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Photo by Phoenix Johnson

One of my favorite things about interviewing rising artists is the close knit community they all have with each other, and the inspiration they find from each other. When I interviewed Morning Silk, the project of producer Frank Corr, he gave lots of shoutouts to his friends that he had worked with, and how they inspired when creating his new EP Have A Nice Life. In addition to his inspirations, we chatted about friendship break ups, baritone guitar, and 90s rom-coms. 

Ones to Watch: Who is Morning Silk?

Morning Silk: That is me. It’s my project and I started it six years ago. I was writing songs for a while as a side project and recorded myself. It was this weird moment during Covid where I had time to make music. I was producing a lot of music out of my studio and I built this studio when I moved to New York. This dude on TikTok found me, his name’s Richie, and he asked me to produce his record for him, so then I started producing more. That took up a lot of my time because then I started touring with him. In between tours and working on other people’s stuff I would go back to the project and write some songs, finish them, mix them slowly. I started putting out music and the shift now has gone completely in the artist direction. It’s been really nice to explore what else the project means to me. It was a way of showing people what I was capable of as a producer but now I really feel like I have something to say so it’s kind of fun. 

COVID was so interesting, obviously a lot of awful things happened during that time, but it also created a lot of different paths for people that they didn't expect to be on.

It totally changed my life. I was working in architectural design and then I was a part time architectural designer and also a producer and now I’m freelance architectural design and it’s slowly going more towards making music. 

On this EP we hear a sound inspired by NYC indie rock, is there anyone in particular that inspired the sound on this EP?

Yeah! When I was producing these other artists in the New York world, this was probably around 2022, I would work with artists like Anna Shoemaker, she was like “I like what you’ve done with Richie. I want to make something really rock and powerful.” We produced a song, my friend and I, we produced a song for her called “I Think I.” The drum sound was live drums. Anna’s such a talented, beautiful writer, and the song had these like two lives to it where it was beautiful, but also driving and rock. I had a lot of fun doing that and I was like “What if I made something like this?” The other artist that was a really big inspiration for this record was my friend Andy. He has a project called Middle Part. It’s super 2000s, specifically I’ve been saying, not full pop punk, but has elements of that very Y2K rock sound. Working on music with him made me realize that I would write some songs for his project and I’d be like “Wait, I should just keep this one for myself.” Then I was like “How do I make this my own?” I added a lot of synths, I’m a big synths person. Andy was a big inspiration for the album and I loved working with him and his sound, but still trying to do indie rock in my way. It was big drums, a lot of synths, and then I got a baritone guitar from this place called Richie’s Guitar Shop in the East Village. That changed the way I think about writing because it’s so low. But yeah, those two artists in particular, since I was working on their projects at the time, made me think about what I would do if I were making a record like they were making. 

I’ve never heard of a baritone guitar, that’s sick.

Yeah, it’s tuned to like B, so it’s five steps down from a normal guitar. I feel like The Cure uses it a lot. I love The Cure, they were a huge influence on this record in a way. 

I’m so glad you brought up The Cure because I was going to ask you about “8 hours.” On TikTok you wrote that it was inspired by The Cure and The Cranberries, are there any other non NYC indie rock artists that inspired sounds on this EP?

For “8 hours” I wrote this little guitar thing and the melody that came to mind made me think of Dolores O’Riordan who is an incredible melody writer. I just love Irish bands and the sound that they have so it was cool to think about if I was Dolores what would I be writing as a melody. The verse is super The Cure. I tried to imagine what Robert Smith would sing. He’s a huge, big hero of mine. I love Voonderbar, I love that band a lot. I feel like they’ve always inspired this playful element of music. Like does it always have to be so serious? I’ve taken a page out of that with this EP. Have a little fun, be a little sassy, explore humor. 

You said this song started on guitar, is that where most of your songs start or does it vary?

For this record every song started on guitar except for “Truth or Dare” that started with synths and a bassline. I tried to strip everything back and serve one element of the song. But usually guitar or synths. 

Sticking with “8 hours” for a second, it has this really cute, kind of rom-com music video. How did that come together?

