WR984: Claire Morrison

WITCHPOLICE RADIO: All right, welcome to Witchpolice Radio. One of the things I think regular listeners to the show know is that obviously the show is focused on Manitoba musicians, but there's also a category that I sort of like to call Manitoba-adjacent, and it's people who either have a connection to the province are from here. Maybe they moved away, maybe something else happened. It's often a way to sort of get to talk to more people than are just the ones in the music scene, because there's a lot going on. A lot of people from this part of the country have moved to other places and spread sort of Manitoba music out in different directions and I think that's sort of what we're dealing with here with the guest on this episode. So I think the best way to start this off is if you want to just introduce yourself and give a bit of background about what you do, and then we'll start talking about your new record. CLAIRE MORRISON: Sure. Sounds great. So my name is Claire Morrison. I'm a folk and sort of folk-adjacent singer, songwriter, and artist based in Montreal, but from Winnipeg originally and really started my career in Winnipeg, so played for a number of years there before moving to Montreal in 2013. And I also have a group that is based halfway between Montreal and Winnipeg called Fire and Smoke with Daniel Peloquin-Hopfner, who you may know. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: I do, yeah. He's been on the show before. CLAIRE MORRISON: Oh, there you go. Awesome. Yeah. Perfect. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: So you obviously have, you know, you have roots here and you have ties to here as well, so you fit. I mean, it's my show. I can pretty much interview whoever I want. CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, you can do what you want. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: I like to make it fit in the Manitoba category, but you definitely qualify. So, like you said, you moved to Montreal, and it's been more than a decade ago now. I guess, just to start off with, what are the differences in terms of the music scene that you've noticed, you know, being there compared to here? Because I'm so mired in Winnipeg and Manitoba music that anything outside of it is an alien universe to me. So what are the differences between the two scenes? CLAIRE MORRISON: Sure. I mean, one thing, actually, that I talk about quite a lot in, you know, being here, actually, and. And being asked that question from the other angle of, like, people here being like, oh, you know, what's. What was it like growing up in Winnipeg? What was it like starting your career there? And I often say that, you know, in so many ways, I was really lucky to start in Winnipeg just because it makes for a scene where you're so well supported, you know, both officially and sort of, like, socially, you know, from a community standpoint. But, you know, in Manitoba, we do, you know, we do have structures in place at Manitoba Music, like MFM, like Les 100 Nons, you know, that are not structures that are sort of, they don'texist in the same way here. So, you know, that's one really notable difference. I mean, I think it sort of speaks to the quality of the Winnipeg music scene, actually, that I made this record between the two cities, you know, because I didn't want to have to choose. But, you know, I mean, in Montreal, it's interesting. Like, you know, every city has its pros and cons. I think that what is so amazing here is just, you know, the sheer number of people who are making music. You know, a friend of mine, actually, who's also an artist from Belgium, he says that, like, what's amazing to him in Montreal every time is, you know, everyone you talk to is an artist. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure, sure. That's the thing. CLAIRE MORRISON: And I think. Yeah, and I think that that's true. Whether, you know, whether it's people who are working in music or they're working other disciplines, they're working in dance, they're working in visual art, they're working in cinema. Cinema is really big here. You know, there is just that sense of, like, everyone is, you know, is sort of contributing to the creative effort, sort of has that creative impulse. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Yeah, that's. That's a cool place. It's a cool environment to be in, for sure. Especially if you're creating yourself, you're going to be influenced, whether you mean to or not, by sort of being surrounded by all that. So I guess the reason we're talking today is because you have this new record and this came out -- at the time we're recording -- just a few days ago. I see you're calling your debut album on the press materials that come with this. But I feel like you've had... you've put stuff out before, right? I think I have an EP maybe that you did many years ago in Winnipeg. And so you've recorded. Your music is out there. But what's the difference with this one? Why is this sort of the debut? Because you've been making music for a long time. CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, for sure. I mean, sort of the decision to use that language around it is, you know, to sort of underline the fact that it is my first full length record. Like, it is my first of any of my projects actually. Like with Fire and Smoke, you know, the, the EP that we put out last year, you know, now because. Because albums are getting shorter and shorter. For some people, that is considered an album at six tracks. But, you know, with regards to my project, I had put out an EP in 2013 called Here's to You, Here's to Me. Then in 2020, I think it was, I released a couple of singles that I called the Lucky Light Session. So there was a version of You Are Light that was released as a single and a song called Hands Up. And those were sort of, you know, sort of acoustic, you know, introductions to kind of like where my songwriting was going and what was gonna, you know... what maybe to expect on a sort of more fleshed out recording eventually. