like hammering outside oh well it's okay okay it's okay um i with uh wednesday in particular um that i've worked with people on that role before and i'm really curious what's your favorite song which one's the most difficult is there a moment in the role you feel like was ever just really hard to get or like one of the most liberating moments do you have any insight into that role um i mean being an understudy is very very hard because it never really feels like yours it never really is yours you're always being thrown on um with short notice and you don't feel quite prepared um you being understood i've done it twice is that true yes i've done it twice and it's really hard because um so it's a blur every time i went on was kind of a blur i didn't really have time to settle into it of course before we went into production i auditioned for rounds and rounds and rounds and rounds of callbacks to try to get the role myself you know and um without any broadway credits you know it was unlikely that i was going to get the role and it was a great experience under studying you know you learn a lot but it's always a little bit of a blur you know you never really settle into the comfort of a role when you're when you're the understudy that being said it was obviously exciting to be on stage with bb and nathan and they're both so incredible that cast was incredible and they're both so so kind and in their different ways and funny and and great i learned so much from watching both of them you know and being around them so i mean pulled is really hard to sing and it's really high and then your adrenaline from being thrown on last minute is quite an experience you know yeah yeah that's a rush a total rush yeah yeah yeah i i had a few times when i was called in to sing pomina uh last moment i i would already been singing it in dresden in germany at that point but uh essentially in the house if there was a pamina that got sick because they're running magic flute a lot um yeah it was interesting to meet my tomino on stage in a costume for the first time and be singing duets and just yeah it was fascinating it's crazy it's totally crazy yeah you never feel quite ready for that you know it's an it's a crazy experience it's very it's very exciting i thought it was very different from just having the role regularly very very different very different yes yeah but fun it almost felt like like you were really truly in some sort of fantasy not one that you'd been producing all along but you just stepped into it and were part of it without necessarily knowing what was about to happen around you yeah i know it's crazy um you know uh let's see so after doing some musical theater for a while you ended up transitioning again to really having a solo career in r b soul music and i'm curious uh what spawned that transition you have so many transitions in your life you know really fascinating so what made you go that direction well you know when i was in the adams family was the first time that i was in new york i wasn't bouncing all around i didn't have 25 day jobs you know i didn't have i wasn't leaving town to do shows and it was the first time i thought well you know i could do like maybe i could do a gig in new york and i'll start a band so i pulled together some musicians and put together some arrangements of covers because i didn't really write music then yet and so i started a band and i decided to do my first solo show which most people want to do at some point when they're in new york and i did this show at le poisson rouge and everybody was kind of like we don't know what that was but keep doing that that was like kind of the takeaway was you do you have something special and i didn't quite know what it was i invited some managers and some kind of label types i had in my mind that i wanted to be signed to a label i didn't really know what that meant you know but i don't know and um and so i just started kind of arranging songs and and putting my spin on covers and stuff and that's when i arranged call my name which became like my big song at the records and one of my signature songs and that's when i so i arranged a bunch of songs and started dipping my toe into that water and then after that then i got wonderland right after so i left adam's family and did wonderland and i kept doing shows um you know solo shows along the way it kept kind of building that sound the sound that i kind of have now and then i did um god spell and while i was doing god's will i was doing workshops for wonder no i was doing workshops from motown wow and that's when i met mr gordy and that's when really my life took a huge turn and a huge change was when i when mr gordy took me under his weighing in um and that's when you know i had auditioned for every single this is now four years through on the path of having a solo career or what that i wanted doing solo shows and i auditioned for every single label i had different managers get me meetings with labels every label in new york a couple labels in la and all of them said no all of them turned me down and it wasn't until i met mr gordy and he introduced me to doug morris at sony and essentially got me a record deal at this at one of the same labels that had denied me already that's the thing about about rejection is like you can go to the same building a different door and somebody will let you in you know you never know that's i always tell people don't give up like just because you gotta know at this door another door might open you know so yeah it was a huge transition it was a total surprise you know yes i'd been working for it and i did want it but i didn't i was i was signed as a voice like most people are signed because they have songs or they have an album or they have an established sound but i was just signed as a