:: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 ::

Interview with Trevor Morgan
by Randy Brandt

I really enjoyed interviewing Trevor Morgan at GMA. He's a very down-to-earth guy. Although he's an "overnight" success and getting plenty of airplay with his debut album, Wonderlight, he actually spent nine years in Nashville working for his big break. He toured as a bassist for Ginny Owens, and also worked with mainstream artist Will Owsley. We didn't have a fancy suite to conduct the interview in, so Trevor helped haul around some hallway chairs at the hotel and we set up our own little interview studio.

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The Interview

Randy: A lot of times first albums are an accumulation of years--or was it a thing where you wrote specifically for the project? Talk a little bit about the songwriting and that whole process.

Trevor: A few of the songs are ones that I've had for years. Actually, I did an independent CD in 2000 and two of the songs on Wonderlight were on that. We re-recorded them for this package. Most of the songs on there--of the 13, I would say at least 9 or 10 of them were songs I wrote in the past couple of years, and a lot them within in the past year. I think it's a pretty accurate representation musically and lyrically of who I am now, not who I have been for five years. That's kind of exciting for me. I think for a long time--I have had kind of a long time getting to this place, so I had a stretch in there where I just got kind of tired of writing for a while. I was almost, "What's the use? I'm making a living traveling, playing music for other people, playing guitar, playing bass. Do people really want to hear my songs?" And then when this whole door opened with BHT, this brand-new label, all of a sudden the joy came back, the fire came back. I was like a kid again. I couldn't wait to get home to play guitar and try to come up with songs. I started intending to write songs for the project, but after I while I was having so much fun writing, I just kept writing and kept writing and kept writing. I would write a song and it would beat the previous one, and it would kind of knock that one out of the pecking order.

Randy: About how many did you write for the project, or during that process?

Trevor: I would say probably 20.

Randy: Discarded at least half of them?

Trevor: Yeah, I discarded a pretty good number of them. And there were some other ones. I had 10 songs on the independent thing I had done and at the time I thought, you can't beat these 10 songs. I had a lot of encouragement on those, and I kept beating them. So, it was a lot of fun to try to write intentionally for something.

Randy: Knowing there was going to be some fruit at the end.

Trevor: Oh man! There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Randy: No pun intended, kind of a wonderlight at the end.

Trevor: A wonderlight at the end of the tunnel! It was cool.

Randy: As far as the future, now what do you have lined up as far as touring to support the project?

Trevor: Actually, starting this weekend I head out to start hitting the road on festivals.

Randy: So festival summer.

Trevor: Yeah. I'm doing pretty much all the major festivals. Both Creations, both Spirit West Coasts. Hitting everything from Minnesota, to Indiana, to Florida, to Charlotte, North Carolina. All over the place. I'm also doing a run with Jars of Clay in a couple of weeks--about three shows.

Randy: You mentioned your wife at the showcase and her support and what it's meant. Talk about that a little bit.

Trevor: Her support has been just unbelievable! I can't put into words how much it's meant to me to have her encouraging me, staying up late, kind of talking me off the ledge in a lot of ways when I was just like, "You know what, it's time to give up." 'Cause nine years is a long time to pursue something. The greatest thing for me was that I wasn't just sitting in Nashville those nine years. I was getting out. Even though I hadn't been necessarily validated by the industry, I was making a living traveling around and selling CDs, and I could see and my wife could see the impact I was having outside of this town. And I think that's kind of what kept her going, what kept me going, and we both really felt that God had called me to this.

Randy: How long have you been married?

Trevor: I've been married for seven and a half years.

Randy: Soon after you came to Nashville.

Trevor: I had about a year and a half in Nashville while we were still dating, then engaged.

Randy: So you knew her before you ever came out here.

Trevor: We met in college. We had some great years there, then we moved here.

Randy: Where'd you go to school?

Trevor: I went to Alabama. University of Alabama.

Randy: Did you grow up in Alabama?

Trevor: I did. I grew up in Montgomery. That was a great experience. I grew up in a Christian home. Went off to college, got really involved with campus ministry there at Alabama.

Randy: So you met your wife at college? (Duh, Trevor just said that, but he graciously responded like it was an insightful new question.)

