Sarah Morris performs songs from 'Here's To You' on Radio Heartland
by Mike Pengra
May 04, 2023
With her latest album, Here’s To You, releasing this Friday, May 5, Minnesota-based singer-songwriter Sarah Morris and her band visited The Current studio to record a session for Radio Heartland.
Watch and listen to the complete session and interview above, and read a transcript below.
Interview Transcript
Mike Pengra: I'm in the studio today with Sarah Morris and her band, and we're talking about her brand-new record, Here's To You, which is coming out in May 5, right.
Sarah Morris: Yes. Five, five.
Mike Pengra: Welcome back to the studio, Sarah.
Sarah Morris: Mike, thank you for having us.
Mike Pengra: Congratulations on this record.
Sarah Morris: Thank you so much.
Mike Pengra: It is so good. And now that I've been listening to these songs close up, it's just great. So I'm thinking the last time you were here on your own stuff was right before the pandemic.
Sarah Morris: Yeah. All Mine, and it was early February.
Mike Pengra: Yeah. Right.
Sarah Morris: 2020.
Mike Pengra: So, now we're in 2023. How did the pandemic affect the songs on this record? That's the big question of the day.
Sarah Morris: Oh, yeah, that's a good question. I mean, you know, I... they were... many of them were written either in 2020 or 2021. So certainly, they have, you know, elements of wanting to get the heck out of here. Elements of discovering yourself on the other side of things. Who are you now? You know, I think that's a big question that shows up a couple times in the album is — and I'm still asking, like, "Who am I?" as I move through the world now, with that experience under my belt — how did I change? How did you change? How did like, what changes do we keep? You know? So I think that's in there. I think sonically, going back to the earlier thing I said, about wanting to get out of Dodge, I wanted to just try some different things. There's this German word that I'm obsessed with, called Tapetenwechsel, which is like, the way I've been explained to it, it's, you need a change of wallpaper sometimes. And I was like, I want to make sure that like we change the wallpaper a little bit from the regular Sarah Morris sound — not too much, we didn't have to buy a new house. Just change the wallpaper a little bit.
Mike Pengra: So how, how did it change?
Sarah Morris: Well, I worked with Dave Mehling as producer, and he, I think he's kind of a genius, a very calm genius. And, like, looked at all the songs and just added the "just right" kind of everywhere. I'm thrilled with it.
Mike Pengra: Yeah. So things are slowly getting back to normal. Obviously you recorded a new record. Some gigs coming up, including the release on the fifth at Icehouse. Is it feeling like this is a brand-new page, a brand-new chapter?
Sarah Morris: Ah, yeah, it feels like probably there's one foot in that book and one foot and like, what's maybe coming next. You know, I think when we ended up sequencing the album, it starts with everything's changing, which I thought maybe would be the ending, initially, when I was dreaming up songs. And instead, it ends with "Hello, My Name Is," and as I think about that, I'm like, "Well, I think there is some element of like, I don't know exactly what's coming next," you know? People are always — like Andrew Foreman, my bass player who I love so much and has made such a difference in all my music — like, he doesn't live here primarily anymore. So even though I still text him and say, "Can you play a gig? And I know you live in Greece now." It's that kind of stuff, right? So I think there probably is some new coming along, but we still — I've got two books open, which is very much how I really read, too.
Mike Pengra: The album is called Here's To You, which is the title track, which you played today. Tell me about that song, about writing that song.
Sarah Morris: Yeah. So that was a... so I belong to this songwriter group — we've talked about it, I think, in the past — but where we get a word prompt, sometimes a picture prompt, and we have a week to write a song about that word. And that was the final prompt of summer 2021. And so everything really was changing; we were starting to get that change in the air. And the kids were going to be going back to school for the first time, that was a big deal, because we'd had a year and a half with no... with school from my couch. And so that was brewing in my heart. And then we were given the prompt "pinup." And I had just had this conversation with a friend about how I've just always thought napes like the nape of your neck is the like just sweetest spot on someone. It's what I used to think was really cute on boys when I had crushes, and like, I still, like the act of a woman putting up her hair to go out to a party or something, I just find that really enchanting. And so when I saw "pinup," that was just like, you know, the word was "pinup" and I just, the song, "pin up your hair kind of fancy like," that just like popped out. And that's sort of where that came from. And I remember singing it a few weeks later at an outdoor show, and I just had this swirly sense about it like, "Yeah, everything is changing," and sometimes I really hate it, and sometimes I also like it more than I thought I would.
Mike Pengra: I get the feeling that... I think of you, your songs, always as very positive and supportive. And that one fell right in there. At first I was going, "What is this about?" and I had to listen to it a little bit longer. But that's lovely, really nice image.
Sarah Morris: Thank you for listening to it.
Mike Pengra: The next song is one of my favorites: "You Are (Champagne and a Wednesday)". This is so celebratory. I just love it!
Sarah Morris: I'm so glad you love it!
Mike Pengra: Oh, yeah! Tell me about that song.
Sarah Morris: Yeah, so that was written for — inspired by the word "pop." And I was up in Ely at our cabin, and I was running, like, trying to figure out what to do with it. I was like, do I write a pop song? And then I went to one of my favorite ways to celebrate: I love sparkling wine. And I thought about my mom, and how sometimes she doesn't maybe realize how spectacular she is. And I thought about my best friend, and I thought about how she doesn't sometimes realize it. And then as I started digging deeper into it — and it was one of those things again where that first line just pops out — "champagne on a Wednesday," why not? Give me a reason; like, let's have it. So the image was really clear. And then as I got into the chorus imagery, which is you're effervescent, you're light as air, bright as the moon, you're incandescent, all this like super bright imagery. It made me think of — I have this song called "Brighter" that I wrote for my daughter Millie years ago — and so I thought oh my gosh, this is really like a grown-up "Brighter." So it's also kind of for grown-up Millie. Like if she's having one of those moments where she doesn't know how marvelous she is, like, I want her to know. I want you to know. I want everyone — I mean, that's the other thing: It's like, it's just, sometimes it's really easy to forget. Each of us are spectacular in some way.
Mike Pengra: Yeah. You ended the set today and also your album with the song "You Are"... No. You ended the set, and you ended the album with a song about a nametag, about "my name is..."
Sarah Morris: Yeah, I got one on.
Mike Pengra: "Hello, My Name Is" so, that's not quite as positive. That's a little bit different.
Sarah Morris: Yeah.
Mike Pengra: Kind of an interesting ending to your album. Tell me about that song.
Sarah Morris: So that was inspired by the word "badge." And when it came out, it was probably winter of... I want to say 2022. Like we'd definitely been dancing in the "we're in regular world now." And what I noticed for myself is I would go to things specifically, like parties or conferences — I'd maybe been to a music conference by that point — and the poignancy of how I did feel different in these large-group settings. Like sometimes I felt more like "This is fun" than I used to, or more comfortable. And sometimes I felt like, "I don't know, is this even who I am anymore?" and just kind of wrestling with that. And so when we got the "badge" prompt, I just that was the badge I thought of was the... that maybe in the past, we would just mindlessly like write down our name, and now let's instead like consider who we are going out in the world.
And the other side piece of that is like, I was able to put in this really personal story of how I actually was named because my mother was a single mother, and she didn't, she had a name to pick out, picked out for me. But my grandma was her labor coach, and primarily just ate Snickers is what I was told, but I'm sure grandma did a great job. When when I was born, my grandma objected; my grandma who is like, was one of my best friends. I love her so much. And she made the right choice. But she said that she wanted me to have a biblical name. And the name I was supposed to have was Justine, which did not appear, it was not in the Bible. And so I'm surprised that my mom acquiesced. But she did. And I became Sarah just like everybody else in, you know, late 70s, early 80s. Popular move. And yeah, so that was kind of my moment for both of those very wonderful women in my life.
And eventually I did get this electric guitar that I named Justine. So there is a Justine.
Mike Pengra: Yeah. So yeah, your name was... you were born in a old cold November evening. And that's... I wondered if that was a true story about your grandma.
Sarah Morris: Yeah, I'm a horrible liar. So that's just what happened.
Mike Pengra: I'm in the studio with Sarah Morris. Her new record is called Here's to You, and the CD release show is five, five.
Sarah Morris: That's right.
Mike Pengra: May 5 at Icehouse in Minneapolis, along with Emily Haavik. Should be a fun show. Who's all going to be there? The whole Sometimes Guys?
Sarah Morris: Yes. Which you know, we get to have Sometimes Guys because that way that people can move to Greece; like, you play with me sometimes. Andrew was just here. Andrew is on the record, but he won't be at the release show, but Nick Salisbury who is here with us today, will be at the release show. He's a Sometimes Guy too. And Thomas Nordlund. Dave Mehling the producer, and Annie Fitzgerald. Haley Rydell will sing some harmonies. I'll bring some other special guests up for some other songs. And did I get everybody? Dave, Tom, Lars! Lars-Erik Larson! Yes, our birthday friend. Yeah, he will be there, holding it down, so.
Mike Pengra: Well, congratulations on this record, Sarah.
Sarah Morris: Thank you.
Mike Pengra: So good to see you again, especially after all we've lived through in the last three years, right?
Sarah Morris: I know. Oh my goodness.
Mike Pengra: Okay. Congratulations on the record. Sarah Morris is in the studio today on a Radio Heartland. The record is called Here's To You, and it comes out May 5. Thanks, Sarah.
Sarah Morris: Thank you.
Video Segments
00:00:00 Here's To You
00:05:26 You Are (Champagne on a Wednesday)
00:09:26 Hello, My Name Is
00:14:51 Interview with host Mike Pengra
All songs from Sarah Morris’s 2023 album, Here’s To You, releasing May 5, 2023.
Musicians
Sarah Morris - vocals, guitar, piano
Dan Schwartz - guitar
Nick Salisbury - bass
Lars-Erik Larson - drums
Annie Fitzgerald - backing vocals
Credits
Video Director - Eric Xu Romani
Camera Operators - Eric Xu Romani, Guillermo Bonilla
Audio - Evan Clark
Producer - Mike Pengra
Graphics - Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer - Luke Taylor
External Link
Sarah Morris - official site