voice [Music] that's super awesome that's also a great message to people to go for go look for another door yeah yeah i mean a lot of times it's that person that day that mood and if you really you know i'm very uh like i've said i'm stubborn but i'm very um tenacious is that the right yeah tenacious yeah yeah squeaky wheel james they call me i love it oh that's awesome well okay so let's talk about albums you released a lot of albums yes and i'm curious which is your favorite oh you know they're all your children it's hard to pick you know they all have um i love this last one that i made it was such a labor of love to me i made an album the way i've always wanted to make it you know to analog tape and and um i love that album it's and but i love my first album hunter because i'd never made an album before and i learned so much and it was um i was still on epic so they spent a ton of money and you know i got that full experience um i every single album is so special because if you're doing it right you're pouring everything into it every dollar and every minute you have and so yeah they're all just so special to me you know yeah yes um i i'm curious which recording experience was the best you mentioned this recent one being able to do that analog was that your favorite recording experience or was there one where it just was really comfortable or will you have all the bells and whistles um i this last one when i was the most me i was so comfortable i was so like confident in what i could do and who i was and what i wanted to make so i think that this last experience was so i mean we were in memphis and we had the dream band and we had we didn't have to worry about the money and who was going to pay for this and that and and we didn't have to argue about what was going to happen creatively we were just all on the same page and that's such a rare experience yeah and you know recording albums like the way i envision like aretha used to record them you know um aretha was you know and all my favorite singers you know though i wanted to make an album like that it's fun to make an album in a booth you know and and and a lot of people do a lot of fixing on the post production side and i've never really been into that um so this just felt like i wanted people to put on the record and say that sounds like a gig because it essentially is a live cake you know it's not it's there's no fixes there's no overdubs and it's it's the way i really sound you know and i love that yeah yeah i love that experience yeah nowadays it's really rare and it's funny because the further i go down the path the more i go in that direction um the more i reject what i hear on the radio and go further down the other way you know yeah yeah yeah and that actually answered another question i had which was who does the production or what kind of answer is that do you have somebody who is like adding a few things at the end you know finding a reverb that really matches everyone i mean doug my husband doug and i are our partners in everything we make and we write almost all my all my music together and he produced um all three of my last studio albums and um so yeah it's it's obviously so we're so lucky that i mean we already know what the other person wants and and so that he does all the production and tech side of things and you know for something like the white album that i did and he also played all the instruments and he mixed it and he mastered it so wow yeah we're we're a total team wow and it's really great it's really fun that i don't have to explain myself like you know when i'm in a situation that he's not there you know i forget the shorthand and how much time that saves and how much creative time it saves in my brain the shorthand is pretty amazing so what are all of these guitars oh my god who knows i i couldn't even tell you i mean he likes to joke that i really know nothing about any of them but yeah he has uh i think he has like 19 guitars two ukuleles two bases a a petal steel no i lap steel um it's a lot it's a lot um and i'm you know i i got him the lap steal for christmas and i went into the guitar store and i was like well what does he want this and he's like i mean yeah you can never have enough guitars the guitar guy said i was like well i mean i can never have enough dresses or shoes or dogs you know so i guess i understand do you guys have dogs we have two dogs two dogs they're sleeping right here next to me cavalier king charles spaniels oh my goodness i know you face could you just die i just just she's just she's just yeah they go on they go on tour with us they go everywhere with us oh my goodness you can actually take them with you yeah we take them everywhere man that was like one of the hardest things about traveling and singing opera is that i i really wanted to settle down and have a dog we still haven't gotten a dog we'll get a dog sometime soon i hope yeah but that was like what's the best things is i know traveling with the dog wow so you have to you do you ever right into contracts you know must include pet accommodations no i just take them everywhere i sneak them they're quiet i just show up i like you know what's that ask for forgiveness not for permission i just take them everywhere and usually people are really happy they're there people love dogs you know they make everything better yeah and then when in doubt i just put them in their bags and they're silent nobody even knows they're there i've gone to like fancy dinners and parties and they're just in my bag because i'm that lady um yeah it's the best that's awesome oh dogs and it was dresses and stressed vintage dresses shoes that's how i feel like i feel the same way about those that doug feels about the guitars that's perfect yeah i have an equal understanding of both of those