Get ready for an exhilarating journey through the life and music of Morgan Evans, the Aussie-born country music sensation. We go behind the scenes, exploring how this Newcastle native found his passion for music, his journey from Australia to Nashville, and the story behind his breakout hit "Tornado". Walk with us as we dive into Morgan’s experience of signing with Warner Music in 2017, with tales of his music-making journey and the rollercoaster ride it has been since.
In this chat, we venture into the fun and frolics of his recent Australian tour and an insider's view of his upcoming show at Keg's Canalside. Hear from Morgan himself about his all-time favorite songs, his bandmates and the surprises he’s got up his sleeve for his performances. We also get an exclusive on his creative process and the story behind his latest track ‘Thank God She’s a Country Girl’. Tune in for a hearty conversation with Morgan Evans, packed with charming anecdotes, captivating stories, and insightful moments. Whether you’re a country music enthusiast or simply curious about the inner workings of a successful musical career, this episode promises an entertaining and insightful listen.
Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens
Get ready for an exhilarating journey through the life and music of Morgan Evans, the Aussie-born country music sensation. We go behind the scenes, exploring how this Newcastle native found his passion for music, his journey from Australia to Nashville, and the story behind his breakout hit "Tornado". Walk with us as we dive into Morgan’s experience of signing with Warner Music in 2017, with tales of his music-making journey and the rollercoaster ride it has been since.
In this chat, we venture into the fun and frolics of his recent Australian tour and an insider's view of his upcoming show at Keg's Canalside. Hear from Morgan himself about his all-time favorite songs, his bandmates and the surprises he’s got up his sleeve for his performances. We also get an exclusive on his creative process and the story behind his latest track ‘Thank God She’s a Country Girl’. Tune in for a hearty conversation with Morgan Evans, packed with charming anecdotes, captivating stories, and insightful moments. Whether you’re a country music enthusiast or simply curious about the inner workings of a successful musical career, this episode promises an entertaining and insightful listen.
Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens
Well, I can do a little bit of this first. Here we go.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you got to drink about somebody that ain't gonna bring him back. Sometimes you got to cry and miss somebody.
Speaker 1:You know, it's coming up right, here we go.
Speaker 2:You have all felt like that, If it's something that you got to get over. But you just can't get over. Sometimes you got to kiss somebody in the back of the cab.
Speaker 1:So we train sometimes you got to kiss somebody on a midnight street Everybody that is Morgan Evans, and if you look at the screen right now, that is Morgan Evans that I'm chatting with today. And, of course, kiss somebody, song that you can hear all the time right here at 92.1 the wolf. And let's say good morning to Morgan Evans. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 3:I'm good.
Speaker 1:Skip, how are you doing? Well, right off the top man, the accent's cool. I'm just saying that's the cool, that's the coolness.
Speaker 3:Thanks, mate. I've been. I've been if I years now, but we just did a six week tour in Australia. I think we got back like three weeks ago.
Speaker 1:So I think is back, you know you know I have to ask you talk about a three week tour in Australia. Do you fly commercial or they throw you on a private jet?
Speaker 3:To Australia? Definitely commercial, dude. I don't know we ain't had that many hits yet.
Speaker 1:Well, you've had a few, and one of those right there, kiss somebody. It's Morgan Evans and thank you for joining the Wolfcast today and we're going to be talking about you. We're going to talk about the fact that coming up here real soon, on November 3rd, you're going to be in the area of state New York. I will warn you, you may want to bring a jacket and dress a little bit. Who knows what the weather is going to be like, but it's early November. Around here it could be snowing. Just giving you that heads up.
Speaker 3:So it is getting to that time of year. I am notorious to for showing up places without any warmth. Being in Australia, it's not the first thing I think of when I go somewhere. We played. We played in Germany earlier this year, in February. I went to Morocco with a couple of my mates beforehand and we were surfing in Morocco and just being tourists where it was really warm. And we flew into Munich. No, we flew into Hamburg, where it was just complete snowstorm and I, the warmest thing I had was a shirt. I think I eventually wound up getting a jacket when we had time a couple of days later, but I'm wearing my drummers clothes for a couple of days. Good for me, that's good for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, being from Australia, I think they're just coming off their winter season, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's starting to warm up over there, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's going to get colder here. But let's talk about you a little bit. Where were you born? In Australia.
