Moreton on Influences, Mental Health and Growing Up in an Indigenous Community
We had the incredible opportunity to speak with Georgia Potter, lead vocalist of Byron Bay alternative rock sensations Moreton, who talked us through their upcoming single “See Yourself” featuring Irish indie folk legend James Vincent McMorrow that will be out on Friday August 16th.
1. Can you tell us a little about your new single “See Yourself?”
See Yourself is a big ol’ ballad full of catharsis and hope and vulnerability. It’s about the first time you are horribly flawed in front of your new love, and wonder if they’ll embrace you for it. In particular, it’s about revealing your depression, about having lost your mind a little. It always felt like a duet when I wrote it, the classic nature of the form and the tempo, but I also thought it would be beautiful to hear two voices ask these questions of each other too, as we are all flawed and vulnerable. There’s also a sneaky Marilyn Monroe quote in there too.
2. You toured with James Vincent McMorrow in 2017, and now he features on this track. How did you find it working with him again?
It was really a dream and all came together very quickly. I thought because our voices are so different it could be a really interesting pairing.
3. What or who inspired the track musically?
Sonically it’s inspired by those big ballads on The Drones’ records. There’s usually at least one on every album and they’re always my favourites. It’s also inspired by classic 60’s RnB duets, the ebb and flow of two voices together with a classic bridge. As a band too, we’re always trying to use minimalism to create a space that’s big, so that the vocals can sit right up beside your ear
4. The track’s lyrics really resonated with us...The insecurity everyone feels at the beginning of a relationship is intensified when you suffer from mental illness; sometimes revealing your true self can be terrifying. What advice would you have for people struggling to share their more ‘difficult’ side with a partner?
I’m always pretty hesitant to give advice – I mean, who the fuck am I? I’m just someone who wrote a song about the same messy shit we all live through. I don’t know more about it because I wrote about it. But I guess in my own experiences, I’ve seen how we hide the hard stuff from the ones closest to us - our loves, our parents, our siblings, and that’s a shame because they’re also likely to be the most helpful, supportive and caring. I think it would be really wonderful to break apart that norm and stammer through those conversations with our loved ones.
5. If you could work with any other artist in the future, who would you love to collaborate with?
I would give an actual arm and a leg to make an album with The Black Keys as my band and producers. And to have Daniel Rossen from Grizzly Bear work on the arrangements. I think about that situation a little too much.
6. A lot of your music is central to the idea that there is beauty in sadness and darkness, what’s one thing that is typically seen as undesirable that you’re fond of?
Yes, the bittersweet. That’s where this project lives, that’s where all my questions are. At the moment I’m writing about violence – I can’t say I’m ‘fond’ of violence, but I see that it’s so close us in every moment – in our food, our history, our present, in nature. It’s embedded in our very existence and I’m exploring that at the moment.
7. Your music also regularly deals with the topic of mental illness. Would you like to share any other artists who tackle this difficult subject, or have maybe helped you through tough times?
It was another reason I thought James might be interested in this track, because his music also occupies a beautiful melancholy place that I’ve found soothing. I was just chatting with someone about Marvin Gaye, about how his message of just keepin’ on keepin’ on was so powerful, through a genre that was so joyful and danceable. And when I really want to sit in the sadness, I listen to a lot of classical music and old folk and blues music, as well as Portishead, Nina Simone, Sparklehorse, Grizzly Bear. I think Over the Ocean by Here We Go Magic might have saved my life at one moment too.
8. You are very passionate about your connection to Indigenous culture. What was the best part of growing up in an Aboriginal community?
I think I just feel lucky that’s a normal part of my life. The sounds of language and song, the smell of smoke and ceremony, the taste of food from the fire. To be close to the oldest living culture on earth, in my own country, is something that makes me feel very lucky. I feel like I’m able to see glimpses of how Australia could have been if the genocide hadn’t happened, if history had let Aboriginal people continue to lead this country. And those are also glimpses of what I see Australia becoming, as (far too slowly) we are acknowledging and turning towards our First Nations people and our black history.
9. How do you think your upbringing in a rural Aboriginal community affects your creative output and process now?
I think nature is the defining factor here – my relationship with nature is and always had been so robust because of my time in Cape York. It’s everything actually. It’s instilled me with this kind constant searching for stillness, for beauty, for noticing. From my time in Aurukun throughout my life, and to my years on the Moreton Bay islands which this band is named after, I’m chasing that elemental feeling that comes from nature and using that in my writing.