things all right have you ever sorry this is totally off singing subject but have you ever looked at remix shoes what's that they're a vintage shoe company they specifically make lots of shoes for swing dancing too so they're based in l.a but oh they're really comfortable vintage shoes and uh yeah oh i love them okay they're they're super fantastic okay good i'm gonna look that up awesome okay uh let's see okay um oh do you have a favorite microphone yes i like to sing live i like to sing um on the neumann kms 105 the condenser mic no no the dynamic i have one one of each but yeah the neumann kms 105 i love i love that and in the studio i love this sony mic that my engineer in memphis had i can never remember what it's called but it's a vintage sony mic um yeah yeah it's hard because that my my size i self compress and so i you know on stage i don't want any compression or limiting and most engineers unless you're traveling with an engineer it's really hard to get somebody to not micromanage me on on stage yes so um it's hard to find the right you know mic for live singing um but i really like that neumann as long as there's somebody there that really kind of knows it well because um yeah yeah it's a difficult mic to mix but i do love it it's very crisp crisp i love to hear all the detail you know on the high end yeah okay yeah but this is an sms7 which i do a lot of recordings at home and too so it's a great you know standard mic yeah and a lot of people know how to work with it too exactly yeah yeah that's great uh let's see so about a couple of albums um i was i was really intrigued you released i think it's your second cover album is it was called blue and you released it on the 45th anniversary of joni mitchell's album which is by the same name right yeah okay um so i love joni mitchell and i'm really curious what about her caught your attention where that love for her came from and i want to know if you have a favorite song by her too um my mom brought me up on johnny mitchell so i've i've kind of known johnny mitchell's music since i was probably as as young as i can remember and i was learning a lot of these albums when i was young even before even before my love of soul music really you know i kind of was brought up on the music of the 60s and 70s and particularly johnny so i've always always loved her i've always i grew up mimicking her and learning all her music um and do i have his favorite johnny there's so many i mean i love a case of you and i love river and i and i love i love all of the album court and spark and i love ludwig's tune which is on um um oh god which album is that on um not ladies of the canyon for the roses some for the roses so i love i love those first six joanie albums like immensely they're just all they're flawless you know songs are like tattoos crown and anchor me or let me [Music] say [Music] i like the way she's always playing with her voice and yeah i'm kind of curious if that was something that inspired you to really be playful oh you know i've never thought about it um probably i don't know you know i um i love i love people that um i've never thought of her as playful it's funny but i guess she is you know i really love people that are um prolific that just keep making things like paul simon and and and joanie are two people like that that they just keep making things you know they don't wait for the exact perfect moment they just keep creating and writing and painting and i'm really inspired by that yeah and by that that that your job every day is to get up and create you know it's not to wait for the exact perfect divine inspiration per se but it's just to create and put it out there and throw it out into the world of course everything she made was perfect and flawless and same with fall but oh that's cool that's a really good message too love it love it um do you ever find it intimidating or daunting to cover a song that was released by like one of these great artists you know i don't i don't i because i feel i'm never trying to do what they did i'm only trying to do it i did what i can do and i'm i'm always going to i'm such a slave to the melody and the and the lyric and the lyrics and being authentically true to that i don't want to cover something to completely take it apart and turn it into something else i really i've grown to really hate that you know i i really try to people always say oh i can't wait to see what you do with this song or that song and i hope that people i would never want someone to listen to something gold it's unrecognizable now you know it's a classic song for a reason and i just want to step inside of it you know and a great song can be covered over and over and over and still you can find something new about it and so i don't feel intimidated because i'm not trying to be the person i'm not trying to beat their version i'm just trying to be my myself and i always try to think of covering songs like what would aretha do you know how aretha kind of famously everything she would cover she would make better than the original you know and i always think well you know i would love to see what it was like for her to get a song someone else had recorded and just do her a recent thing on it you know and she always instinctively knows what to do you know she's such an incredible interpreter of music and and so i think of it that way you know it's that's cool um it's just trying to do my best version of it you know yeah and that's part of why you are so authentic i think that's what your goal is thank you yeah that is my goal for sure i love it really seriously it's awesome thank you thank you um let's see a couple other questions here ooh a whole bunch there you know which one of these do we want to toss in first there's kind of a uh they're not as nice timeline