Morgan Reisman (or Morgan Orion, as he’s known in the local music scene) is a unique young man. His ideas are simple yet big: stepping outside of your comfort zone; cathartic music; fake IDs. After growing up—whatever that means—in Urbana, he picked up a guitar and started writing and singing… all at the same time.
Smile Politely: When did you start enjoying music?
Morgan Orion: I remember listening to Pete Seeger songs from a little tape recorder under the basement stairs at the age of three or four. He was definitely the first musician that I really thought about, and then I saw him around the same age, playing banjo in a tent at Jazz Fest in New Orleans. It was a very bizarre experience, encountering the real person. He didn’t look like I expected at all. I felt the same way when I saw They Might Be Giants playing at Periscope Records.
SP: And when did you decide to start singing/writing/playing?
Orion: I started doing all of those things, singing/writing/playing, on the same day. It was September 21st of 2006. I was 16 and I had just come back from seeing Adam Green and Jeffrey Lewis play at the Beat Kitchen. They let me in because I had a fake ID. Before the show, I had tried to play guitar for about a month and I was interested in taking song lessons, but it seemed like you needed to work really hard forever before you could really try to do anything. But seeing Jeff definitely unlocked the door to songwriting/singing and playing.
This is a sort of personal myth though, because I definitely wrote some rap songs in high school and would sing them for my friends.
SP: I talk to a lot of musicians with roots in or connections to New Orleans. Do you have family there? Or is it just that big a music draw?
Orion: My dad and his friend, Michael Ferrand, decided to move down to New Orleans on a whim when they were 20. It was -18 degrees in Chicago at the time and it seemed like the logical decision after a night of drinking together. It was 80 degrees when they got off the train [in New Orleans]. Meanwhile, I had aunts on my mom’s side of the family that moved there to work restaurant jobs and dance. I was just listening to my aunt Kathleen telling stories about hanging out with the Neville Brothers in the late ’70s and seeing Professor Longhair play.
Currently, my sister Gabrielle writes and produces plays in New Orleans, many of which encapsulate the spirit of [the] city in a beautifully personal manner. And my brother Walker is opening up a restaurant, riding the coattails of his wildly successful pizza speakeasy. I lived there for about 3 months in 2012 and visit often. New Orleans is a sort of epicentre of culture; I don’t think the pot melts down any more, anywhere else in the world.
SP: You write your own lyrics and music, yes? Where do you draw your creative energy from?
Orion: I heard a Batman and Robin song recently (they’re a trash punk rock and roll band from Liechtenstein) where the lead singer is wearing a paper bag over his head and singing that his super power comes from his mustache. I think that my creative energy is definitely bolstered by the absurd. When I have an idea that seems like something I would never say to anyone, ever, for fear of revealing too much or seeming like a weirdo, that to me seems like the right rabbit hole to go down. Also, things that are sad and funny at the same time.
SP: Simultaneously sad and funny. Like a gigantic dog running away from a kitten…
Orion: I guess I mean having a sense of humor about the duplicitous natures that tend to inhabit our psyche. I’m thinking of a song I wrote called “Son of a Bitch” where the narrator (which is me) is both insulting the subject of his admiration and yearning for her. And then the things that she has supposedly done are so outlandish, but somehow also believable.
SP: Interesting.
How do you engage with the audience? Are they eavesdropping or do you interact directly?
Orion: I guess it depends on the audience, but ideally we are part of the same storybook.
SP: Indeed.
What’s next? Do you have a plan for 2014 or are you floating along—or both?
Orion: In 2014, I will be releasing a new album called The Tunnel of Love and the Hell of Hot Licks, and touring a lot. I’m really excited about the album; it’s been a year in the making now and will be my first vinyl release.
SP: What can we expect? For current fans and curious first-listeners alike.
Orion: The new album has more of an Americana bent than has been seen previously. Also darker and more spiritual than my last album, Lovesick. It should be a cathartic experience for those discouraged in love. Not only can we cry from laughing, but laugh from crying as well.
Mike ‘N Molly’s hosts Morgan Orion, along with Rebecca Rego & the Trainmen, on Saturday.
Photos courtesy of Amanda Jasnowski.