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Okay. CLAIRE MORRISON: But in terms of a full length record, this is my very, very first one. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Cool. And so, I mean, you said earlier that you made this sort of between the two cities. How does that work? Because, I mean, I know obviously the way people not only consume music but make music these days is very different. I mean, not even 10 years ago. It was pretty different process. How did that...what is the process of making a record between two cities? Is it certain songs in one place, certain the other place? Are you bouncing tracks back and forth to different other musicians or how does it work? CLAIRE MORRISON: It was crazy. I really stand by that choice. I really stand by that decision that we made. But it is truly like the most difficult and complicated way to make a record because in most cases, like, you know, as you mentioned, like, we. We recorded between Winnipeg and Montreal. And even then it meant that we had sort of like two studios that we were primarily working out of. So, you know, with Winnipeg in Winnipeg, we worked mostly at No Fun Club here. We worked, you know, at a couple of different studio, including Studio Malamute. But, you know, it just meant that even from just a file management perspective, it meant, you know, separate hard drives and backups from this and backing up every session and making, you know, and. And making sure that everyone has all the right stems that they're supposed to have. The team is gargantuan on this record. You know, especially when you compare with tings where, you know, you've got your sort of core band of like maybe three or four people and you record the whole record with that same. Yeah, you know, on my record, including mix and mastering, there's 15 people. Well, so just logistically it was a big, big, big task. It was really worth it. I'm really happy that I did it that way. But we also did this, you know, as I was living, you know, living in Montreal full time. My producer Rayannah lives in Winnipeg. And we also made most of this record, like, in the depths of the pandemic. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure. Great time to make a record, right? Yeah. CLAIRE MORRISON: Because I had taken a number of years kind of off from for performing with my projects. And then in 2019, I sort of came back to it and was getting ready to sort of relaunch the project or sort of get back into dedicating more time to it. And I did a couple shows at the end of 2019, and then the pandemic hit and I thought, okay, well, what do we do? So, you know, we made this record. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Cool. Cool. And I mean, it's funny you mentioned the amount of people involved, because I think when on the surface people hear it's a folk record and they think, oh, this is going to be someone with an acoustic guitar and a microphone and that's it. Right? But obviously this is much more involved and then kind of an offshoot of that is. Do you still think of it as a folk record? Because there's a lot going on. Folk is definitely, you know, a primary driver of the sound, but there's a lot of other things happening. Like, it's not strictly. I think, what people might expect from folk as a genre. CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, 100 per cent. I think this recording and the way that I sort of conceive of it if I have to give an elevator pitch, is that it's really sort of at the intersection of, you know, acoustic singer, songwriter, you know, indie, alternative and all rock. Like, there is a certain rock dimension to this album. And, you know, when I think of a lot of people that are sort of influencing the choices that we made and the sounds that we went after, you know, I'm thinking about people like Alanis Morissette. I'm thinking about people like Sheryl Crow, you know, who are, you know, I think who are artists that have a folk dimension, sure, that, you know, but that also have this, you know, something that's quite a lot more fleshed out and a lot grittier. So, you know, I think it's all of those things all at once. But certainly because of, you know, my background and the way that I write songs and the importance of the lyrics, especially in all of that, I do still consider it a folk record. But, you know, with, you know, with as many paintbrushes and different colours as I wanted to paint with when we made it. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure. For sure. So with those songs that are... I mean, I don't think heavier is the right word, but they're more rock oriented songs. Those songs that have that extra kind of extra gear. Is there a different process for writing those? I mean, I'm assuming you write these in a fairly stripped down mode and then they get fleshed out and developed into what they are. Do you have to use a different piece of your brain to sort of, you know, get that concept going or is it. Does it just naturally sort of evolve on its own? CLAIRE MORRISON: That's, that's interesting, I think, because as you say, like, that's, you know, that's a good guess. Like I. I do generally when I'm reading, it's. It's always sort of guitar/voice first. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure. CLAIRE MORRISON: And that's sort of the test of the songs as well as like, well, okay, like, do these hold up if it's just me and my guitar or, you know, that's sort of the. The measure that I'm using. But you know, for all of the sort of like more rock oriented stuff. And I like, I would even say that some of it is heavy. Some of it is sort of like moodier in that way. