美国国家公共电台 NPR PJ Morton Taps Into His Purest Form With 'PAUL'（在线收听）

PJ Morton Taps Into His Purest Form With 'PAUL'

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

It's been a good year for artist PJ Morton. He headlined the Super Bowl with his bandmates in Maroon 5, won his first Grammy and is on tour now for his new and most personal album yet, "PAUL."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KID AGAIN")

PJ MORTON: (Singing) I'm? going back to all those dreams I once had before I let all these things in my head...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But it's been a long journey from playing the keyboard for Maroon 5 to gaining success as a solo artist. PJ Morton joins me now from our studios in New York. Welcome.

MORTON: Yes, thank you for having me. Good to be here.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So tell me about the title of this album. Paul is your real name, right?

MORTON: Paul is my real name, yes, but because my father's name is Paul as well, my family has always called me PJ just to distinguish us in the house.

(LAUGHTER)

MORTON: But for me, you know, even though most people call me PJ, I feel like I came in the world as Paul. You know, it's the purest form of who I am, and my journey and my quest is always to try to get to the purest form of who I am artistically. And that's why I thought it'd be a good name for this record.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KID AGAIN")

MORTON: (Singing) You just need to believe like a kid again, like a kid again, kid again. You just need to...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, what is the kind of difference between being part of a group like Maroon 5 with a very distinct identity and then trying to find your own voice outside of that?

MORTON: Well, I mean, I think being in a band, you know, it's majority rule. So, I mean, I love my band, I love Maroon 5 and I love what we do, but it's not always what I'm saying individually. It's not what I would speak to and everything that I'm thinking and going through all the time. So I was actually a solo artist before Maroon 5. So it's always been a lot of support. I think a lot of the struggle was me personally. I started to have all this success with Maroon, and I got confused as to whether I was supposed to chase that same success. It just all became kind of confusing and cluttered for me in my brain. And I had to step back to say who is PJ and what does PJ want to say?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PRACTICING")

MORTON: (Singing) They always told me my ideas would never work. Go to college, get your degree so you could go to work. Yeah, because you're going to need a backup plan just in case anything happens. That’s the only thing...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, let's talk about what PJ wants to say in "PAUL." You recorded this album in New Orleans where you grew up.

MORTON: I did.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It seems like it's giving you the clarity that you were looking for.

MORTON: Exactly. It's true. It's true.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUY BACK THE BLOCK")

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Confirming that rapper Nipsey was shot and killed outside his clothing store here. I was talking with a lot of people out here who are...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: There's a song on this album called "Buy Back The Block," and it starts with the news of rapper Nipsey Hussle's death when he was shot earlier this year.

MORTON: Yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But the song has an uplifting beat. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUY BACK THE BLOCK")

MORTON: (Singing) We got to buy back the block. Oh, buy back the block. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What did you want to say with this song?

MORTON: You know, Nipsey Hussle's passing - and I didn't know Nipsey personally - but his passing really kind of was a call to action for me. I think that his life meant something. And one of the main things that drew me to him was the way he took care of his community and really invested in his community. And I think that's just very important. And for me, he's in LA, but I feel like my version is to do it in New Orleans. And - but I think...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Because you saved the former home of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden from demolition in New Orleans, right?

MORTON: That's right. Yeah, we're renovating his home now and turning it into a museum and also a music club house for kids. I feel like Buddy Bolden's - the reason he thought of this new thing jazz is because he wasn't complacent and he wanted to break out of any boxes that were there. And I just want us to continue to innovate the way he did.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUY BACK THE BLOCK")

MORTON: (Singing) Got to stick together. We all we got. Buy back the block.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Buy back the block.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: There's another song I wanted to ask you about. And it's called "MAGA?"

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAGA?")

MORTON: (Singing) Make America Great Again. I think they mean when it was great for them because it wasn't so great for everyone back then...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So talk to me a little bit about this. Why did you feel it was important to talk about this political moment in your music?

MORTON: I'm trying to see when we'd like to go back to. You know, when you say Make America Great Again, what period are you talking about? Because a lot of times, they're referencing the 1950s when you had the American dream with the white picket fence. But at that same time, we couldn't drink from the same water fountains. You know, we couldn't vote the same way. We couldn't do a lot of the same things that these people who would like to go back to this America were able to do. So it was really just a - it's a simple question for me, and it came out of curiosity.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAGA?")

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Make America Great Again. Again, when?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Do you see the song "MAGA?" and "Buy Back The Block" any differently right now? I'm speaking, of course, of the mass shootings that have taken place and just the rise in hate crimes generally. Are these songs sort of two sides of the same coin in a way?

MORTON: I think so. Yeah, I think they're all connected. I think we're talking about lifting up a certain community. And I think we're talking about ignoring that same community. And for that reason, that same community having to invest in themselves.

. (SOUNDBITE OF PJ MORTON SONG, “YEARNING FOR YOUR LOVE”)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Your parents are deeply religious. Your father is a preacher, your mother is a pastor. And I understand you still perform in churches.

MORTON: Sure.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: How come?

MORTON: For better or worse, really, on certain things, it shaped me to have integrity, you know, to have a standard in my music and in life and also not just go back and perform. But I feel like even the way - you know, when I started, these love songs and secular songs, as a lot of church people call it, weren't accepted there. You know, the fact that I can perform in churches now and do my own music just speaks to some of the trailblazing that I had to do, some of the getting beat up that I had to do younger, you know, and growing up in this. So it's important for me to reach back and continue to try to instill whatever I have into the community that raised me.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEARNING FOR YOUR LOVE")

MORTON: (Singing) My heart is yearning for your love. Oh...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: PJ Morton's new album is "PAUL."

Thank you very much.

MORTON: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEARNING FOR YOUR LOVE")

MORTON: (Singing) Yearning for your love.