MOZ DEF

PROLIFIC LOCAL LAD ANDREW MORRIS HAS JUST RELEASED HIS FOURTH RECORD NEEDS & WANTS AND, LIKE ANY GOOD ARTIST WITH LONGEVITY, HE JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER. BEN PREECE JOINS THE MAN FOR A COLD DRINK.

When Andrew Morris sat down to write the songs that would eventually become his fourth long-player – Needs & Wants – he undertook a new challenge that resulted in the album being something quite different for him. Writing on a piano for the first time not only shifted Morris’ sound somewhat but also changed his songwriting process almost completely.
“I can’t really play piano but I did have a few lessons just to get an idea of a few chords,” Morris reveals humbly. “It was a good challenge; I’m still not a very good piano player but I do wish I had learnt it as my first instrument. I just love the sound too, especially just piano, bass and drums – it’s always been a real hook for me sound-wise. I was limited by talent on the piano so I kept everything simpler and think I might’ve found chords I normally wouldn’t have on the guitar. I think it made me sing differently too.”
Sound-wise, Morris was inspired to make a soul record much like the ones he was brought up on – Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and The Staple Singers. But rather than merely pointing his songwriting prowess and indeed, his vocal style in this direction, he chose to record much like these greats might’ve back in the day: eight tracks, one room, nine friends in just five days.
“I think I’ve always had reflections of the soul thing in my last records,” he contemplates. “I think they’ve always been on the country side, but there have been elements [of soul] on there. I think it’s always been there but sometimes it might not be that obvious. Country and soul always go hand in hand anyway but with this one I wanted to really go there: the horns, lots of piano and backing vocals and so on.”
Produced in Melbourne by Marty Brown, Needs & Wants features an array of musicians and guest vocalists that include the likes of Clare Bowditch, Sime Nugent and Laura Jean. These musos have since been dubbed the The Mozettes.
“We’ve been talking for a while about doing some stuff together,” Morris says of working with Brown (whom he met through Brown’s wife Clare Bowditch). “I thought doing the soul record, he’d be the perfect man because he works on an old eight track tape machine, has some really nice old mics and goes for that real vintage thing. He pushed for the idea of doing it all live in the room and use some great old ribbon mics. I was also lucky enough to have these talented fellows, who I call friends, in Melbourne to come and play on the record. I think only guys of that calibre could’ve done it the way we did, in five days. They hadn’t even heard the songs, people were saying we were a bit crazy.
“But you know you only have to watch Standing On The Shoulders Of Motown to see how it’s done and that was our template – just like the brothers gathered around. It was very daunting and I was singing live too. I was pretty crook for one of the five days and didn’t even turn up, the guys laid some tracks down. Marty had to go to Berlin with Clare and I did the final four vocals on the way to the airport. I don’t really care if there are a few dodgy notes here and there and I don’t think, if we’d had time to rehearse, the record would be this good.”

WHO: Andrew Morris
WHAT: Needs & Wants (ABC Music/Universal)
WHERE & WHEN: The Globe Thursday March 12