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: That's dark, for sure. CLAIRE MORRISON: 100%. Yeah. You're almost going into like, you know, some things that are even like sort of like prog rock. Like, almost like, you know, I hear there's certain colours of like things like Deftones that I hear, but these are all things that I like to listen to. And I think those all come into the record, you know, on tracks like, Like We Used to Do, for example. You know, that's. It's like quite. It's quite dark. But I think that's what's been so fun about working with my producer is that we've known each other for such a long time and we're such artistic kindred. Like we really understand each other and. And so much of like what we know how to do when we work together is not even really like spoken. Yeah. It's like, you know, having that sort of unspoken understanding of, oh yeah, yeah, I know. I know where you want to go and I know what you want this to be like. And, and I think, you know, having such a synth heavy record, like there's lots and lots of synths on the record, on almost every song in one way or another. And having obviously like, you know, these like massive drums, those are things that, you know, really, really contribute to having those songs like sort of take on the colour and the contours that they have. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: For sure. Yeah. And that's interesting you mentioned the two of you working together, because I think that on the surface, both of you make very different music, but in this kind of... on this record, a lot of it makes sense. You kind of see where some of the influences from each other would blend in together. And with the synth, with some of those heavier parts. What do you now that this is out? I mean, you know, we're past the pandemic. Hopefully that doesn't come back. You know, shows can happen, tours can happen. Everything's gotten back to, you know, some semblance of normality over the past couple of years. What is the next step now, now that you have this out? I ask a lot of people this question, and I know it's a hard one to answer, but, you know, in. In a world where everyone is releasing music 24 hours a day, there's constantly new albums being put up on Bandcamp or Spotify or whatever, how do you get yourself heard now? I mean, in 2025? How do you find your people who are going to appreciate your record? CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if There's an answer either. It's a really hard question. But, yeah, totally Herculean effort. I mean, I think, I think part of this. And, like, I'm going to kind of put on my boring manager second because, you know, I worked in artist management for many years and, you know, so I really am concretely thinking about this question all the time. Especially, you know, with my record being an independent release and, you know, doing it without a label and, you know, all these things. I. I find that, like, this is such an. It's such an annoying answer, but everyone has to kind of figure out the recipe that works for them. And, like, I find that super annoying when people say it. You know, I hear it in interviews, but it is true in the sense that, like, you know, I could sink. I don't know, I could sink $2,000 into a PR campaign. And if it's with the wrong person who doesn't have the network, nothing happens to you. Nothing happens but you're $2,000 lighter than you were when you started. So, you know, I think that I. I tried to ask myself a lot of questions about, like, okay, like, you know, where are the people I want to reach and do I. Do I know them or d-o I know their friends? Or do you know how many sort of, like, entry points can I find to sort of access the people who I really think are going to find this record, you know, like, meaningful to them? WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure. CLAIRE MORRISON: I think that's a really important question. Is, like, is this going to be not just something that they kind of throw on his background music, but is this something that's going to, you know, become an important piece of music for them? Those are the people that I'm trying to reach. So that's what I'm thinking about a lot. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Do you have an idea of how you find those people? Now that's you've determined who you figured out who you want to hear the record. And again, I'm not trying to, like, get you to reveal your whole marketing strategy or anything. CLAIRE MORRISON: No, it's okay. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: It's just. It's a common thing that comes up as people, they put.. they make great music, put it out in the world, and then often it just fizzles because they haven't found who needs to hear it. And I mean, I know you've been doing this for long enough that you've built an audience. People know who you are in the scenes that you perform in and that you play in, but do you have any sort of... I guess, what's the plan to move this record forward now that it's out in the world? CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, sure. I mean, I am doing, you know, from just in a concrete sort of way, like, you know, talking to lots of talking to lots of media, doing the PR mailouts, doing the sort of, like the... Actually, it's sort of funny. I saw Noah Derksen briefly, another Winnipeg musician, yesterday, and. And he. We were talking about sort of all the stuff that has to happen now, and he was like, oh, yeah, the thankless work, you know, of, you know, emailing. Emailing radio stations, hoping, that, like, you know, five out of 10 of them are gonna try it out or are gonna open your email, you know, these kinds of things. But, you know, it's just as much as possible, like, sending it out while it's new. