We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James Morse a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

James, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I worked on an album a few years ago with producer-engineer-audio wiz, Damon Moon, in Decatur. I had just graduated college, was engaged, and was working for an Architect. Needless to say, a lot was happening in my life, so I was trying to process everything, but it felt a bit crazy and surreal, like living in a collage. It was the first time that I had made a studio album in person, which gave me a totally new perspective on music production.

Before this, I had the good fortune of working collaboratively with Chris DuPont on my first release, The Desert, in 2015-2016. Chris is another brilliant songwriter and producer from Ypsilanti, Michigan. He’s a truly remarkable songwriter and helped me so much along the way.

Like Chris, Damon enabled me to see what was possible with the music I was creating. The result of a few years of writing and then tracking, arranging, mixing, and mastering is what became my album, Young. Young was an ambitious project that tried to convey a sense of artistic discovery while allowing the space to fail and be vulnerable in the face of deconstructed value systems, beliefs, and religious truths. I tried to involve a diverse array of sounds and textures including the tape recordings of a Space Echo machine, piloted by Damon himself, and even a chance recording of a radio transmission through my guitar pickups while tracking at my friend Scotty’s house in Home Park. I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the other incredibly talented artists and musicians who helped contribute to the album, namely Paul Stevens on percussion, Joe Crabb on trumpet, Ben Kinzer on cello, and my wife Sydney with vocals. For live performances, Will Derr, Paul, Scotty, Sydney and my friends Toma and Adrien helped to make what I hoped for in a full-band show setting.

I’m really thankful for all these people, and I couldn’t be where I am without them. They have supported me, mentored me, listened to my insights and nonsense, walked with me, and shared meals with me. I call them friends, and they are artists in their own right. In a word, I think Young is a luminous “thanks” to them.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I started out as a musician and visual artist from the simple desire to make beautiful things. I found meaning in painting with sounds and words as well as found objects and other media. I think the best way to describe my approach to art is through collage methodology, which involves taking a huge amount of diverse ideas and fragments of cultural artifacts and somehow making something coherent out of the mess. It often happens that the most seemingly unrelated things when placed next to one another provide the most opportunity for growth and epiphany. Through this process, which is so integral to my artistic voice, I’ve become a practicing songwriter, music producer, engineer, poet, visual artist, art educator, and architect. I started a very small record label and studio called OfMosaics. You can check it out at the links below.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

If I had to define my goal as a creative person, it would be something about deriving meaning out of paradox. The fact that we encounter so many contradictory ideas and experiences as human beings is an existential fact, but I believe it’s how we respond and decide to move forward that matters the most. I think the life of creativity is very difficult in some ways because it can feel very isolating at times, but it’s in these moments that I have the opportunity to recognize my place in the world as someone who can make things that transcend words and even feelings while simultaneously using those words and feelings to draw listeners and viewers into a deeper thread of truth. It sounds complicated, but in practice, it’s really just about the work, the crafting of well-made things, which is what every good artist tries to do. I hope that I can contribute in some small way to that tradition.

What do you find most rewarding about being creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is narrowing in on an intentional idea and conveying that in a way that resonates with others. It’s one thing to be intentional, but it carries new meaning when those acts of intention find new life in the minds and hearts of those around me.

Contact Info:

• Website: ofmosaicstudios.art
• Instagram: @james.of.mosaics
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamesmorsemusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-morse-3558ab11a/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjnIArg6h6tWDTT_e8sbTIg

Image Credits
Portraits by Nicole Sandercock, Nicole Sandercock Photography, album art by James Morse and Sydney Morse