after this i feel um i would love to know actually if you have any pre-performance routines or rituals since we talked about vocal health or anything i don't really i don't really no it's like i have no i'm not really superstitious and so i don't have anything i have to do or have to sing or warm up i mean my warm up kind of depends on how much i've been singing that week you know if if i'm singing every night my warm up will be really really light um i mean i do my hair and my face and you know and and kind of spend that time alone getting beautifying as we have to do and i i spend a i spend my time preparing what i'm gonna you know what i wear and what i look like on stage has become such a you know you know what they say about like you know people sit down at a dinner table and they eat with their eyes first you know and so i want to create when i walk on stage before i've said anything i want to look and i want the band to look like what they're going to hear and i want people to be transported to that world so that's i spend a lot of time thinking about that about creating a full sensory experience for people who come to see me live yeah and that's why you need a lot of dresses a lot of dresses a lot of it's really really required um well i know and it's like in the pandemic like i have not stopped collecting vintage clothing even though i have nowhere to wear it you know but yeah but the addiction the vintage addiction is real but outside of that no people ask me all the time if i have pre-show rituals and i don't really i don't you know sometimes because sometimes i'm not afforded the luxury of a ritual you know it's like i'm not touring at a level where i'm not touring at a high luxury level of touring let's be real i'm touring you know i'm still hauling my own gear and we we don't travel with a crew and we're in a car and jam-packed like you know sometimes i have a big fancy bus and sometimes i don't so sometimes i'm rolling into soundcheck right before it starts or rolling up to a gig right before it starts and i'm not afforded the luxury of a ritual so you have to be adaptable you know yeah yeah yeah that's for sure and you know you touched on pandemic i'm really curious how that's affected you over this last year yes oh my gosh it's um it's been i've learned so much this year and i've been so much uh luckier than most people or than a lot of artists that i know i mean doug and i are quarantined together and have been obviously this since march so we're able to still make music i don't know what i would have done if i wasn't able to still make music you know i just i um we're able to still write and make videos and do shows we do shows every single week on stage it or on my channel and how can people find that oh yes yes stageit.com and then morgan james online just search for me i do a show every single week and we started doing those in march we started doing daily videos in march and so yeah we remained really creative i and when i go to my lessons and my teachers like you're in great shape you know and i think a lot of people put their instrument aside during the pandemic for lots of different reasons and i think that then they're having to kind of get back into the habit of singing every day so um of course i haven't been able to tour and it's been totally bizarre and i've never spent this much time at home it's a little weird i'm going out of my out of my skin um because i miss traveling and i miss seeing people and seeing a different place every day and seeing i love meeting people in every town you know i love love singing live so i'll i'm looking forward to getting back to that but all things considered i the fact that i've been able to still make a living as a musician all year is pretty lucky yeah that's really awesome i love how you've just expanded online it's fantastic yeah i've been trying i've been trying so it's but i can't do that without loyal you know people tuning in so it's really they're they're the i can't do i say this every night on stage but i can't do it without them without you know people out there that want to listen that want to show up you know and um it's i'm really really indebted to audiences and people who still love music and need it and um show up i mean if anything i think that people need music and what you do more right now than ever before absolutely i 100 agree yeah and when and when people are touring again i mean how wonderful will that be to be in a room full of people again it's like gives me the chills to think about you know and so many things that i took for granted before or that annoyed me before now i think of them and you know i even want the annoying things back you know yeah the candy wrapper while you're singing go for it right like but you know like the annoyances of touring that touring is is a tough life but but i i just i'm gonna have such a different perspective on it now you know having having had to sit it out yeah yeah touring is a tough life yeah yeah actually um i'm kind of curious what you think the toughest part of touring is um the toughest part is at this point for me is um that it's still very grassroots right and it's still a lot of work for doug and for me and for the band you know we're still kind of um you know loading the car and and it's kind of a never-ending day it's like we drive to it we drive or fly to a venue right and then we check into the hotel and then the hotel room's not ready and then we bump around and get something to eat and then we check in and we haul all our bags and then we do a load in and that's an hour and then i do a sound check and that's an hour and then i do a pre-show meet and greet and then i get ready and then i do a show and then i do a post show meet and greet and then i pack up and it's a long day you know and