Singer living his dream
Morrow Larsen performs on stage. Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Morrow Larsen hopes to waken a sleeping world with his music. The talented teen singer produced his own album and is already making new music.
Morrow, 17, of Utah said his style isn’t easily pinned down to a style.
“I like to describe it as kind of unique,” he said. “It's like pop music, but it always has a twist. I never like making just basic pop music, so I always throw something in to make it unique and try to make it different from what's already out there.”
Morrow’s latest song fits that pattern.
“My most recent release is a single I called Sleeping World,” he said. “I don't even know what genre most people would call it, but it has a jazzy vibe with pop and even some soul.”
Morrow’s album, The Dream Collection, was released on April 17. The musician still was 16 when he produced the album.
“I released three singles before the album as teasers to get people excited for it,” he said.
When I’m Dreaming debuted February 21, Dreams on March 8 and The Diamond in the Rough on April 3. Morrow said the songs on his album are thematically connected.
“They all fit together,” he said. “All the songs are about being in different kinds of relationships, some really good and some more toxic. For example, That’s Not Me is about being in love with someone with addiction problems. Wrong Or Right is about being in a manipulative and controlling relationship. Then others like Kissing The Air are just about how much you love someone, so they’re not all sad.”
Morrow ensured the music wasn’t predictable.
“They all are more basic pop, but they all have a twist on them,” he said. “When I was writing Dreams, I loved the chorus but I didn’t want it to get too repetitive. So for the last chorus, I decided to do a key change to really bring the energy up for the end of the song. Wrong Or Right is all a twist because it’s so different from the rest of my songs but still fits well on the album. This song was originally more similar to the other songs on the album, but I decided I wanted it to sound more like early 2000s pop. I switched up a few things and think it turned out really well.”
Morrow described his creative process.
“I always start with an idea or a feeling,” he said. “From that, I'll start with some instruments like a chord progression, usually on piano, and then I'll just change that. I'll switch it from piano to guitar, or I'll switch it to some other instrument. And then I'll just build off of that. I build a song off of the feeling or the idea that I had. After all that, that's when I start writing lyrics. I try to be really good at delivering the feeling with just the music and then following up with the lyrics.”
Morrow takes inspiration for his songwriting from reality and fiction.
“Sometimes, it's things that happen to me,” he said. “Sometimes, it's things I've seen on TV shows or just stories I've heard, but it's really anything.”
As with many musicians, Morrow occasionally sings about past relationships.
“I never say anybody's name,” he said. “They might know that this song's about them, but nobody else does. And I like to keep it that way.”
Morrow can surprise himself with how a song develops.
“I wrote a song recently that was like that,” he said. “I wanted to write a song about my childhood because I feel like a childhood leaving you or growing up, it's something everyone can relate with. When I was writing the song, I kept surprising myself. I started with just a chord progression, but then I don't know where I decided to add a second chord progression. It's just like an extra long one, but all fit together really well. And then I added a bass line that was like something I'd never really done before. I just kept surprising myself every time I'd add an instrument and it's all come together pretty well.”
Morrow initially was prone to writing melancholy music.
“When I started writing music, it was all sad stuff,” he said. “I couldn't even write a happy song if I tried. I started to realize that people like sad songs, but in the long run, people are going to want to hear happy songs and songs that make them happy. I've definitely worked on trying to make happier songs and I think I've done a good job.”
Morrow, who just completed his junior year, has to balance his music with high school.
“I can only perform weekends and on spring break and stuff,” he said. “But during the summer, I can perform every week, every other week.”
Morrow takes care of his most valuable commodity: the voice.
“What I usually do is before a show, I'll try to do very minimal talking as little as I can for those two or three days,” he said. “Then the day of the show, I try to not talk at all until an hour or two before the show. That's when I start warming up my voice, so I don't have an injury when I'm trying to sing. After a show, I just drink lots of water, so my throat doesn't give out.”
Morrow is in the process of building a band.
