Nashville-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist released her single “Melodramatic” last fall. Morris played all the instruments and mixed and recorded the single, and the accompanying video is done completely DIY.
“The more we learn about making videos, the more my imagination runs wild when coming up with concepts. Unlike some videos, I had a very clear picture of how I wanted to present the multiple deaths of the drama I create in my life. Creating drama is like crossing the street without looking both ways.” – Mia Morris
Tell us about the inspiration for your latest single, “Melodramatic”? Is there a particular lyric that speaks to you?
Melodramatic seems to be directed towards a person who needs to chill out. During the writing process, I felt that the song was written at someone, but I’ve discovered more recently that it’s really a note-to-self. Listening back on songs and realizing I’m calling myself out for something without even knowing it at the time, happens more often than I’d like to admit and “Melodramatic” is definitely one of those songs. Because of this, the first line (which I also repeat in the breakdown) “it might just be, you’re annoying and it’s not just me” speaks to me. ‘Cause it really is just me, after all.
Who/what were some influences when it came to writing the song, and what did the songwriting process look like co-writing with Kaleb Jones and Smith Curry?
Smith and Kaleb are two of my absolute favorite people to write with, so writing this was a blast. I’ve written many songs with the two of them. We all understand what everyone brings to the table and what I’m looking for in my music. Co-writing in Nashville is something that takes place all day, every day, and I spent about a year co-writing a lot of material during 2020. I don’t ever stop writing by myself, as well, because I think that’s the only way to discover and refine your individual voice, but I enjoy co-writing and think it’s a useful resource, especially if you live in a town full of world-class writers like Nashville.
You played all the instruments, mixed, and recorded the song; that’s quite impressive! When did you first get involved in music?
Thank you! I’ve always been involved with music because my family really celebrated and played great music in the house ever since I was a baby. I took piano lessons at a very young age, but the true beginning of my music career was when I started playing drums. I was nine years old and was absolutely obsessed with drumming. At 11, I started to pick up other instruments such as guitar, bass, and keys; and I started seriously writing songs when I was 13.
The video is compelling! Can you share with us the filming of the video? Any standout moments?
I appreciate that 🙂 The only way I’ve ever made videos is DIY just with my family and friends. Because of this, it can sometimes be challenging to make some of my abstract music video ideas come to life. With “Melodramatic,” I wanted to produce a visual representation of what I mentioned earlier regarding calling myself out. The idea was to have two Mia’s that represent the extreme slides of my personality (both are crazy). One of the Mia’s ends up killing the other one to destroy that side of my overall personality then takes the dead corpse out for a lovely day at the park. One of the lyrics says, “In the end, you know they’re both dead,” and of course I found a way to represent that lyric. Basically, the end of the video shows me waking up as a better version of myself than before, showing that it’s normal and okay to have passionate personality traits as long as you can find and live a well-balanced version of those extremes.
Connect with Mia Morris on Instagram – Instagram