it's not just the hour on my stage you know it's the hour on stage is the easy part that's the fun part it's all the rest you know so i think that i i'm so lucky that i can tour and that people will still show up but i'm not a stadium artist with teams of people handling everything you know it's still doug and me walking the dogs and packing up the car and you know getting to the next place so it's still um a pretty exhausting kind of day so i think that that's it's just wears under your body and wears on your voice yeah the amount of talking i mean like just the meet and greets alone or the interviews or different things throughout the day in addition to my show it's all the stuff that i have to do in addition to the show and selling merch and packing up the merch and it's like at the end of the day it's me packing up the merch you know it's it's um it's us doing everything you know and and that's how it is when you start a business you know it's it's you doing every single part of the business and i wouldn't i wouldn't have it any other way yeah but it's exhausting yeah i feel like you have to be good at so many different things not just singing oh yeah absolutely and i think that i've known a lot of great singers who did not want to do the business side and the social media side and the merch side and the selling yourself side and this you know they loved the singing but they didn't want to do the rest of it and i totally get it you know not everybody is like cut out for all the other the 90 of of what you're really doing as a performer yeah you know 10 is really just being on stage it's all the other stuff you know yeah for sure for sure um so let's see um uh i'm i'd love to actually well there's a few questions here oh goodness they're so good too okay uh first things first what happens if you feel sick what do you do oh god i don't even thought of it even though the thought of it is like oh god terrifying um thankfully knocking on wooden things it happens rarely happens so rarely because i really really try to take as good of care of myself as possible yeah i mean i go into like crazy crazy um survival mode of vitamin c and water and steam and silence and all those things you know it's been i can count on three fingers the time i've had to cancel a show because of sickness so i usually just power through if i can hold on sorry oh and goodbye um so i usually just power through you know and then hope i can sleep it off and feel better but oh it's a terrifying feeling especially if you have something coming up and you know as performers if i if i don't perform i don't get paid you know it's not like you know it's not like i don't get sick days no so it's terrifying when a performer gets sick you know when you're on broadway you get sick days which is great i mean there are certain advantages to you know having as we used to call it a government job but um when you're you know independently out there working you certainly can't miss shows yeah i feel that i i i remember blasting through performances when i was sick still and that's not good for your voice too i know i know i mean my teacher always says like absolutely do not sing under any circumstances if you're hoarse or if you feel this or that and it's easy for him to say because he's not performing for a living he's teaching for a living and and his students vocal health is what he's thinking about i i really try not to but i mean sometimes you have to and it's terrifying because i would i would never forgive myself if i damaged my voice trying to push through i mean it's it's terrifying i do think about it all the time but um i just modify shows or modify or i mean the older i get i i really see the big picture more and i say my health is more important than any given performance but there are just certain things that you can't cancel you know yeah yeah exactly and uh you know technology we're going to kind of veer into another zone okay mentioned technology and that you really love it is there anything in particular that you feel like has changed your life as a singer that's related to technology um definitely in-ear monitors i mean um in-ear monitors are have been a game-changer because i stay when i'm on stage i stand in front of the drum kit oh and i and i sing really really hard you know what i mean and i and my gigs are long and then they're full full singing for an hour and a half and i would just i would push so much i used to push a lot and i used to be tired or i used to have moments of like vocally where i wasn't where just it wasn't right and i was really screwing with my alignment and getting the entire band on in your monitor so there's no on-stage drum sound except drum on stage sound except drums no amps no anything everybody's in and it's amazing it's a game changer i mean i can sing the tiniest pianismo and the loudest forte and i can all gauge that with my own instrument i don't have to contend with anything that's awesome you know you just like shut it all out and they oh they're an absolute game changer for your ears and your voice so that has been amazing that's awesome yes it's awesome it's really weird to get used to it's a totally different kind of singing but it's awesome yeah wow that's cool i hadn't actually thought about like the scope of how much that changes and just hearing that makes me think like wow your vocal technique must feel so much better so much better i mean i i just can go uh i mean and sometimes i'm sure i'm going eight nine shows in a row without a break and it's just hammering my cords you know yeah because if you can't hear you can rely on your technique only so much i mean you do need that kind of touch stone of you know it is what you feel but if but if it's just a deafening sound all around you i mean what you feel only goes