Writing In Hallucinogenic Metaphors

Cris Cohen: I came across this really cool quote of yours in another interview where you said, “I used to write songs that had a lot of autobiography in them. Now, I write more in hallucinogenic metaphors.”

Andrew Morse of The Tasty Kings: (Laughs) That's true. Yes. Sounds like I was on hallucinogens when I said that.

Cris Cohen: What led to that change?

Andrew Morse: Sometimes by coming up with weird images or weird ideas or just making up stories, it winds up being more truthful than the actual truth. You know what I mean?

On this record that we did with Blondie Chaplin, there's a line from that song “Maybe I'm a Queen” where it goes, “Maybe I'm the moon shattering the sea.” 

I'm like, “Jesus Christ, I'm out of my mind now that I wrote that.”

But then I was talking to my friend who is a great singer / guitar player. His name is Kevin Trainor. 

I said to him, “See what I was going for there? Monet, the instantaneity?” Because he's a painter. 

He goes, “Yes.”  

I'm like, okay, well, we're off. “Maybe I'm the moon shattering the sea.” What, have I lost my fucking mind? But that's how it came out, so that's how it came out.

That was one of the first songs I wrote (where) I felt like I cracked the code. Because there was a point, I was really stuck and I was looking up “what are the most common objects in the English language?” And so “maybe I'm a matchbook, maybe I'm the match, maybe I'm the toaster, maybe I'm a piece of toast, blah, blah, blah.”

It was driving me crazy for a couple of weeks. 

Then I got to the point where it went, “Maybe I'm the kindness / Maybe I'm the greed / Maybe I'm the limit / Maybe I'm the speed.”
 
And I was like, okay, and now we're off.

“Maybe I'm the bridge / Maybe I'm the wall.” Those are all obviously metaphors, but it makes a little bit of sense, the subtext of that.

These songs take you to places where you really never thought you'd wind up. It's a big thrill. It's an adventure. I think Bob Dylan once said that it's an audacious thing to write a song.

I think that kind of depends on the song. A lot of people just write stupid whatever. They don't care. You can tell. 

But to write songs that have taken you somewhere, I think people can tell. Some of the really good Dylan songs, obviously they took him places.

It's kind of an adventure.

FULL INTERVIEW