Marcus King released his 3rd solo album Mood Swings on April 5th this year and it delivered a new side of the artist. We had the opportunity to attend the online press conference organised and moderated by °1824 where King delved deeper into this new album and his upcoming touring schedule that started on May 24th in the United States and will continue in Europe this October. Next year he’s also going to Australia and New Zealand.
Photo Credit: Danny Clinch
Of course everyone is very curious to know about the writing and creation process of Mood Swings. King revealed that it was a very gratifying process because he was able to release his own emotions which he believes “should be more allowed to happen and be accepted by others”. At the same time, the process was also philosophical as King is inspired by many different music genres and artists, such as the Beastie Boys, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin to name a few. King stated how this album feels like the perfect opportunity to showcase the influence these artists have had on him while growing up, and to which he currently still looks up. Something else that stands out while listening to the new album: it’s obvious King doesn’t want to stick to one single genre, as he explores different elements of jazz, folk, blues-rock and some would say a bit of gospel here and there. King himself states that “the album cannot be categorised in one single genre” and that he thinks it’s incredible how “people tend to categorise music genres themselves and how that’s really cool”.
Another very clear thing is the vulnerability and the honest emotions expressed in the songs. King believes this album’s creational and writing process was very therapeutic for him too and he hopes to bring this vulnerability across to the audience on his upcoming tour. King considers mental health something very important and wants to be very open about it as well. He wants to bring across the message of the validation that those feelings you’re feeling are real. “It’s not very easy to do this all the time though”. He stated how ‘Bipolar Love’ was the most challenging song to write and create because he felt some fear of rejection. What he means by this is that he wrote this song he believed in, but he also felt a fear of the possibility of the song being rejected by his label. King revealed that this was the most challenging thing about creating the album as a whole.
“There were many versions of the sequencing of the songs on the album,” King said when answering a question about the album order. He and his label decided on the single of the album, ‘Mood Swings’, as the opener of the album because of the sample. ‘Cadillac’ became the last song of the album, and this decision was also made because of King’s voicemail in the song. He believed this was a perfect way to end this album which is all about vulnerability and honesty. Once the last song was decided, they had to “try to create a story between these two decisions”. King also shared that ‘Me or Tennessee’ would’ve been the main single if ‘Mood Swings’ didn’t make it. King states how this album feels like the most true to himself and how he is very confident in the current generation to release this kind of music. He expressed his desire to create a little throwback in terms of genres but with a modern touch that needs to resonate with the audience, which is his lyrics.
King also revealed how he travelled around a lot when writing songs, from Tuscany to Malibu for example, but how he prefers to be home with his wife, dogs and cats. He portrays himself as a homeboy for sure. King shared how his wife keeps him grounded and how “she’s always ready to go into any battle with him”. She will always have his back. King married his wife, Briley King, in February 2023 in Tennessee, United States. His wife took part in the creation of this album too: she suggested using voicemail from the night they met on the album, and it became a part of the song ‘Cadillac’. King commented on how his wife brings him more confidence and how she doesn’t care about his past relationships. This means that King uses his music as a kind of “time capsule where he writes from all different places, ages and relationships”. For example, he shared how the song ‘Young Blood’ was also a very challenging song to write because he wrote this song after a very codependent relationship ended and where he ended up in a dark and hurtful place. He stated how he was pretty numb during the writing sessions, in the sense that he was physically present during the sessions but mentally not even though he was helping in writing this song. He commented further on how he started writing music after traumatic experiences, ever since his childhood. “You can better help others if you can first help yourself” is a meaningful quote King shared, and one he tries to follow every day again.
As mentioned before, King aspires to be very open about mental health and the struggles that might come along with that. This is also very evident in his song ‘This Far Gone’ where one of the lyrics in the chorus goes “I guess I have a heart worth breaking”. He explained how he wrote this song when he was still in a past relationship, but in the end, they broke up. He said how he seemingly predicted the future with this song, and how this song was written from both a place of anger and especially a place of self-security. He deliberately decided to strip away the metaphors commonly used about mental health and to tell everyone the truth. He hopes the audience can resonate with this vulnerable message too.
About his upcoming tour, which started on May 24th in the US, he revealed how the album sessions remind him to be grounded and be present in the moment of the concert. “A bit similar to this press conference. Everyone is present and thus grounded in the moment” he laughed towards the end of the press conference. Being grounded at the moment is not always easy though and how it also depends on the audience itself of course. This is why King also doesn’t care about album sales or chart positions. He just wants to make music. He would love to win a Grammy one day but that’s not the main reason why he makes music. He ended the press conference with this meditation mantra: “Be good to yourself to be good to others”, which is loud and clear with this album. If you want to be grounded in the moment of vulnerability and honesty, check out this link to see if you can experience Marcus King live.
Written by: Maud Hoebers
Edited by: Ilse Muis