so far you know what i mean yeah you need that connection to your own ear it's very you know it's totally it's a game changer that's cool that's uh that's awesome um let's see a couple couple more things here i'm really curious about your collaborations do you feel like there is a thing that is one of the most important things to making a good collaboration a good collaboration um i mean usually like the same goals right a mutual aesthetic um when like for instance when i've collaborated with scott for post-modern jigbox you know all of our collaborations have really he's let me lead the way well what do you want to do for this you know what kind of he does he doesn't want to really impose that on me you know and i can't speak for anyone else but with my collaborations with him he's he's really open to if the singer feels confident and comfortable they're going to and they're going to make the the song great right yeah so he's some i think that a mutual aesthetic or a mutual goal you know um i'm trying to think you know just kind of having it's hard to collaborate with someone who doesn't have as big of a music background sometimes i think i think when people don't have the same references that's hard or the same listening background you know it would be very hard for me to collaborate with someone who had not devoted time to like black american music you know that i don't know what we would have in common to talk about or to collaborate on you know it's a hugely important part of my training you know and yeah it's so i think that a mutual sense of curiosity and knowledge you know you typically are drawn to people that have a similar level you're on a similar level as you you know musically yeah for sure uh i just have to say uh dream on uh was amazing oh thank you it's amazing thank you i don't know why we raised the key a fifth that was but i can't do it in the original key probably scott [Music] maybe tomorrow uh are there any current projects that you want to talk a little bit about or you know pepper us with like a little taste of or tell us to go by when they're released oh there's my other dog hello lulu come here oh luther luther um we are releasing a bunch we took a lot of we did a lot of recording and footage when we were in the studio last year in memphis so we're going to release um some acoustic tracks from the studio that we've never released before we're going to release five classic memphis covers that we haven't released before and um and then we're going back in the studio in july to make a christmas record oh oh thank you for telling me about that christmas music is my favorite i i love christmas music the christmas tree that's still in your house yes i'm going to make it probably an annual tree this year so decorate it with various things for very seasoned i really love christmas uh and on our channel we do a lot of christmas music at christmas time even though not everyone loves christmas music i feel like it is so great so we do it so i love it i love it yeah you know and you have to record a christmas album in the summer for it to be ready so um we're already kind of prepping for that and and so we're recording that in july and it's all going to be a part of this whole memphis project so it's going to be a companion piece to my last record nice and um it'll have all those classic elements and it's going to be recorded to tape and it's going to be horns and choirs and strings and all the delicious memphis kind of stuff so yeah i'm excited about that and i'm just kind of going to continue making videos and doing online shows and and just keep going forward you know that's i'm like a worker bee i just keep making stuff yeah yes that's a great description you just keep going yeah i just keep going just keep making stuff get up and just keep singing keep making stuff and it's not about you know it's it's not about one magical thing coming along and being the fix or the silver bullet or the the one thing that's gonna push it over you know i think that it's just about um a lifetime or a career full of good work you know at least for me you know i'm i've given up the idea that some some days something's just going to make me famous you know that was kind of my desire in my 20s but i think now it's really like i would hope that someone finds what i do and say wow she just keeps doing good work you know she's consistently herself that's a great compliment and i definitely i see that so it seems like you're really achieving that well thank you just a couple last questions before some patron questions yes um i want to know what's your favorite venue that you've ever sung in oh my gosh there's so many um i love i mean the hollywood bowl was probably like the highlight that i've ever gotten to sing i've gotten to sing there twice um i love the hamilton in dc i love the dakota in minneapolis i love the mim in phoenix um i love yoshi's in oakland i mean i love these places for different reasons you know and um i love singing and i love singing in europe i mean god i could just go on and on and on about touring in europe and how incredible it is and um i've gotten to sing in symphony houses with orchestras all over the world and i'm so lucky like every place i go i just find these amazing places that i get to sing so too many to too many to list really but i have a few favorites in america i have a few favorites in europe and i i always can't can't wait to see those on the list of dates you know that's awesome yes um and uh last question from me uh kind of a twofold question okay what is the best and worst thing oh hi oh there's my husband husband's siding amazing producer and instrumentalist sighting um what is the best and worst thing about your profession i'll um the best part is that you know every day you can wake up