Trevor: I did. We met actually through this campus ministry. The neat thing for me, I was leading worship there and really involved in different things, but also I had a band and we were playing in clubs, and playing fraternity parties and all these kind of things, and I was in jazz ensembles, so it was cool because I was really taking music to all kinds of different audiences. I would lead worship and then I would go and play at a party or do all these different things and it never seemed odd to me. It was just kind of doing what God has gifted me to do and there was nothing objectionable about it, so it was fun.

Randy: Who would you list as some of your musical influences or people that you enjoyed listening to?

Trevor: I always tell people my earliest influences were my dad's record collection. When I was a kid I would go into--we had like this bonus room in our house--he had this shelving, it was just full of his LPs, it was Steve Miller Band and the Eagles, the Beatles, the Beach Boys--all this classic stuff. I would just go in there and find one that looked good, take it back to my room and listen to the whole thing a couple times, put it back and find another one. You know, I loved it. Right there I knew, man, this is awesome! And as I got older I started kind of developing my own musical tastes with bands like U2 and The Cars and things like that and then I really began to get into Christian music. Rich Mullins, once I started getting familiar with his work and really digging into his lyrics and what he had to say, and not only what he had to say, but his life. How he lived, how he viewed so much of what he did as a mission to other people, serving, had a profound impact on me, not only as a writer but just I think as a person.

Randy: It's important to have those role models...

Trevor: Oh, man!

Randy: People that can influence you positively. Speaking of lyrics, that's one thing I took note of on the project. Al and I were talking on the plane on the way over, and like he said, "Really, a well-turned lyric can say more than I can do in a whole book in terms of sticking in someone's head," and I actually showed him on the plane as we were discussing that, I pulled out your sheet from Wonderlight and showed him Love Leaves It's Mark, which was a song that stood out to me. Talk a little bit about the ideas behind that song and how you came to write that and how you came up with the lyrical hook there.

Trevor: Oh man. Yeah, I wrote that with a friend of mine, Kyle Matthews. That's one I actually had it for years. It was on the independent CD. We wrote together for years and we still enjoy getting together. We got together and we were just talking. He had read an article in Newsweek or something and it was talking about this cultural religion. Everybody's looking for something. Really it doesn't matter what it is as long as they find truth in it and really just how wrong that was, you know, and how much it disturbed us when people were kind of resorting to this. That's where that song came from because it was giving all these examples of these men who claimed to be saviors, but yet they didn't sacrifice anything. They hadn't proven themselves worthy of somebody's faith. We just began to write a song, not attacking these people, but just kind of pointing out, you know, it's not about a cultural thing. It's not just about somebody who looks good, or does the right things or says the right things. In fact, you want somebody that's not going to say the right things, that's not going to say everything you want to hear, it's going to challenge you. That's exactly what Christ is. Who He was and is.

Randy: You want the opposite of the tickling of the ears, like it talks about. You've got be willing to stir things up a little.

Trevor: I felt like in that song, too, I meant to bring this up. It was really easy--we were writing the first two verses and it was easy to point fingers, you know. We were coming up with all kinds of ammunition and then as we kind of looked at the song we felt like, man, we need to put another verse on this because as easy as it is to point fingers at other people, it's really important to also say, "You know what, I'm not the guy, either. So just because I'm saying all these things and I'm bold and I'm saying all these truths, don't look at me, either, 'cause I'm going to let you down. Even though I have the best intentions, I'm going to do something to mess up." So really, pointing the focus not to me, but to Christ.

Randy: Another line that I picked up pretty quick, the first time I listened to it that caught my ear, was the line about, "cover my tracks, but not the cracks in my foundation." It just had a ring to it. Talk a little about the background to that song and the line.

Trevor: Yeah, I think to me that song is really about surrender. About taking a look around and seeing all the things that I've created for myself. The parable of the man who builds his house on the sand. Everything looks great, but all it takes is one thing to come and just knock it all down. I think so often that's how our lives are. We build all these things up and everything looks fine. But in reality, man, what needs to happen is it needs to be torn down, turned upside down, and remade on a solid foundation. And that's exactly what Upside Down is about--kind of that desire. You finally reach that point, and I think we all have as believers at one time. We realize our need for Christ, with our helpless nature. Really the cry, "Take my world and turn it upside down I think "covered in concrete they cover my tracks, but not the cracks," all that kind of alludes to the fact that we have been given this new nature in Christ. There's still this sin nature, and there's this ongoing struggle. I think it's an every day surrender that we need to have. We need to wake up and go, "You know what, God? I can't do this on my own. I can't build my own fortress. I've trusted in you previously, I need to trust in you daily. I need you to be my rock."