Speaker 3:I was born in Newcastle, which is it's two hours north of Sydney on the East Coast, and it's it's a shipping town. It's the biggest port on the East Coast of Australia and traditionally it started as a steel making town, but then the steel place shut down and they found coal, so it's a big coal kind of port now, but they make wine there as well and there's great beaches and it's a good combination of all the different parts of life that I did so yeah, I know you just said you were there a few weeks ago, but how often do you get that opportunity to go back home?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I mean, we were there a few weeks to go, but we were. It was hard, like it was like full on work time so there wasn't heaps of time to hang out with Mace. But I go back to Christmas, for sure, and then that's kind of been in the last few years, but I, I want to go down there and spend more time. It's just hard though, like it's you can't, it's not like you can go for the weekend.
Speaker 3:Right, right Full 24 hours to get there and a full 24 hours of come back, so that's the whole weekend. Yeah, you got to be kind of really intentional about it and have the time to be able to disappear for a little bit.
Speaker 1:Now it's cool. I had a niece that spent some time in Australia and she had nothing good to say or everything good to say, nothing bad about it at all, and just talking about the outback and all that. It was so very, very cool. I did a little bit of research and apparently the song they got it started for you and correct me if I'm wrong it was like a tornado way back in the day. Right, is that the one that over in Australia that that was a big hit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was on my first full length record in Australia and I don't think it ever came out in America. I hadn't been here at that point. So yeah, that was. That was on my first record. There was a couple of songs before that on EPs and singles, but that was the first single from the self-titled record down there, that's a deep cut over here.
Speaker 1:Well, I was doing some research shows. I did a little bit of homework. I don't do a lot of homework maybe just a little bit, just to find out a few tidbits. But what, how did you? When did you get signed over here in the States? How long ago was that?
Speaker 3:It was 2017 so. I was on Warner in Australia and then when I moved here and we made I think we made about half that first record we made Kiss Somebody and Day Drunk and Dance with Me a couple other songs and then, when we had those songs, we moved the deal from Australia to Nashville.
Speaker 1:And was that just like a transition? So you were already signed, you didn't have to go through the whole process again?
Speaker 3:A little bit of both. Yeah, like it was like I really liked the Warner team here in Nashville and I kind of got to know them and so when they heard the music they were like, okay, cool, yeah, let's, let's do that. And thankfully, internally it worked really well. Just the people that were working in Warner at the time made that happen. So, yeah, a lot of credit goes to them for making that kind of seamless for me, I guess.
Speaker 1:Now Kiss. Somebody was the one that really put you on the map here in the States, correct, yeah?
Speaker 3:that was the first one here and it's been an epic ride with that one. Thanks to people like you for for spreading the word, so thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Now you're coming to town, you're making your way to the Northeast and hopefully you've got other gigs up here so you can route everything together, which makes it a little bit easier on you. But November 30 you'll wake up here in Central New York on the bus, I would assume, unless you're flying in that day, and you know what can we expect from a Morgan Evans show?
Speaker 3:Man. The show has grown into something that I've never felt before. It's just, it's like it's a very it's a very connected show. That's what I've been experiencing all over the world, and it's not necessarily different in different parts of the world. It's just like this range of emotions that I feel like I've been through in the last.
Speaker 1:However, many years I said we weren't going to go there, but that's okay.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, it's not like I don't like talk about it, or anything it's just like it's as these songs come together and it's just there's a lot of great times and then there's some low times and you know, I've lost some people really close to me over the years too, and and just I've always written about my life and so I feel like by the end of this show it's an uplifting, hopeful feeling at the end, but it's definitely a ride and and the feeling at the end of these shows is the best feeling I've ever had in a room playing music before.
Speaker 3:It's such a positive and uplifting feeling and it's nice to be in the middle of a show and also be looking forward to that feeling at the end, at the same time for me and I feel, like people are having that same experience to come to the shows.