in a new city and with a new audience of people and that is so magical you know do you go bye sweet i'm leaving okay bye bye let me start that over the best part is waking up in a new city and um getting to see a new audience of people and and share in that experience and there's nothing like a shared live music experience yeah um i think the worst part is the constant onslaught of rejection and you know missed opportunities and and disappointments there are so many disappointments that come with this life and some of them are self-imposed most of them are self-imposed it's the constant comparing with other people and feeling like you're inadequate and i think it's baked into being an artist unfortunately i the older i get the better i get at it for sure um but i yeah i think that that constant kind of having to that doesn't get to a point you know where all of a sudden you've proved proved it and you've done all the things there's always more to do and there's more to learn and there's more to you know you have to get up and still make make more creative choices the next day you know so um i don't know yeah i i think those are probably the upside and the downside of of this business oh that's uh that felt like very sweet and authentic just like you and thank you thank you thank you i have a few questions here from some patrons now um so uh let's see the first one is from kirby and he said hi morgan hold on one second oh yeah okay all right so this first one is from kirby and he said hi morgan while growing up were there any singers that you admired and or inspired you to come up become a professional singer and as a songwriter what was your most memorable song that you have written for yourself and or for someone special um hi kirby is this are these patreon questions yeah i love my patrons oh my gosh patreon is the best um growing so who inspires me as a singer there's there are so many um who inspires me as a singer they inspire me for different reasons like for the just purely the voice it's aretha 100 aretha for the just absolute soul connection it's nina it's nina simone for melody it's ella ella fitzgerald is like who i go to if i need to learn a song or if i need to be reminded of any any part of the standard repertoire you know it's ella for tone it's nancy wilson for songwriting i'm so inspired by johnny mitchell and paul simon um i love on the melancholy or on the heart string side it's johnny hathaway you know so there are so many people that inspire me for different reasons you know i love on the songwriting side i'm very inspired by prince um and i on the second part of that question i think the song i'm proudest of is say the words off my first album and it's i wanted to write a big big soul ballad and i'd never done anything like that and um i wanted a song that you know that aretha franklin would sing or you know that i could that otis redding would want to cover or something like that and i and i sing that every every gig still and i still feel really proud of that song don't make me guess by the look on your face open your heart just let me see there ain't no place for me won't you say the words in here so this is from reuben um and he said being the love child of prince and bonnie rate so i think yeah i think yes which of your favorite songs by them and now this gets kind of like like has a little wink to it so which of your favorite songs by them will make us go crazy gently weep or at least give us something to talk about if it can't make us love them instantly very cute reuben um i love i mean obviously i'm partial to call my name which is a prince song and um you know prince gave me his permission to record and release that song before he passed away and so like it's such a gift to me so i feel like it's funny before he passed i was i was kind of always waiting for the founding because throughout time prince would pick people that he would kind of um anoint you know and ask them to collaborate or ask them to come on tour and i really was like any minute now he's gonna call you know um i love how come you don't call me i love the beautiful ones on the bonnie side bonnie is such an inspiration to me for her craftsmanship and her showmanship like seeing bonnie rate was one of the sexiest coolest things i've ever seen on stage because she's a killer guitar player she didn't have her first hit until she was in her 40s um so she's not like some you know she's always been in the business and she's always been doing amazing work and she's just kind of become a legend from doing great work over many many decades and she plays her ass off she sings her ass off and i just think she's so authentic and just amazing you know what a voice and and i love a few of her songs but what i love more is the collective who bonnie is you know um yeah that's awesome uh okay brett wants to know what are your favorite ways to find new ways to experiment with what your voice can do um luther come here come here he's eating cat food come here come here luke luther she's gonna set him up okay hi brett this is luther hi lupe what are my ways to find new ways to experiment with my voice um i mean i'm always challenging myself by learning so much music i learn so much music every week i do a different set of music on stage every single week um so i'm always learning and then i'll do different symphony shows and stuff that are completely new sets of music so i'm always learning a ton of music at once yeah um the full album covers are a huge challenge to me you know to try to step inside what what a band or an artist did with their whole album what does it feel like to just do exactly what they did in those keys in those tempos step inside like wear somebody else's clothing i think that's a real challenge to still be myself but still honor their