Randy: I enjoyed hearing it at the showcase yesterday and seeing your band for the first time. Talk a little bit about how you got to know the guys in the band or how you "collected" the band you've got now. Are these guys that came about during the recording or guys that you knew before and played with? What's the history of the band itself?

Trevor: It's kind of an interesting thing. One of the guys actually was the co-producer of the record, the guy that played the piano, I've known Jeff for years. He's just an amazingly talented guy. He plays on a lot of sessions. The bass player played on the record, too. We just kind of put this together just for GMA. It was kind of cool to have those guys playing.

Randy: What are you doing as far as the tour?

Trevor: Well, this summer I'm going out and sharing a band with another new artist--Sarah Kelly.

Randy: I enjoyed her stuff. I haven't met her yet, but I definitely enjoyed her material.

Trevor: We're going out and using the same band, and that's going to be a lot fo fun. I guess one of the benefits of having years of experience leading up to this point is that I know a lot of guys with talent. I look forward to making some phone calls to get some of these guys I played with in years past to come and do some shows with me.

Randy: So at this point, there's nothing firm as far as "The Trevor Morgan Band."

Trevor: I don't have a set group yet. I look forward to that day, when finances allow it. That would be nice.

Randy: Have you started booking anything as far as for fall for the quote, tour circuit after the festivals are all done?

Trevor: There's something in the works, and if it works out, it's going to be really cool. I'll be out there in some form or fashion.

Randy: Now that you've kind of launched this side of the career after all those years of paying your dues as a player, now being a frontman and getting the stuff up there...does that inspire you to write more songs for future projects and kind of keep the creativity flowing, or has it been so busy getting all this stuff going that you've kind of been diminished on the time side? How's that played out?

Trevor: It's been so busy with all this. I really haven't had a chance to do a whole lot of writing. I feel the urge within me to write, and I know as soon as I get some time, I think it's going to be really fruitful. We were finishing everything up with the album back as late as January, and than pretty much as soon as we had everything done, mixed, mastered, everything, then all of a sudden meetings started with artwork, and started with the radio stuff, getting out promo tours. It's like if I'm gone a couple days a week, I come home, I want to spend time with my wife, I gotta cut the grass. I've gotta be a normal, American husband. It's tough to write, but I do have some time set aside this summer. I'm really looking forward to that.

Randy: Of course, it's a little bit different for somebody that's had a few years building up, and you've got the tour experience, you've been out there. Some of the people that read this or hear this might not know about your background at all, playing bass with a couple of different artists. Talk about that briefly.

Trevor: I spent three years on the road with Ginny Owens. I played bass. We traveled as a three-piece, Ginny played piano and we had a drummer and I played bass. It was an awesome experience. It was cool to be a part of her band. Also, she gave me the ability to do a set of my songs every night and sell my independent CD at her tables. That kind of exposure for an independent guy was just unheard of. I played with Rachel Lampa for a little while--played guitar for her. I travelled around even before those days with another act. Owsley was a mainstream rock thing. That was a lot of fun, I wrote a lot of songs with the guy. Even had some stuff in a Nautica commercial and on different TV shows. It was kind of fun to get little glimmers to keep me going. It's like every day, "man, I need some good news, something to bring me up." It was nice when those days came.

Randy: Now, in that experience, you know what it's like, the time pressures with traveling. How do you guard your spiritual life in terms of making sure you don't get caught up in the hype and everything else and finding time for devotional stuff? What's the approach you take on that?

Trevor: I think what my wife and I found is the most important thing to us is being plugged into a body. We're very serious about making church a priority for us. I know a lot of artists struggle with it because it's really a sacrifice. If you come in really late Saturday night, or really early on a Sunday morning, it's really tough. To me, it's so important to be a part not only on Sunday, but throughout the week. I'm a deacon in my church, I'm involved in a small group of men that hold me accountable. They ask me hard questions and I ask them the same kind of questions, and I think that's essential. My wife's involved with women's bBible study, and I think for us, it's so important to be plugged in to those kinds of things. That's a huge key for me.

Randy: Thanks for your time, Trevor.

Trevor: Dude, thank you!

Note: Thanks to my son Michael for transcribing much of this interview.
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