On Kevin Morby’s shoulders, there are decades of american musical legacy. The child prodigy from Texas, often compared to Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen, delivers with his third album more intimisitc and captivating songs. It’s this album that he came to defend on La Route du Rock’s stage last august, and we had the chance to ask him a few questions after his show. We talked about the weight of his influences, about his relation with the festival or even his previous projects.
You’ll been playing your third album tonight, Singing Saw. Was there something different in your writing process this time? I’ve heard that you moved from New York to LA.
Yeah, I wrote it there and many by myself. Usually, I write with other people or with my band, but this one I wrote by myself and then took it to a producer and he helped me bring it to life. Cause I feel when you write with other people, you have to like structure more, but because I wrote it on my own, it was way more loose. In a way that I’m happy with the outcome.
So, the guys you are playing with are the guys you usually compose with?
Yeah, like Justin the drummer. The first two records we kind of did together, or like the producer my friend Rob, who produced the first two albums. He was around for the songwriting so he kind of helped structure it but this one I just wrote it all so there are verses that are really long and I got a lot of more free with it.
Your music – we can say it’s folk in a way – has a huge history in the USA, do you find it hard to be innovative with such a big legacy nowadays?
No, because so many people do it pretty comfortably, that’s just like getting into cooking or something. Because it’s been done so many times, you try to make it you own but also pay like hommage to the ones that came before you if that makes sense. I feel like as long as I’m putting myself into it, like putting my sort of own character into it, it will have it’s own twist, so it’s ok.
Speaking about legacy, you’ve been compared a lot to other artists. You’ve probably heard names like Bob Dylan, would you agree with this, or do you have other artists that you feel close to, not especially in music, but maybe in litterature or cinema ?
Sure, I’m very inspired by Arthur James Baldwin, he’s my favorite author. And then I’m very inspired by other musicians like Leonard Cohen and Nina Simon. I’d said them and Bob Dylan are my biggest influences.
Photo : Jean Sylvian Le Gouic
You used to play in Woods, and you used to play in The Babies, how did you manage to write in three different projects ? Isn’t it like schizophrenic or something?
Kind of, but because when I quit those band, I started doing more solo stuff, it become more coton dry like what was what. But in the babies, because I was writing with other people and it was collaborative, it made it sort of it own thing so I would do stuff there that I never do on my own. So if I wrote a song at home, it kind of became clear like « Oh, this might fit better with the babies, and this one, I don’t know how the babies would do this song so that’s my own ».
Are you missing the Babies period in a way?
Not really, I mean I feel like I’m gonna have another record that sound more similar to the Babies stuff with this project, and I don’t know, I do miss it a bit, but things change, and you have to do other stuff to keep it interesting.
You’ve been playing at la route du rock d’hiver, in Paris for La Route du Rock Booking, and you’re part of their roster, do you have a special connection with the festival and it’s team?
I really like them, I like Marin and Pierre, Alban and Maxime. I met them with Woods and The babies, we became friends. So when I started putting out solo albums I just naturally started to deal with them, and now I feel like they’re old friends.
If you could decide a line-up festival with all the artists you’d like, what would it be?
Well, the best thing about playing in a festival is when your friends are playing in the same, that’s really fun. For exemple, I was in Pickathon in Oregon, and a lot of my friends were there and it was really fun. I love Thee Oh Sees, so they would be playing, and I’m also friend with Kyle from King Tuff. It will just be a bunch of people that I like. This is a tuff one. Oh, and Jonathan Richman would play ! And it’s funny because I just played in a festival where he did play too .. Woods would play in my ideal fest. Just Friends you know. It would be like a good party.