We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lew Morris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lew below.

Lew , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Musician wise, at a very young age I was already starting to “write” music in the sense that I wasn’t just plunking away at any musical toys, I would work out a melody and be able to repeat it. When someone at a garage sale saw me doing it with a toy piano, he had my dad bring me inside to try playing on his small electric organ. Once he saw I had a natural knack for it, he gave it to me to take home. Shortly after that my dad put me in piano lessons. I was younger than the teacher normally took but when my dad had me play something on her piano, she decided to take me in. After my first opportunity to play something I wrote in front of people, I got hooked.

Movie wise, I was already thinking in terms of “shots,” when I would set up scenes. As a child I knew that the stuff I saw wasn’t happening, I knew it was made up. I would set up my toys in a scene or rig scenes with fireworks and take pictures. I remember seeing behind the scenes stuff and knowing I wanted to be part of all that. I started teaching myself special fx makeup and learning how to build things for shots. The acting thing hit when I started getting chosen for lead roles in school plays and such. Sadly, I went to a small school that didn’t have much in the way of arts programs so I had to wait to be able to work more in that direction.

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 back background and context?

Well, the popular thing a lot of people like to say when anyone else asks what I do is, “everything.” I like being creative in any way I can but I love performing music and acting the most. I am a member of two working, original bands in the Dallas/Ft Worth area: Coilback and Love Sick Drug. Coilback is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. I perform lead vocals and rhythm guitar in that band and with Love Sick Drug I play guitar and do some of the backing vocals. I do quite of a bit of song writing in both bands. In Coilback I write a lot of the music and lyrics while in Love Sick Drug I contribute some of the music and most of the lyrics. Both bands are full original bands that record and perform regularly. I’ve played as a “hired gun” with a few other bands and musicians around here as well.

Movie wise, I do quite a bit of special effects, production design and acting in a number of indie films (mostly). I was a professionally licensed pyrotechnician for thirteen years but moved out from that to get more involved in the other aspects of film and less involved in live stage work. I have been working in some aspect of performance entertainment for a couple of decades now, from being a stage hand with IATSE, being a freelance special fx artist (working with studios like AMS Pictures), or even doing some directing.

I also do a fair bit of graphic design for both the movies and music. One day I might be designing some graphics for some props and the next making a new merch design for the bands. I try to help others in the movie and music scene as much as I can. Obviously it’s easy to get exploited in this industry so I try to help those who appreciate and respect what I do while distancing myself from those who don’t. It’s important to not let people chew you up and spit you out in this industry. Your reputation is what gets you the work and if they want to mess with that, it’s time to cut ties.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think the biggest problem when it comes to the general public is the fact they don’t value a lot of us in the creative industry. The sad part is, so many don’t value themselves either. So many original bands (and actors) these days will allow people to exploit them, play for free all the time, or even worse, pay to play. I get when you first start off that you need to get your foot in the door, but at a certain point, you need to be able to have whatever it is you do sustain itself and eventually thrive. It’s not hard to throw money at anything you want to do, it’s harder to do it on your own merits. It happens with indie movies as well. Some people pay to be a part of the production. While I do completely understand it’s a good way for producers and directors to fund their projects, so many of the “pay to play,” people don’t ever try to get better and the people making the project let their project suffer because they are too afraid to “make the money mad,” by actually training them to be better at what they do or put them in a position that reflects their strengths. At that point, no one wins.

There’s always going to be a little bit of give and take when it comes to money vs merit since projects need to be funded but those working in these projects should try to help train these people or at least work with their weaknesses and strengths to deliver the best product.

One of the biggest issues in the Dallas/Ft Worth area we are dealing with lately is the lack of support for original music. Everyone wants to hear tribute bands but no one seeks out those who write their own music. I hear the same excuses all the time, “I want to hear something familiar,” “all the new music is horrible now.” It’s not familiar because you haven’t bothered to try and listen. There’s no excuses these days. With a simple search you can find tons of bands to listen to from your area and see what you like. Take a look at the bands that are out there and search for them on Spotify, YouTube, etc. Listen to them as you would anything else you might have heard on radio back in the day. If you used to listen to local originals, get out of the music you keep harping about that came out 20 years ago and try to maybe listen to someone new. I have yet to see anyone who complains about “new music,” from around here that has tried to seek out anything in the last ten to twenty years.

Ultimately, think about how much of a role creatives in the music and film industry are part of your life. How many of you NEVER listen to music, never watch a TV show or movie, never read a book? Like it or not, it would be a very sad world without all that but it’s constantly taken for granted. The more that creative people are shown that they aren’t valued, the less you’ll start seeing. If we can’t pay our bills with our creative work, then we have to work other jobs which means less time to write new songs, paint new art, shoot new movies, etc. At some point all you’ll be left with is formulaic sterile art, music and movies that are just manufactured by corporations. Take the extra time to not only appreciate creatives but support them. It’s free to share their posts on social media, it takes very little time to take a listen or take some time to watch their work. Support them FINANCIALLY by buying directly from them or helping fund their projects. Don’t ask for freebies, don’t ask to be on the guest list, don’t just listen on streaming. If anyone has a creative friend and they ask for free stuff or favors, that’s one of the biggest signs of disrespect. You wouldn’t go into their workplace asking for free labor or product.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I can’t speak for everyone, but for me personally, my goal is to create something that will exist and last beyond me. I hope that some of what I do helps in some way. That can be someone just watching something filmed I have worked on that will provide some much needed distraction from the harshness of the outside world, or maybe a song I have written that helps someone get thru a tough time. Overall, it’s a way to maybe take a little bit of what’s in my head and get it out there to everyone else. Ultimately, I would love to do nothing but work on movies and music and know that will pay the bills. I have so many things I could create for the world, but the reality these days is it’s tough to make a living doing nothing but that. I do work on other creative things to help pay the bills but if I could just do nothing but those things, I think I could really put something special out there.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lewmorris
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coilbacklew
• Twitter: @lewmorris
• Other: Love Sick Drug can be found on Instagram @lovesickdrugband and Coilback can be found @coilbackband

Image Credits

Tommy Rosas
Thomas E Moore
Jim Wright
Cindy Keith
Erin Marie Garrett
Jenn Stone
Alexis Buell-Banfield