I had this vision for the song. I was really inspired by Luca Guadagnino, specifically his movie I am Love. He has this editing technique where in the middle of the movie he’ll share a visual tone to describe a moment or an emotion. It’ll be these really fast, chopped up vignettes. A hand touching grass, and then a wineglass or something, and the sound design is very tactile. It doesn;t have to say too much, it just shows you a couple shots quickly and you get the idea of what that scene is about. I don’t know why that came to mind but in my head when I heard the build up to the song, I thought it’d be cool to edit something like Luca Guadagnino with the vignettes, creating a visual poem with little information. I thought about how the rhythm relates to how you think about daydreaming. The song really addresses the feeling of yearning and yearning to find some sort of escapist way out of your everyday life. I came up with this concept of this guy at work who is imagining his life taking off and running away. It’s this hopeful sound and I wanted to create some sort of narrative that might explore that and for some reason I thought of a guy working in a small town grocery store trying to imagine running away and having this life. The director is Matt Vega, he’s really talented. He did a video for Middle Part which is how I found him. He did an amazing job. I was in Paris at the time writing a record but he took care of everything. I think the song for me was about getting eight hours of sleep, which is not something I ever get to do but the longing of finding somebody to have that healthy lifestyle with because life is chaos. And there’s this 90s, 2000s cuteness to it which I think is kind of sweet and funny. 

Are you a rom-com guy? Are you going back to those 90s and 2000s rom coms?

I always watch them because I was in a really long relationship for a while and my girlfriend would be like “Let’s watch a rom com!” and then I would get really into it. When Harry Met Sally is a classic. 

You mentioned that in this EP you started writing about other people and described it as a chance to finish an unfinished conversation. Is there a song in particular that gave you closure to an unfinished conversation?

Yes. “I’m not sorry” is the song. Everyone thinks it’s about a romantic partnership but it’s not, it’s about a friend that was in my life. We decided that it was better to go our separate ways. I was really hurt by it at first because I had never really lost anybody in my life. I made this song as a bit of a sassy way of saying “Okay, go.” And maybe I’m not an asshole, I’m just stupid, maybe I just missed the point but I’m not going to apologize for something I don't think is wrong, maybe we just disagree. I like the line “I’m just stupid but I’m not sorry.” Maybe I just didn't know how I came off but also I don’t want to be apologetic because I stand for my principles. 

Yeah friendship breakups are weird because you think they’ll be your friend forever and then they aren’t. 

Right. And it’s okay, they moved away to a different state. It’s just hard because I didn’t think I was being crazy. 

You have a song called “Truth or Dare” are you more of a truth guy or a dare guy?

I’m becoming a truth guy. I used to be more of a dare guy but through recent events I’m becoming a truth guy. That song is fun because it’s all about the feeling of not really being able to read a situation. 

In addition to Morning Silk, you’re also a producer. How did this come into play, if at all, while making this EP?

When I was writing these songs there was a bit of a scene that we had, where we would all write on each other's records. My friend Richie Quake, Middle Part, this named Deviated James, project called Bayfaction, and Anna Shoemaker. They’re all so talented so as I was working on their projects as a producer they were inspiring me to become a stronger right and maybe change the sound a little. I was writing rock songs for other people and had this moment of why don’t I do this for myself. On “Truth or Dare” I invited my friends to come write on it a little bit and that's the only song that is collaborative-ish, and just on the lyrics, I write all my own melodies and do my own production. I allowed them to come in and help me flush out a couple things and I loved doing that. I think it’s a great track and it’s nice to have your friends be like “This is cool! You should try this idea here.” I feel like that was the song that reflected that time period where we were all with each other. Now we’re a bit more independent but at the time we were all working together and trying to elevate each other's work. 

You mentioned that you were in Paris working on an album. Is there another city/country that you’d love to write in?

It’s quite cheesy but I’d say Italy or Mexico City. They’re beautiful places and I’ve been to both many times. When I’m in Mexico it’s usually for the architecture stuff but I always have such a wonderful time in this neighborhood called Condesa, they have great food and it’s a beautiful neighborhood. I think it really helps me to get out of New York and reflect on what happened there. Paris was amazing for that. It was the only time in my life where I was able to afford two months off work and just work on music. It was like “Oh my God I can’t believe I got this opportunity, imagine if I had this once a year.” That’s the dream. 

Who are your Ones to Watch?

That’s such a good question. I’d say Sexweek. Richard Orofino, he’s half the band but he also has his own project and I think he’s amazing. Everyone I mentioned so far, Richie, Andy, Anna Shoemaker. I’m really into this band called Strawberry Lust. Also my roommate makes music, her project is called Scared. Dan English, I love his music. 

Listen to Have A Nice Life below: