Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb C-mo Morris

Hi Caleb C-mo, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

My journey into music has been a fairly lengthy one, it began about three, almost four years ago with poetry. When I write poems, they often come to me while listening to music. In 2023, I moved back to Washington from LA after trying out a new place for one year. When I returned, I got invited to play volleyball, and this chance invitation is pretty foundational in hindsight. I met a whole group of new friends and some of them made music. Looking back, about five or six of the people there make music now. One of them, Chivan Lim, had a show coming up which he invited me to. This show was the 2023 South Sound Block Party, and was my reintroduction to Winehouse (the band). He told me about the after party, and this is the part where I became super inspired to get into music.

Later that night, folks began to start getting into karaoke. I really didn’t have many songs that I would sing karaoke to at the time, so I was like maybe I’ll do it. That is until I heard my now homegirl Marina Wingender sing the little mermaid… You could have told me they were playing The Little Mermaid soundtrack and I would have believed it. This was the initial moment when I was like “Oh my goodness, people are actually great at karaoke??” Then she was preceded by another homegirl of mine, Sarah Burke, and quite a few others who joined her for karaoke singing Hamilton soundtracks. They all sounded incredible and I was further taken aback by the number of people around me who had such incredible singing capabilities. I also didn’t know much about Hamilton and was struck by how many people could sing the songs from start to finish…

After this party, it was a bit of a wakeup call for me. I knew I had certain songs I sounded better on, but it was the first time I started truly critiquing my voice as I sang. This is a part where it is worth mentioning that when i lived in LA, I met a homie of mine named Alander Pulliam. He taught me small things about how to sing, and I heeded them, but at this moment in time, I used the wisdom to help me delve into my voice. I would listen to wider ranges of music, singing in different ways or voices, trying to figure out how to improve my voice. I can confidently say that my voice went from something I would never brag about, to something I can humbly say I enjoy.

I’m fastforwarding through quite a bit, but Chivan wanted to do a rap for his birthday party in April 2024. I had never done a song before, but rapping is only another element of poetry, so I knew writing verses would be easy for me. We performed the song at Rhythms Coffee in Olympia (https://youtu.be/oIDLQPhL4xE), and truthfully that was the beginning of my music career. Following that, I found a jazzy rap beat that I liked off of youtube called ‘Sunshine’ by Raias Beats. I purchased the beat, and my homie Joshua Hill helped me bring it to life. The rest as we say, is history.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

It has been a fairly smooth road for me. I am and have been surrounded by so much talent, knowledge, and support. I mentioned a few names already, but there are so many more that I didn’t include. I say it is smooth because when you think about the entire music process and the journey of getting a song out there, I always had someone around me that I could go to for support and to get questions answered.

From the beginning, I always had a homie who made beats in Josh. I grew up listening to rap, so that came easy. When it came to wanting to put out the music, my homegirl Dannirose guided me a lot on that process. When it came to learning about other people’s experiences, Chivan and Aiden Taylor were able to share their journey with me. When I wanted to improve my singing, I had Sarah’s guidance. When I needed media, my homegirl Laura helped me with photos; As did another friend of mine, Heather Stokes. I have a new song coming out – Honey Leaves – and it was another homegirl who made the cover, Jaycee Day.

There has been so much overwhelming support that I can’t help but appreciate the community that has rallied for me when needed. This isn’t to say I haven’t faced challenges, but when you have as much support as I have had, the successes weigh heavier in your mind. So shoutout to all my homies and homegirls who made this journey possible <3

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

This is more relative to school than work. I go to school at Pierce College where I am studying emergency management. I learn plenty about natural hazards such as wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, extratropical cyclones, etc… all of which can occur in Washington State by the way ;) I have always had a passion for helping others and being prepared. I know in a career field like this where you are often explicitly helping your community, I would receive much fulfillment from it. Some of the aspects I plan to bring to the field are to intersect more with arts and languages.

I think if we want to use every medium we can to teach people about the hazards in our communities, we need to branch out from traditional means. I want to make more poems and songs about emergency preparedness. I always explain this to people like, “If I’m experiencing an earthquake and I’m panicking, unable to think, being able to recite lyrics that tell me what to do may save my life.” I also value languages a lot, so I want to make music and poetry in every language I learn!

A few things I’m proud of at school are the community I have found there, the support I can draw on, and I made it to an honor society (shoutout Epsilon Pi Phi).

The “What are you known for” part threw me off a little. Because I think so many people may know me from different things haha! I have a lot of hobbies and passions. I’m just passionate about life :P

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?

Apps: I’m going to expose myself on this question lol, but that’s something I’ll simply have to endure haha. Apps I use a lot are YouTube, Canvas (I’m a student, it’s expected), mail (I love checking my emails), and Spotify (music and podcasts). I used to be on social media a lot, specifically Instagram, but I deleted my socials and only check them periodically. (Peace of mind > piece of mind).

Podcasts: I listen to a plethora of podcasts. I follow a lot of them and I rarely have time to listen to them all, but I usually just press play on the top one and it will go through all the neat podcasts I follow. Some of the ones I listen to are Seattle Now (gotta know what’s happening around me), Self Improvement Daily (I learn a lot of small things about ways to improve my life, and they’re usually about 3 minutes or so), Brainy Dose Podcast, Global News Podcast (I’m curious about what happens in the world), Smart Money Happy Hour (Rachel and George are entertaining), What Now? with Trevor Noah (I have always loved listening to him since the Daily Show), and No Hay Tos (I learned a bit of Spanish through them). I am not going to bore everybody, but this is less than half the list!

Books: I love to read as well. One of my sisters and I have a book club (It’s just us two, I don’t think we’re accepting requests to join). But this year about the end of April I submitted to reading the ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas and I can shamelessly say I thoroughly enjoyed the books. I’d say I read them all in probably a few months. After that, my sister and I moved on to the Crescent City series, which I have been enjoying a lot as well!! (If you’re going to read the series, you have to read them in that order). We’re approaching the end of the books as they’re still being written, but I am open to suggestions as well! I do read non-fiction too, but I grew up reading the Percy Jackson series, Series of Unfortunate Events, there was an Egyptian mythology series book I can’t recall. Nonetheless, I love fiction stories and powers and things of that nature. If you have book recs for me, I will likely check them out :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.calebamorris.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calebamorris
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/caleb-cmo-morris
• Twitter: https://x.com/calebcmomorris
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cmo4thepeople/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/calebamorris
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@calebamorris

Image Credits

Heather Stokes (the main photo (Personal Photo), photos in the orange shirt, photos in the gray shirt)

Laura Ogren (Photo with the blue skies in the background, photo with the roses in the background)