Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Morris.
Dave, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born into a musical family, specific to singing hymns due to my family’s religious roots. Harmony was ingrained in my mind as I grew up, and through drawing inspiration from pop and r&b genres, I found my sound somewhere in the middle. I was involved in high school and collegiate choir, took advantage of any hosted performance or competition, alongside writing and performing original material at coffee shops, county fairs, restaurants, and open mics.
After college, I moved to Los Angeles from San Diego to pursue music more seriously and to surround myself in a more competitive environment. I viewed that move as transitioning from being a big fish in a small pond to being a small fish in a big pond. There, I hustled between a few day jobs and would busk covers on streets with the highest foot traffic and persistently met with record labels to show them I was worth signing.
In December of 2018, I was signed to Kobalt Music’s record label entitled, AWAL. AWAL is an acronym that stands for Artists Without a Label because the management is shared between the artist and the label. It is essentially a distribution deal ensuring I can release music and be protected legally from a copyright and royalty standpoint.
To date, I’ve released a cover project and four originals with my producer, James Bishop. This year in 2020, I am planning on releasing at least two more singles as well as a couple more cover projects with Matt Giles, a fantastic keyboard player who has been a creative addition to the team. Valterri Salomaki works for Dave Morris’ brand strategy.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My first release was a top 40, 2 song mash-up project with a top 10 YouTuber, Maddi Jane. I arranged the mashup and had to be creative with problem-solving when Billie Eilish’s copyright team denied my request to release the mash-up. Basically, they told me that anyone is allowed to cover a song, but when you create a mash-up, you need special clearance since you’re changing the DNA of songs by mixing them together. I asked them if I could cut the audio track right in the middle of the song where it transitions, so it is technically two legal cover tracks on a two-song EP similar to the Coldplay album, “Mylo Xylo” where all the songs bleed into the next. They told me I had clearance and we released it on streaming services as well as YouTube!
It took so much rejection before I was signed to my distribution deal! I’ve been turned away from music TV shows, people, and venues, but hustling all the while! It’s a gift to have music be a talent and expression of mine, and revisiting that truth shakes rejection along the road!
Tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Thinking about music like a business is interesting because differences between musicians and their music are quite different from businesses and their products. In business, products have to be proprietary, but in music, songs share many elements that might be considered tasteful. Such qualities that I believe make my brand stand apart include the tone, vocal control, and range of my voice paired with my trusted inner circle of musician friends that help bring life to my music through production, creative brainstorming, critiquing, and brand strategy.
I am very proud to have a desire to be known as an ambitious yet humble creator. I am happy to have surrounded myself with musicians that challenge and inspire me, and I hope to be just that to a future songwriter one day.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
The markers I path out for success checkpoints would probably include wanting the music I have out to sound honest to me, to inspire those victim to writer’s block, for my music to reach the ears of the people I look up to musically, to co-write/collaborate with other artists, to tour, and to be able to have music take over as a steady stream of income.
Contact Info:
- Email: contactdavemorrismusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: /davemorrismusic
- Facebook: /davemorrismusic
- Twitter: /dav3morris
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