It’s been a while…
Last time I made a blog post I had no idea that the world was going to come to a screeching halt for more than a year. That screeching halt was a little later hitting me than it was for other people in the arts community. I was happily busy writing marching shows for the following marching season that didn’t happen for some and was drastically different for others. The commission fee I received for those shows hit my bank account well after many people had already had live shows cancelled, tours cut short, and various income streams totally dry up. I operated under the blissful ignorance of someone who thought they got lucky. “This will all get wrapped up by the end of the year, at least. Maybe concert season will be mostly normal and my income stream won’t change at all.”
Wrong.
I even managed to stay somewhat busy through the summer, finishing marching shows and a few personal projects. But somewhere around August or September it hit my psyche hard. “When will things get back to normal?” I would ask myself this question knowing that it would never really get back to normal. It might get back to the point that people could safely gather for musical performances again, but it would never be the same again. I finally reached the moment composers and performers all over new music twitter were talking about for the past half a year. The “I can’t possibly feel the motivation to accomplish anything right now…. How can anyone?” moment.
I existed in that headspace for a few weeks, maybe a month. I don’t really remember much of what I did during that time. I watched a lot of YouTube videos about backpacking, did a lot of journaling, tried to stay physically active (and failed), I think that was also when I began my rewatch of the entire Star Trek franchise, beginning with the shows I’d never watched, and then doubling back to the ones I’d already watched multiple times.
Fortunately, around that time I had a few band director friends contact me about writing some music for them. Finally some direction! I wrote music for the first time in quite a while. But once those projects were done I fell back into the hole for a bit.
That’s when I remembered the goal that I set at the beginning of 2020 to release an album. I wanted to see what it would take to go from an idea in my mind all the way to an album that’s out in the world for people to listen to. Fast forward back to somewhere within my gulf of inactivity - I had somehow forgotten that I actually managed to pull that album together at some point during the year using preexisting music and new electronic works. Not only had I pulled a 50 minute album together, I even managed to get it mastered. But now it was just sitting on my hard drive. Enter Adam Schumaker and a tweet that came out of nowhere asking if I wanted help getting my album out. Wow!! With his help I got the album released in March of 2021 through the record label he started “Odd Pop Records”.
With Adam’s help I got the album onto streaming services and Bandcamp. I think it’s safe to say that without Adam’s timely tweet, that album would still be sitting on my hard drive gathering digital dust. Instead, not only did I release it, I also sold out of my first small batch printing of cassette tapes.
cable theory vol. 1
(If you would be interested in getting a copy of my album on cassette tape, reach out and let me know. If enough people express interest, I would totally be willing to do another printing!)
If you’d like to hear what an electronic album by Drew Morris sounds like, you can find it for sale on Bandcamp here, you can find a streaming link here, and alternately, you can find information on my “Electronic Music” page.
Back in the concert music world, once again I had a few friends reach out about writing some music for them. One piece actually turned into four pieces for concert band, two of which I’ve already finished and delivered to the school for them to premiere this year, if all goes to plan. The other two are still in sketch form, but I look forward to adding them to my catalog in time for next year’s concert season.
While working on these (4) concert band pieces, I tweeted out that I felt like a composer for the first time in a long time. It felt good to get back to the the medium I felt the most comfortable in. I love my vacations to electronics, but concert music is my home. I feel like the voice that comes out when I’m writing for winds and percussion (and occasionally strings) feels the most like me.
Now that those pieces and projects are once again in my rearview mirror and I have no immediate commissions on my radar, I’ve started feeling that worry from last year. My mind is a chorus of questions. How will this summer go? Will it be safe for people to resume playing music in large groups? Will my catalog get some activity again? Or will another wave hit and I’ll go back into my little bubble of aimless dread?
Personally, I’m trying to be more optimistic this time. Will the optimism last? Who knows? But for now I’m going to continue working on those pieces that made me feel like a composer again, those pieces that reminded me why I took the leap to become a “full time composer” to begin with.
I know blogs can be pretty boring for most, especially in the day and age of click bait Youtube videos and attention grabbing clips on every social media platform. The fact that you made it to the end of this blog post means a lot to me. Maybe you’d enjoy some of my other blog entries spanning a few years, or maybe you’d like to sign up for my email newsletter that goes out once or twice a year.
Even if you don’t decide to subscribe to my newsletter, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, I’m still very very grateful that you took the time to read this blog. As a reward, here’s a picture of my cat Pumpkin sitting in a box on my marimba.
Thanks again for reading.
-Drew