Speaker 1:You know, I know your emotions have been running high and a whole lot of different levels, but when you came out with Over for you, it was like wow, and I think it was you on the keyboards where you on a beach. I'm trying to, I'm trying to think of the video. When I saw the video I went wow, and of course you know your team was pushing it to radio and it was like this is just wow, three letters. Well, thanks, man. I mean the emotions dude. I mean you think you touched the hearts of so many people and we know it was coming from your heart.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's all I know to do. So, yeah, that song's been a wild ride too and it showed actually something that I hadn't felt before as well. Just in a single song was like how you can write something that feels so personal I mean, there's no personal words necessarily in there, it's all sort of generic language but something that feels so personally connects so widely. And, man, the amount of people I've heard from I hear from every day that are going through something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah unfortunately, you know, people break up, people get divorced all the time and, yeah, that song seems to be something that helps them through it or helps understand how they're feeling as they're going through it. And I've heard from a lot of women, but I've heard from a lot of dudes too which is just an interesting kind of like to be able to have conversations like that with guys that are going through something.
Speaker 3:I think I don't know, I grew up in a really working class town in Australia, like talking about that stuff out loud with other guys.
Speaker 1:It's not something that's going to be weird, but we all have a heart and we all have emotions and we all have relationships. We all have all that's going on. I've been there. I've been there and I can listen to the music and go. Yeah, that's how I felt, or that was me, and that's what's so important about that. Do you do a lot of covers or anything like that when you get on stage, or do you have a favorite cover?
Speaker 3:How we sneak one in now and then my favorite covers. But my favorite song, my favorite song, I think, is either all I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey.
Speaker 1:We're talking to a dude here, come on.
Speaker 3:Oh, somebody like you. The Keith Evans song.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, somebody like you. I feel like that song that might be the perfect song to me. I still love playing that one. We don't really we don't play it on this show or anything like that, but we sneak little bits of songs into the show.
Speaker 1:I don't want to ruin the surprise of the show, but no, I don't want you to either, but just, you know, kind of gives us an idea that we might be in for some surprises and knows what's going to happen. You just got done saying the dude talking to a dude, and here we're talking about Mariah Carey's Christmas students.
Speaker 3:I'm very, I'm very comfortable, mate, and we're almost into that season, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, absolutely, absolutely. By the way, I didn't ask you in the beginning. Where are you right now?
Speaker 3:I'm at home in Nashville.
Speaker 1:Really, yeah, you don't tell me exactly where, but are you? What side of town are you on?
Speaker 3:I'm just a little north of town.
Speaker 1:Okay Okay. I had some friends that actually do business in Nashville. They live in Nashville and that's what I was asking, so that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:How often do you get to spend time at home?
Speaker 3:Oh, dude, I was about to say that I haven't really been here very often. I moved into this place in, I think May and I wouldn't have spent 30 nights here, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I see all the decorations on the wall behind you. It's pretty white.
Speaker 3:I mean, I really put some effort into it. At least I got.
Speaker 1:Brad, easily looking over my shoulder here. So, and you put that one Anyway. Now it's that that's funny man, it's that dude to a dude. Yeah, that's it Exactly. I'm just going to have to pause it in the bed. You're happy. So yeah, exactly, we're talking about that man. This is great. So you're coming to town on November 3. You're going to be at Kegs. Is there anything new coming out from Morgan Evans?
Speaker 3:We just put out Thank God she's a Country Girl which is this sort of rework of the John Danversog. Thank God I'm a country boy which I grew up listening to. A lot of people ask me like how did you get into country music in Australia?
Speaker 3:Well, I wasn't going to say that the same way everyone gets into any music. I guess, like their parents listen to it, right? You don't have a choice when you're a kid what you listen to. Thankfully, my parents had good music tastes so I grew up on a lot of John Danvers and I had that idea earlier this year to like what if we reworked this John Danversog and made it Thank God she's a Country Girl and that's just so fun. It's been so fun to play the last. I mean it came out two weeks ago, so we've been playing it two weeks and that's super fun. And, in keeping with the Christmas theme of this conversation, there may be a Christmas tune coming before the end of the year too.
Speaker 1:Why not? Party just dropped a whole Christmas album yesterday, so I guess more than that yeah, I mean it's that time of the year, john Party Did he? Yeah, I was just looking. I saw it at my prep that he dropped it yesterday. So, yeah, it's never too early for that. People love Christmas music, so that's a lot of fun. Tell me about your band a little bit. These guys should play with all the time the same guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love these dudes. If you saw me perform between 2017 and 2021, you probably saw me solo with a loop pedal, making all the sounds myself. But I feel like in COVID a lot of people got the chance to reassess their lives and how they were doing it. And I just remember the reason I got into music was not to be a singer-songwriter or anything like that. I got into music so I could be in a band and so I put this band together. It's a fella from New York, actually New York State A fella named Pete Wilson and a guitar player named Gideon Bolli and a bass player named Andrew Brown. These fellas just it really does feel like a band out there. We're all really good mates. We love playing music. They're all exceptional at their instruments, but when we get on stage, it's just a good time.