songs i think that's the biggest challenge of doing any covers is how do i honor this artist and this writer while still being myself and um it's an honor you know it's an honor to cover other people's music yeah i really love what you did with the grace jeff buckley oh thank you that's one of my desert island albums yeah i love that album so much and um he's incredible jeff buckley is amazing so i'm due for another full album cover i don't know what it's going to be i don't know if anybody has any ideas i know i'm sure they're very our our fans like to comment on a lot of things so i'm sure oh good we'll get through awesome comments for you maybe okay good good yes send me some ideas that would be awesome okay last question here yes from our patrons david wants to know besides just enjoying the music post-modern jukebox videos have been a great way for me to discover new singers and other performers that are featured within the group is there a particular collaboration that stands out for you or any insight into how those collaborations came together that you can share um just with pmj you mean yeah and you kind of talked about that a little bit with scott already but would you like to add anything to it well you know i mean scott's been doing this a long time so i don't know how he finds the different singers sometimes they're recommended from other singers you know you know us singers have to stick together so we'll say oh you know who you should get is so-and-so and so-and-so and um and i've made lifelong friendships with those with those collaborations i mean ariana cevallos is um one of my dearest friends and and so many great friendships have come out of those collaborations um for me you know they we had the same we have the same agent so we actually met because our agents our mutual agent was like oh you guys should meet and initially when i you know heard about what he was doing i was like you know it doesn't really sound like it's my up my alley because you know i don't know if i just want to you know it sounds kind of gimmicky you know i didn't really know much about it but then when i met with scott and he was still like no i wanted to be you i wanted to feel like it totally is you then i was i felt comfortable like he wanted it to really reflect every single singer differently which is awesome and so you know they're very collaborative people all the time ask me they think that's my band you know they think that that's who i travel with and it's just a collective of people that changes every single gig every single video it's a few of the same faces reappear but you know i haven't toured with them in six years um so it's always an ever-changing group collective of musicians which is really cool but um yeah so i'm so glad people find me there and enjoy them and i mean it's i i like to refer to different things like a gateway drug you know [Laughter] certain music is a gateway drug to other music and i hope if there's anything that you like in any of those videos that you go back to the source material you know i mean that's what i always love to do and um and how deeply we can there's just so much great music to hear in all of those genres that are represented yes 100 that's awesome so we'll ah before we totally wrap up yes tell people how they can find you how they can find your music how they can support you where they can buy your albums all of this good stuff and if there's anything else you want to plug and now is the time to do it okay yes of course well you can find me on my um eunice come here come here oh my dogs my dogs take this opportunity to like wreak havoc on the office um you can find me on my website morganjamesonline.com you can find me on my social media facebook morgan james online um my instagram is morgan a james my youtube channel is morgan james online um i'm on all streaming and all of that you can buy all my physical merch on my website um where else can you oh patreon i have a patreon morgan james online i love love my patrons they make my projects possible um where else um if you're interested in the in seeing a voice lesson of mine um my teacher derek who i spoke about has a new platform called vocal power presents and he's basically doing these incredible full lesson multi-cam experiences that you can tune in either to a live lesson or watch one that's been edited with interviews and he does all these seminars on vocal health and everything so cool i have if you're interested in vocal technique and health i highly recommend it it's really really cool so i'm featured on that platform as well so i'm i'm i'm too many places in fact i'm gonna check out that lesson i'm excited yes it's awesome it's awesome yeah really awesome well thank you so so very much this was so fun thank you for having me and thank you for the wonderful tea and the wonderful conversation you're welcome and uh and i'm sure we're gonna see much more of your uh your performances on the channel too so thank you again for being so inspiring and for talking with us you're just a really wonderful person oh thank you thank you so much it's it's been a real treat thanks well i guess that wraps us up bye everybody hey bye everybody [Music]

Channel: The Charismatic Voice

Views: 84,451

Keywords: Vocal Coach Interview, Morgan James Reaction, Morgan James analysis, Morgan James Interview, Vocal Coach Morgan James, Opera Singer Morgan James, Morgan James Opera Interview, Reaction Video, Morgan James reaction video, Morgan james interview reaction, Opera singer reacts, Morgan james reacts, Morgan James opera reaction video, Morgan James interview Elizabeth, The charismatic voice, Reaction, Analysis, Morgan james analysis, interview

Id: nN0qGliHglY

Length: 72min 42sec (4362 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021