Based out of New York, Morning Silk is an indie rock/pop project formed and led by Designer and producer Frank Corr. The project has become a bit of an (emerging) fixture of the New York Indie Rock scene, working alongside acts such as Middle part, Sur Back, Richie Quake, and Anna Shoemaker. Their signature sound is an unexpected ambiguity between rich distorted cacophonies and smooth, lo-fi dream-pop soundscapes that offer a moody ambience that can equally be filled with hopefulness and ennui.
For Morning Silk’s self-titled debut EP, Corr Brought Matthew Lancaster, Eamon Ford, and Caroline Sans as co-producers and collaborators. The EP’s origin is deeply intertwined with risky and almost crazy changes, so one may imagine that the “Silk” in the name is a reference to that of a cocoon, where a number of transformations would take place and result in this wonderful EP seeing the light of day.
As the story goes, Corr and collaborators Robert Norris, Eamon Ford, and Matthew Lancaster, built a studio that they dubbed “Livingrooms”. This was the first attempt at building a space for Corr to record and work on songs that he had written during his transitional period between Providence and NYC. Corr reminiscing on this event says “As an architectural designer turned artist, it was scary throwing away everything I had worked so hard for to create a life where I felt like I was able to do what I was supposed to do, or wanted to do. It’s the only thing I really can do though.” So perhaps in a very literal way, “Livingrooms” became the silk cocoon where this instinctual transformation had to take place.
Not all songs were written in the same time frame, for instance, “So Fun” (ft. Sur Back & koleżanka) had been written several years prior during a period when Corr simply hadn’t the ability to produce this piece. The song itself acts as a centrepiece to the EP, and it narrates the bizarre experience of a time traveller from the 1700s transported to a dance club in the future where he begins a game of cat-and-mouse with someone else who he believes is in the same situation as he.
Certain songs, such as “How You Do It” ditch this wildly fantastic narrative songwriting and instead explore free will and the value of authenticity, directly reflecting Corr’s shift in creative fields. Several other songs keep exploring these themes, such as “Skin”, about finding the strength to keep going on your path even during financial hardship, or “Don’t Try Hard Enough” which deals with the trauma inherent in changing the course of your life.
In a curious twist, the song that opens up the EP -“Under The Light.” – is about finally arriving at what feels like destiny, so perhaps it could be said that the story of the EP is told out of chronological order. Another interpretation of placing what could be a triumphant finale at the start is in framing both the Song and the EP itself as a new beginning because after all, that’s exactly what it all really is.
Overall, the EP is packed with very personal testimonies of transformation, of shaking away fears and the expectations of others in pursuit of a more genuine way of living. Morning Silk achieves all of this with a very moving soundscape worth unpacking over and over again.
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