After making his long-awaited return last year to deliver a string of impactful delights, Copenhagen-based US singer-songwriter Morning Bear is now back for 2024 to unveil his shimmering new single 'A Simple Misunderstanding'.
Honing a beautifully warm and inviting acoustic-led aesthetic for his newest outing, 'A Simple Misunderstanding' makes for an incredibly rich and dynamic listen. With his soft and sweeping vocals spread across a stripped-back production from start to finish, he is returning to the fold with one of his most heartfelt efforts to date here.
So with the new single available to stream now, we sat down with him to find out more about his origins and what has been inspiring him most lately.
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What was the first instrument you fell in love with?
While technically not an instrument, the voice has always been my favourite musical sound. I have been a singer since the first time I could open my mouth. In fact, I would get in trouble in elementary school for singing too much! I believe there is something deeply instinctual and primal about our attraction to the sound of the voice. I could listen to harmonies all day long.
What kind of music did you love when you were younger?
Even though neither of my parents are musicians themselves, they are both huge music lovers. I was raised in a house where music was always playing. My parents have always had a modern music taste; especially my father, who often played new and cutting-edge bands when I was growing up. While other houses were listening to classic rock, we were listening to bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails while also playing classics like The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, and Tom Petty. We even enjoyed the occasional classical music record, which led me to fall in love with orchestration and strings.
What was the first album you remember owning?
Hilariously, the first CD I ever owned was 98 degrees, “98 Degrees and Rising.” It was given to me as a gift in elementary school, even though I hadn’t heard of them before. The first albums that I bought myself were System of a Down’s “Steal This Album” and Modest Mouse’s “The Moon and Antarctica.” I still remember walking through the aisles of the record store, amazed by the huge number of options and choices. I think the album I listened to the most from top to bottom in my youth was Radiohead’s “OK Computer.” It might come as no surprise that Radiohead has been my favourite band for most of my life.
What is the one song you wished you could have written yourself?
Interestingly, I’m not sure I wish that I have written a lot of my favourite songs! There is something magical about feeling a deep connection to a song that you haven’t written yourself. It’s like finding a tunnel of understanding through the cosmos, where something divine has reached both you and the artist, allowing you to share an experience and a feeling despite time and distance.
That said, I would love to understand how a song like Bohemian Rhapsody was written. How did it feel to work out all of the parts and pieces to that song? What is it like to have all of that inside your head? It seems like so much fun to write a song like that.
Do you have any habits or rituals you go through when trying to write new music?
Unfortunately, I have had a complicated relationship with writing in the past few years. At some point in my music career, I began to put far too much pressure on myself to write music. When I would start to write, I began having a voice telling me “this is awful, you’re never going to write anything good again.” It continued to get worse, peaking in 2019 when I had moved to Melbourne, Australia to try and write an album. Every day, when I didn’t like what I was writing, I would talk down to myself. My internal dialogue became extremely toxic. The less I wrote, the worse I called myself down, and the worse I felt, and the less likely I was to write well. Eventually I was unable to pick up the guitar at all. I began having regular panic attacks as I spiralled down into one of the lowest moments of my life. This is partially what the song A Simple Understanding is about: that self-loathing that develops as you tear yourself down for not “succeeding” in the narrow way you define for yourself. It has taken me a long time to redevelop my relationship with writing, and I’m still working on it.
I tend to write best late at night when it’s dark and quiet, when I have no distractions from the feelings that bubble up to the surface. This will often happen when I’m solo travelling – a significant number of my songs are written on park benches, in hostel rooms, and in aeroplanes.
I’ve also recently been doing more cowriting, which has helped a lot. I love the dynamic of creating something beautiful with another talented person. It also helps take the pressure off of myself, as it is no longer just about me. Learning How, which I released in December of last year, is one of these co-writes. In fact, it is something like the sister song of A Simple Understanding – where A Simple Understanding is about the downward spiral, and self-harm, Learning How is about realising that we’re just figuring things out as we go forward.
Who are your favourite artists you have found yourself listening to at the moment?
Lately I have been loving Maro, a singer songwriter out of Portugal. Her song “Saudade, Saudade” has been one of my top songs in the past few years. I also have been loving an artist I discovered on TikTok named Lily Lyons. Also, a fellow Denver artist Joel Ansett released an incredible album recently called “Layers” that is absolutely worth a listen.
If you could open a show for anyone in the world, who would it be?
This would have to be Fleet Foxes! They are one of my all-time favourite bands, and a huge inspiration to the music of Morning Bear. That would be a literal dream come true. I’ve also dreamed of opening for Gregory Alan Isakov when he plays at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
What do you find is the most rewarding part about being a musician?
To me, music is all about feeling things. Music communicates at a deeper level than words alone; It allows people to connect both to others, and to deeper parts of themselves. When I hear that my music is making a difference in someone else’s life – whether bringing them joy, or helping them through a tough time – it makes me feel like all the hard work has been worth it. Or when performing or watching a concert, and the energy is palpable as it travels between the audience and musicians on stage, I know that music is a worthy pursuit. There have been times in my life where I’ve felt guilty for pursuing music, and have forgotten that it can be easy to forget that music has value.
And what is the most frustrating part?
The modern indie musician wears so many hats. Personally, it is frustrating when I look at the amount of time I spend actually writing, playing, and recording music, in comparison to everything else. Creating and posting content, booking gigs, organising rehearsals and coordinating musicians (herding cats), inputting metadata, hundreds of emails… But even with all of that, I am so grateful to get to be a musician. Everything in life has difficult parts, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it to put in the work!
And what is the best piece of advice you have received as a musician?
In 2018 I had the incredible opportunity to play at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, one of the premier outdoor venues in the world. I was so nervous for this performance, and one of my acquaintances who had gotten to play the same series before told me to make sure that I spent some time during the performance intentionally enjoying it. To make sure to not just focus on the performance, but to take it all in and be present. I’m so glad that I took the time and effort to do this, because otherwise I might have let it fly by without taking a deliberate moment to appreciate it. I have taken this lesson on to the rest of my life, always trying to be present and thankful for the experiences I am having.
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Morning Bear's new single 'A Simple Misunderstanding' is available to stream now. Check it out in the player below.