“I'm getting backup singers and teaching them my songs so that if I get tired or can't sing anymore, they can take over along with the bass,” he said.
Morrow plays a variety of instruments in addition to the bass.
“I play a little bit of everything,” he said. “I'm getting into guitar. I played piano for a year, but I'm not too good. I'm trying to get into drums.”
Morrow plans to record and perform this year.
“This summer, I want to start playing lots of shows,” he said. “I've put together a live set, a live set list of songs I think the crowd would like. I've tried to make ups and downs in the shows, do a hype song or two and then chill it out for a little bit and then bring it bring back the hype. I've worked on perfecting my set list and now that I have it, I'm getting a band together and contacting venues around here and just trying to play lots of shows. I also have another album that is hopefully coming later. This year or next year. Nothing's solid on it yet. And then I have a summer EP that is pretty close to being ready to release. Besides that, I just let whatever happens guide my journey, so I don't really plan out too far ahead.”
Morrow is mulling over what theme the new album will have.
“I had the cool idea for this song,” he said. “I call it Rocket Ship. The idea of the song is that it's a rocket ship, and the rocket ship's your childhood. It's just like watching the rocket ship fly away, because a rocket ship is something that also little kids like and think is cool. So watching that fly away, signifies growing up. I thought that was a really cool idea. So I wanted to make a whole album off the idea of childhood going away and growing up and wanting to go back.”
The sky’s the limit for Morrow.
“I definitely want to go as far as I can and at least make a living doing music because it's what I love,” he said. “Everybody wants to do what they love.”
Morrow performs with Chase Chipping and Megan Cazier.
Morrow wouldn’t fret about the drawbacks of being famous.
“I could get security like they all do,” he said. “All I really go is just rehearsals and friends’ houses, so I don't think I would have as much of a problem with switching up my lifestyle or just keeping my lifestyle the same.”
Morrow’s long-range plans include not just performing music, but teaching it as well.
“I'm part of this music program called Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse,” he said. “It's a national music school, and it's won all kinds of awards. I've been doing it for four years now as a bass player. This is my first year actually singing for them, but I've won a DownBeat award with them in three individual awards. After I graduate, I want to hopefully become a producer and help teach other kids how to perform and play music at the music school.”
As a child, Morrow was drawn to another style of music.
“I was really into country when I was really little because that's what my dad listened to,” he said. “But as I grew up, I stopped liking it. But my first favorite song was probably that Country Girl (Shake It For Me).”
Morrow first performed for the Soundhouse.
“They set up all kinds of shows for you,” he said. “My first performance was at their venue. I was just playing bass, but I remember the crowd was really into it and there were a lot of people there. It was a really fun experience. Ever since then, I got addicted to the performing and loved music and loved seeing the crowd’s reaction. My first time singing live, I actually was rapping the Feel Good Inc. The crowd loved that. They sang it with me. Just hearing the crowd sing the songs with me, ever since then, I want to see a crowd singing my songs back to me. That's where I'm trying to get right now.”
Morrow was just hitting his teen years when he first played bass on stage.
“I was either 12 or 13, so I was really young,” he said.
A couple of years later, Morrow sang on stage.
“When I first sang, I was 15,” he said.
Morrow’s music career wasn’t a long-range goal initially.
“I never really wanted to get into music,” he said. “But one day, my friend came to me and said that he wanted to start playing bass. He wanted to start taking lessons, but he didn't want to do it alone. I was like, okay, whatever, I'll do it with you. No big deal. After taking a couple lessons, I just started loving it. I wanted to learn all these new things on bass. Then I joined the music school. After playing in a band, I just thought that was so fun. It just kept building off of itself until I became a singer.”
Once Morrow started performing, it didn’t take too long for him to realize his passion.
“It took me two or three performances,” he said. “Just that first one, I loved performing, but I don't think that I knew that it was performing that I loved. I just thought it was the crowd gave me adrenaline. I didn't think it was the actual performing that I loved. But after two or three performances, I realized that's what I loved.”