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Yeah, yeah. CLAIRE MORRISON: Sending it out while it's new. I think that, you know, another sort of, just from a strategic standpoint, and this is something that I'm not crazy about, not because I don't like this aspect of the work, but because it's just not really where I like to spend most of my time. But the visual identity of your project is so important now in a way that it wasn't, you know, 10 years ago, like you said, like, so much has changed. So, you know, making sure that I'm, like, putting things out on the Internet that. That I'm actually excited about and want to look at and think that is going to be interesting to other people, you know, all that stuff. So it's, it's, you know, it's all of those things together and trying to sort of see, like, where do you get a good reaction? WITCHPOLICE RADIO: The visual side of things is interesting because we're in an era now, a lot of people, you know, the album cover traditionally is not necessarily something someone's going to look at if they're listening on a streaming service. And so it's easy, I think, to think that the visual part doesn't matter, but obviously it does. Right, because you're tracking people online and they need to see something that pulls them in before they hit play on the recording. CLAIRE MORRISON: 100%. Yeah, it's really like that. So the, that's the inciting element. Yeah, it's like, oh, what's that? WITCHPOLICE RADIO: You know, and then hopefully when they click the play button, they like, what, what it is. CLAIRE MORRISON: Exactly. Yeah. So it has to be. So it has to be that. It's so interesting too, like just thinking, you know, thinking about that, like, does, does my, like, does my record cover look like my music? WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure, yeah. Yeah. CLAIRE MORRISON: Because sometimes, you know, sometimes you, you see something and you think you're going to like it and you go in and, and it's totally not what you thought it was. So there's a danger there too. But, you know, and I think too, like, this is not so much, you know, a response to your question as much as much as it is like an offshoot from it. But I think too that like, you know, we're thinking so much about, like, you know, what can we do and what can we do and where can we push harder and where can, you know, where can we, you know, put more effort? And I think the thing too, for like lifelong health and happiness is also to sort of decide for yourself, like, where's the limit? WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure. CLAIRE MORRISON: Because there's always something that you can be doing. There's always something more that you could have done that you, you know, and that is a recipe for being deeply unhappy as an artist, especially in the, you know, especially in sort of the current, you know, state of affairs. So I think too, it's sort of like, for example, for myself, you know, in the last couple of years, people have been really, really sort of like harping on the importance of, of music videos, for example, even though from my perspective, no one watches a music video anymore. So we're sinking vast amounts of money into these things that are used to be, you know, essentially to be chopped up to make 15 second reels, for sure. You know, so I make the reels, I do that thing, but I don't make the $50,000 music video that goes with it because that's a limit for me at this time. And I just don't think that it's useful. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: That makes a lot of sense. CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah. So it's also. It's also finding. Finding, like where your enthusiastic yeses are, but also where your enthusiastic no's are. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that definitely makes sense. You mentioned a few minutes ago about, you know, a lot of this was sort of pre-pandemic and the pandemic happened and then, you know, as everyone knows, everything kind of went to. So with songs that have roots going back a few years, how do you feel about these songs now? Obviously you're happy to get them out, you're happy for people to hear them, but do you feel that you have changed stylistically or anything since then? Because I'm sure you've been writing new music beyond these. These recordings and now they're new to everyone else, but. But to you, these are things you've been living with for a while. CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, in a way it's quite odd to return to them, especially in the case of this record because shelved it for almost two years or a year and a half. You know, like, when I started putting up the singles last fall. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Okay. CLAIRE MORRISON: And that was, you know, in part because I had another release of Fire and Smoke, so I was on a separate release cycle with that group. And because so much of what I do. What I do is independent, I really can't. You know, I have to. I have to be mindful of my capacity. So there's no... there was just no way that I could do, you know, two sort of, like, full album cycles that were starting at the same time. So I was like, okay, great. I'm going to shelve this also. We'd be working on it for so long that by the time I finished working on it, I was like, do I like this? Like, do. Am I into this? WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Yeah. CLAIRE MORRISON: Did I make a good thing? Like, you know, I needed the. I needed the time and the space away from the record before getting ready to, like, okay, like, do the rest of the thing, like, making all the assets and putting the music out and. And doing the PR campaigns and all this stuff. So it's interesting to me, especially with this collection of songs, because some of them go way back. Like, some of them I've been playing and, you know, I've been playing live for a number of years, but they haven't been released and recorded before now. So there's songs, like, you know, songs that I started writing around, like, maybe even like, 2013, 2014. