Q&A

David Morris… on his “cosmic firework family”

what can you tell me about setting these songs to music? are you writing with these particular musicians in mind?

I write the songs alone on guitar, and then I start playing them with the others. That is a huge moment, usually. The energy of that first jam is nearly always incredibly revealing. Each member of the band has a very deep and peculiar style of playing, which is a total gift to a songwriter like me who has few ideas beyond the chords and the rhythm and the words. It’s like floating a spark out into a six-dimensional field of fireworks, and I get to revel in the beautiful display that happens. They are my cosmic firework family.

How important is place to you? Could you have written these particular songs anywhere else in the world?

They arise from the sensations I have experienced in certain places, and the internal places I have found due to where I was in the world. I grew up in Cornwall and lived there until I was 27, and being Cornish sometimes figures in descriptions of our music, but I am not that interested in whether our music is called ‘Cornish’ or not. I don’t speak the Cornish language, but the landscapes of Cornwall speak to me, and will always do so.