Morrow savors the feedback from a live audience.
“The adrenaline you get just from seeing the crowd and then hearing them cheer after you finish a song, it just brings you back to life if you're tired,” he said.
Morrow’s songs each have a different sound.
“That's actually something I work really hard on is not making two songs that sound the same,” he said.
Morrow already has dealt with haters.
“Doing with fans live? Not yet,” he said. “But I have had a few people — I don't think any of them were really serious — but I have had a few people not straight up tell me, but hint at they wanted to hurt me or kill me. I used to rap, and I would say kind of offensive things in my songs, but I didn't think it was offensive. I thought it was just being funny, but some people got really offended by it and didn't like some of the stuff I was saying.”
The hate messsages directed at Morrow weren’t solely from social media.
“Social media or people that I actually knew turned against me and were texting me stuff,” he said. “I try to not make big deals out of stuff like that, because I understand people get upset, and they don't really think about what they're doing. I don't want to get them in huge trouble for one mistake.”
Morrow ran across a unique problem with one venue.
“I did have a venue say that they didn't want me to play there because I have to play with tracks,” he said. “I thought that was dumb because I just have lots of layers to my music and it's hard to find an instrumentalist for every single layer.”
“I have these ideas in my head of what I want the song to be. Just seeing it come to life and come together, it motivates me to keep going and keep making songs like that.”
Morrow stays motivated to complete his music.
“I have these ideas in my head of what I want the song to be,” he said. “Just seeing it come to life and come together, it motivates me to keep going and keep making songs like that.”
Morrow recognizes the effectiveness of employing social media as a marketing tool.
“It's definitely very helpful,” he said. “I haven't actually started using social media to promote my music very much until just recently when I realized how important it is and how big of an impact it can have. I don't really have lots of stuff out on social media yet, but I'm working on that.”
Morrow hasn’t had to deal with stage fright.
“I thought I was going to have stage fright the first time I got on stage playing bass,” he said. “And then the first time I had to sing in front of a crowd, I thought I'd have stage fright. But I had a very engaging crowd, so I guess I've had good experiences with it, and that's why I'm not scared of it.”
For Morrow, music is a way to process life, so there would be something vital missing in a person’s existence without it.
“Life would be very boring,” he said. “There would be lots of people like myself who were confused about a lot of emotions that they didn't know how to process. Music helps a lot with mental health and processing feelings that you don't really understand. It's funny that I got into music because a couple years ago, I didn't even care for it. I listened to music like everyone, but I just didn't think anything special of it. And now music is like my life, and I do it every day.”
Morrow said music is an effective method of expression.
“Music makes it easier to express myself,” he said. “I feel like I can also express myself through talking, but it's gotta be planned out. I always liked poetry, so if I had to express myself, it would be through a poem. I started with writing poems because I just loved it so much. I like the flow of poetry and the rhyming and everything. It just makes it easier to say what you're trying to say, and it makes it more fun to listen to.”
Morrow dispensed advice to aspiring performers.
“I would just want to warn them not all crowds are going to enjoy their music,” he said. “They're not going to make all crowds happy. They have to expect the worst but still have fun with all their performances. That by itself is a skill that you have to develop is just not focusing too much on if the crowd is upset or if the crowd doesn't enjoy your set, but just focusing on performing for you or the people in the crowd that are enjoying it.”
Morrow also offered insight for musicians wanting to produce their own albums.
“Since I loved writing music so much and making music so much, I thought it would just be really easy to produce an album and write it all myself,” he said. “But just like any project, it's a lot of work. It has ups and downs. There's gonna be days that you're gonna want to give up. There's gonna be things that happen that are going to make you want to give up, but you just have to keep going to get that end result, and then the end result is almost always worth it.”
Morrow’s website: https://morrowlarsen.com/
Morrow’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@morrowlarsen
Morrow’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morrowlarsenmusic/
Morrow’s music: https://linktr.ee/rowrowofficial