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: That's old. Yeah, that's a long time ago. CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, it's a. It's a collection of songs that really spans. But I think that's what's so special about it for me is that, you know, like, when I'm older, I'm going to be able to look back at this record and be like, well, in so many ways, it's like this is like the musical representation of my 20s. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Yeah, sure. CLAIRE MORRISON: Which feels like. Which feels quite special to me, but something else that I wanted to say, but I can't remember. Yeah, it's gone. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: I was gonna ask, did you feel like, now that these are recorded, do you feel like these are definitive versions of these songs, or do you feel like you've gotten the best sort of version of these songs that you could? I am assuming you're still gonna play a lot of them live. And I'm sure, you know, like, most people, you're probably never 100% satisfied with, you know, because you can always tweak it and change it, everything. But how do you feel sort of about these. These older songs, especially now that they're. They exist in, you know, in the world rather than just in your head. CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, sure. I mean, I feel like I feel liberated from these songs. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Sure. CLAIRE MORRISON: That's what I keep saying in interviews. Like, how did you feel? I'm like, oh, I feel liberated.Not because it was. Not because it was a bad, you know, not because it was a. An objectively bad experience, but just because it was such a.It was such a long tunnel. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Yeah. CLAIRE MORRISON: You know, from, like starting to make the record to having it come out. So I thi nk with the songs. Well, it's interesting because, you know, as I'm not sure if you like, picked up on this or not, but on the record, there are actually two new versions of existing songs that have been put out before. And one of them is the song falling in from my first EP that I totally redid and rearranged because it was a song, you know, it was a song that had come out in 2013. And, you know, that's like. You know, that's like a million years ago in music industry. In music industry time. And, you know, I. It was an arrangement that, you know, I liked when I did it and I liked when I put it out when I was like, you know, 19 or 20 years old or whatever. But, you know, but I felt like I hadn't quite. I hadn't totally squeezed all the juice out of it, you know, so I totally rearranged it and I, you know, put, you know, a totally different instrumentation on it and now it's like a dad rock song, you know, so. And you are Light as well actually was redone for the record. I had put out the lucky light acoustic session version of it and then. But always with the intention that I was going to put it on the full length record eventually. And that one's a really, really special one because it's very, very different from the acoustic sessions version. And it's a duet between Brianna and myself, who produced the record. And it was a really special moment in the studio where we did very, very, very few takes of it. And the take that we took for the record at the end of it, we knew, both of us, that that was the right one. And, you know, off it went, basically. Yeah. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Cool, Cool. So how can people hear this? I mean, at the time we're recording, this is already out. People will hear this. It's a podcast. Someone could hear it the day this gets released, or they can hear it five years from now because apparently I never stopped doing this show. So it'll be around It'll be around for a while. So what's the best way for someone to find your music? I mean, maybe by the time someone hears this, you have another record of knows. So what's the best way to find you online, I guess, and then hear what you have out there? CLAIRE MORRISON: Sure, yeah. The best way to find everything related to me is to go to my website, which is clairemorrison.com. that's Morrison M O R R I S O N. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: And then I assume that this is available on all the various platforms at this point, that people can submit music everywhere. CLAIRE MORRISON: And if you want. If you want to buy the record and have more of the money, go to me than any of the streaming platforms who also sell my music, you can go to clairemorrison.bandcamp.com. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Cool. Yeah, Bandcamp's always the best one. I think, as a listener, I don't use the streaming, so I listen to physical stuff and then Bandcamp. That's. That's pretty much it for me. So I get the appeal for sure. Yeah. CLAIRE MORRISON: Awesome. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: And then, because it's a Winnipeg show, do you have anything coming up in the near future when you'll be back here playing any music? CLAIRE MORRISON: Yeah, I'm starting, sort of to finalize some dates from the summer. So nothing to announce yet, but very, very hopeful that soon I will have some Manitoba dates to announce. WITCHPOLICE RADIO: Cool. And that'll be on the website, I guess, right? CLAIRE MORRISON: You got it.