Speaker 1:It sounds like it's going to be a great time. We've been chatting with Morgan. I don't know if you see it on your end, but I'm getting a network connection is lost thing, but it's going to come right back there. So Morgan Evans is coming up in kegs. He's going to be on that big stage. I think you're going to be on the indoor stage, let's hope November 3. Yeah, like you said, bring more than a t-shirt. I know us guys. We can talk dude to dude. We travel very late.
Speaker 1:I took a trip over the weekend and just had my backpack Pair of socks, pair of underwear, some jeans and a t-shirt. I was happy. But yeah, kegscanalsightnet, by the way, is where you can get your tickets. And I do have another question, and a lot of people ask me this and I don't have an answer for it. How does somebody like you, being Australian, you have that accent and I'm sure a lot of people ask you how come we don't hear that a lot in the music? How do you cover that up? How does you know? Sometimes you can't tell, but yet when you and I are having a conversation, it's like hey, mate, you know, it's like wow, how do you do it?
Speaker 3:Man, it's funny, I can sing in an Australian accent but I have to try, and I think it's because just all the music I grew up singing was in an American accent. Even the Beatles and the Stones and all the great English bands all still sing in an American accent, and when I moved here I kept getting asked that question. So I looked it up and there's actually some videos on YouTube that talk about the way that the American accent approaches vowel sounds is more pleasing to the human ear. So I don't know if it's a natural thing or honestly, I think it's probably just because I sang along to so many Garth Brooks, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Glenn Campbell records that that's just what it sounds like when I sing.
Speaker 1:Now, all those artists that you just mentioned. They were really big in Australia as well, with the, you know the country music. I mean, it's pretty much just like it was here, or is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not sure if Nitty-gritty Dirt Band were huge in Australia. I'm not sure if they came down very often, but Garth definitely. And Glenn. Campbell definitely and obviously Keeper when I saw him play when I was 15 or something like that and that was that was like the light bulb moment of where the hell did that come from, you know?
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, I think the best way to describe country music in Australia is kind of like Texas. You know, in Texas they have Texan country music, but then still all the big stuff from Nashville is still the big stuff. It's kind of like that.
Speaker 1:If you weren't being a country artist, a country star that you are now, what do you think you would be doing?
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I really don't know.
Speaker 1:I know it's a good question, though Think about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had a couple other things. I was no good at it, so I'm really glad that this is working out.
Speaker 1:It's working out really well. Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?
Speaker 3:Yes, the first song I ever wrote. I wrote it because we had a gig. I was 13. I started a band with my best mate since I was five. He played drums in the school band and we forced my 11-year-old brother to learn bass guitar and we got a gig at the school music night. I wrote a song called Life because at the age of 13, you know a lot about life. Obviously I think it involved like it was a stolen Metallica riff for the verse and then it was something else. It had kicking the bucket in the chorus somewhere.
Speaker 3:It was a pretty rough, pretty rough old song.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask if it sucked or was it really good.
Speaker 3:No, for sure, sucked yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Usually when I ask that question, it's like, yeah, they'll give me an answer. Yeah, I remember the song, but it really sucked yeah yeah, there's no magic to go on.
Speaker 1:Morgan, it's been a great little chat with you. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to come on. I know there's a little bit of a time difference, but really only an hour I guess it's not that bad. But I want you to relax and enjoy home and we're going to see you in a couple weeks. It'll be at Kegg's Canalside November 3rd keggscanalsidenet for tickets and hey, it's going to be a party. I'll be there, I'll be doing the presents for you and I can't wait to say hello and we'll hang, have a cold one together. I don't know, are you a beer drinker or would you rather?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, I like a beer, I like a tequila, I like whatever you're ready for. I'm in dude, it'll be good to say it.
Speaker 1:A little bit of tequila. There you go. All right, morgan Evans, thanks for joining us here today. Thanks for coming on the Wolfcast and we'll see you at Kegg's in just a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:Thanks, mike, see you soon.
Speaker 1:See you soon. Bye-bye.