Blake Morgan Returns with the Romance of Film Noir In His Video for “Violent Delights”

Photo: Alice Teeple

These violent delights with you

Are worth every cut and bruise

For these violent delights with you

I’ll do whatever I have to do

Indie music iconoclast Blake Morgan returns with a new single and accompanying video, “Violent Delights,” from his fifth album of the same name, out now via ECR Music Group. The native New Yorker, artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist,owner, and activist has been riding a high of successful tours since the album’s release in May.

“Violent Delights” is an anthem highlighting the kind of mental gymnastics that come with leaping into uncertainty; its repetitive nature like a racing imagination talking someone through forthcoming sea changes. Morgan says his influences mostly come from The Police’s Ghost In The Machine and AC/DC, but we also hear the narrative songwriting style of Joe Jackson and Tears For Fears, as well as echoes of 90s Britpop acts like The Divine Comedy, Blur, Pulp, and earlier Radiohead.

The new music video, directed by Alice Teeple, was shot entirely on location at Brooklyn’s legendary recording studio The Bunker. This is the fourth collaboration between the filmmaker and Morgan, filmed in a signature monochromatic, timebending film noir look. With Morgan’s classic style, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when this cinematic world exists, and Violent Delights continues that thread.

“I so love working with Alice,” says Morgan. “We’ve watched a lot of the same old movies, and these videos reflect that: they’ve created a ‘pop-rock noir’ world for the music on this new record.”

Morgan is featured singing and playing multiple instruments in the video, along with NYC drummer Miles East, who was the only musician other than Morgan to appear on the entire album. The two can be seen working on the recording, as well as joking around in between takes.

“I’ve shot a few studio sessions before, but The Bunker has a delightful casual atmosphere and a lot of interesting sonic contraptions,” says Teeple. “It was a lot of fun to document Blake’s songwriting process. We all had a blast. I also threw in an inside joke about the song’s title. Someone’s typo declared it ‘violet delights’ and we found it amusing. I included it as part of the narrative, perhaps in the vague hope that the Choward’s Violet Candy company comes calling. Yoo-hoo, I’m ready!”

Watch below:

The album gets its title from a line in Act 2, Scene 6 of Romeo and Juliet (“These violent delights have violent ends”) when the young couple is warned by Friar Lawrence that their passions may cost them. This is Morgan’s first record primarily comprised of love songs, a departure for the artist. “I’ve written breakup records before, but never a ‘love’ record. I’ve never even used the words ‘love’ or ‘heart’ in a song before. Perhaps it helped to be in love, finally, for me to use those words convincingly.”

In the studio, Morgan has recorded and produced music’s brightest luminaries, from Lenny Kravitz to Lesley Gore. Morgan sings and performs all the instruments on this new record except for drums; he produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered the album at Valiant Recording NYC, the Greenwich Village recording studio he’s owned and operated since 2002.

Morgan is also the founder and president of ECR Music Group. His music advocacy has taken him to Capitol Hill numerous times where, as the founder of the #IRespectMusic movement, he continues to fight for music makers’ rights in the digital age.

For tour information, go here.

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