British guitarist, singer, and songwriter Billy Morrison has a new solo album, The Morrison Project, out now in the UK via the TLG/Virgin Music Group.
Also recently released is ‘It’s Come To This’, the third single taken from the parent album, available digitally with a video you can check out here at RAMzine.
Directed by Ivo Raza, and shot in the desert outside of the Lancaster/Palmdale area Morrison is joined in the video by acclaimed actor Joe Manganiello whose character is a mysterious collector of souls.
“During the Pandemic,” Morrison mused, “I was having fantasies of selling it all, jumping in the car and just disappearing into the desert, in search of a deeper meaning to what we were all going through. The information overload and the uncertainty was getting to me and I felt like it had come to this… It had come to a point where I wanted out!!
“The video reflects the road movies of the 70s and I’m grateful to Joe for agreeing to spend a day in the blazing hot sun with me! I wanted him to have an input into his character and he came up with the idea of a collector of souls. Joe makes such an imposing and scary figure on film!
“The Shelby Mustang was loaned to me by Galpin Auto Sports, with whom I have a wonderful relationship,” Morrison added. “Thanks to Dave Shuten and Beau Boeckmann, they sent the car out to our location. I got to drive it all day, wheel-spin it around the dirt, and generally get to live out my automobile fantasy!!”
Prior to that Morrison had Ozzy Osbourne guest feature on ‘Crack Cocaine’ the single he released previously, with the song hitting No. 2 in the USA charts, and reaching No.1 in the Active Rock Song in America charts.
Co-written by Morrison and his fellow Billy Idol Band guitarist, Steve Stevens, alongside Osbourne, the song isn’t about drugs.
Rather, the song is about a guy who’s loves his girlfriend and that feels a bit like being addicted to ‘Crack Cocaine‘, as a sampling of the lyrics here denotes: “I guess the way that your love makes me feel; must mean I’m really addicted. Loving you is driving me insane, I put you down and pick you up again Like crack cocaine.”
To get the full story, check out the video here at RAMzine, then purchase/stream the single digitally by clicking here.
Primarily known as Billy Idol’s rhythm guitar player for the past 15 years, The Morrison Project, is Billy Morrison’s third solo album, and his first since 2015. Produced by the man himself, it was mixed by Barry Pointer, and mastered by Dave Donnelly. The songs were all recorded in Los Angeles at various studios and written by Morrison in collaboration with his guests; an impressive bunch that includes Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, DMC, Al Jourgensen, Steve Vai, Steve Stevens, Linda Perry, Tommy Clufetos, and John5, among others.
“I truly believe that making music without any preconceptions or goals yields the most creative and enjoyable results. And that is exactly how this record came to life,” Morrison explained. “Making music with Erik (Eldenius) and Jeordie (White) during covid, and mixing different musical styles started my journey towards this collection of songs that ended up featuring a lot of my friends.”
Tracks featured on the album are: ‘Drowning’(written by Morrison, Erik Eldenius & Jeordie White), ‘Crack Cocaine’ featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Stevens with Tommy Clufetos on Drums (by Morrison, Osbourne & Stevens), ‘Its Come To This’(by Morrison & Eldenius), ‘The Ayes Have it’ featuring Al Jourgensen and John5 with Roy Mayorga on drums (by Morrison), ‘Dystopia’ (by Morrison/Eldenius/White), ‘Incite The Watch’ featuring Corey Taylor and Steve Vai (by Morrison, Eldenius, White & Taylor), ‘Puppets On A String(by Billy Morrison, Eldenius & White), ‘Just Like A Movie’ featuring D.M.C. and Persia Numan with Erik Eldenius on drums (by Morrison, Eldenius, White, Darryl McDaniels & Numan), ‘The Sound Of Freedom’(by Morrison, Eldenius & White), ‘Mr. Dream’ featuring Billy Idol and Steve Stevens (by Morrison, Eldenius, White, Stevens & Idol), ‘We Are The Dead’(by Morrison, Eldenius & White) and ‘Chasing Shadows’ featuring Linda Perry) (by Morrison).
“While the guest artists on Billy’s record are very impressive, it’s the songwriting that sold me,” said TLG/Virgin Music Group’s Dennis Sanders. We feel blessed here at TLG to have the opportunity to bring this music to the world.”
‘Drowning’ was previously released as a single and its accompanying video illustrated the soul-destroying effects of information overload, and you can check that out here at RAMzine too, and get the single by clicking here.
“I drove everyone crazy with this video,” said Morrison. “First thing I said was ‘We need underwater videography because I’m going to fall into a deep swimming pool with 20lbs of weights attached. So, I sink like a stone. I want you to film it!’ Once I had them on board with that,” he added, “I threw in ‘Oh, and we need to rent three huge cockroaches which are going to crawl all over my face’—I’m sure they all think I’m crazy, but that sense of unease in the video captures the essence of the song. Information overload. We all feel it!”.
Directed by Devin Szell, producedby Blue Chair Productions, and shot in Los Angeles. The ‘Drowning’ video is “gritty, fast-paced and hectic—an attempt to illustrate what my head felt like at the time,” explained Morrison. “I had reached a point two or three years ago where the information flow was so constant, so extreme and so polarising to me that I couldn’t take it all in. Too much news, too many pundits and opinionated idiots. I felt like I was drowning in negativity. My previous solution was to numb out, get loaded, feel nothing, so this time I wrote the song as a cathartic way of dealing with what I was feeling at the time.”
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