Interview: Warganization's Jack Morrison Talks About Their New Single/Video "Air AM" and "Priority" EP

Warganization is an alternative electronic music project started by Jack Morrison in the early 2010s. It begun as more of an anonymous outing fronted more by Morrison's artwork and animated visuals more so than a proper "band," but as of late the project has made something of a transition into being represented by the members of the live band as well as Jack himself.

The band’s new single “Air AM” is currently designated as our DOPEST Song of the Week, and on top of that, they’ve just dropped an EP entitled “Priority”. We connected with Jack for an exclusive interview to discuss both, as well as to find out what Warganization’s musical goals are for the remainder of 2019, and much more.

After reading our Q&A with Jack, be sure to stream and share the “Priority” EP and connect with Warganization on their website and social media!

What initially inspired you to develop the alternative electronic music project known as Warganization; and where did the name originate from?

I came up with Warganization when I was a teenager, specifically when I was frustrated at my (then-)fruitless results of trying to form an "actual" band.

The name was originally "War Organization" but combining the two words wasn't exactly rocket science and I didn't really look back from there. Initially the aim was to be this very collaborative thing where I'd work with all these people, online or offline, and that would be the "organization" so to speak. To an extent that is what happened, though by this point I'd say about 90% of what you hear on a Warg record was produced and/or recorded by me.

If you had to describe your music to a stranger in three words, which ones would you select?

Alternative, electronic, ILL.

Tell us about your creative process for the new single "Air AM", which appears on your EP "Warg Cola".

"Air AM" is pretty much my version of alternative RnB. Whether or not anyone hears it as that is another matter, but in terms of what I was going for with that track - huge, otherworldly synth pads with the coolest beats and synth basslines I could come up with - I'm pretty happy with it. There are only a few other Warg tracks in the catalog right now that I'd say even slightly compare to it, but I hope to make at least a couple more in that vein when the feeling hits.

Your visual for "Air AM" is incredible; who directed the video and how did you come up with its treatment?

Thanks! It was co-directed and filmed by myself, co-Warg-Live-Band-member Katy Scherer and longtime collaborator Jose Martinez (who has also had a hand in the other two videos Warganization have done so far). I love making and having videos for the songs but it's still a concept that seems so huge and unattainable to me until I actually do it, and each time a video is finished I realize it's very much a realistically achievable thing and frankly I don't have many excuses to not make one for at least the big "singles" off all our future releases.

As for the visuals themselves, I just kind of pictured a mixture of televised big-city footage and a sort of mysterious rooftop performance vid. The Warg Live Band had got these neon glasses for our last performance so we slapped those on, went to our favorite parking tower, and went for it. The editing was relatively seamless after everything was filmed and collected. I guess some would think it odd that I chose to make a video for a song that's almost a year old, especially when we had already announced a new EP, but what can I say, it just seemed like a now-or-never sort of circumstance. Let's hope the video for "Priority" doesn't take a year to take shape!

How would you say that your new release "Priority" is different than the "Warg Cola" EP?

It's a lot more electronic-heavy and direct-sounding I think, especially the lead single and the cover of "Disappointed" (by Electronic). I was listening to a lot of Pet Shop Boys and stuff when I got the hankering to do "Priority," and they're about as "electro" as it gets as far as I'm concerned.

On “Warg Cola” I did the typical "Warg thing" of big beats, sampled drums and all that, and there is a bit of that here, but in terms of synthesizers-to-samples ratio it's quite a bit in the other direction. Fortunately I think it still pairs pretty well with the 'Cola stuff.

With "Priority" now out, what are some of your goals musically for the remainder of 2019?

More live performances and just to grow our audience in general. I currently have a live band who are able to play in Lafayette (Louisiana,) and even though we've only had one show so far with this particular lineup it was quite good and the potential is crazy.

I started Warg as a project that didn't even initially have the pretension of playing live (though that was mostly because I didn't know how I'd even do it) and now it's pretty amazing to have it realized on a stage like that, with a full band and all.

Ideally I'd like to do some sort of tour but for now I'm really just focusing on growing the fanbase and general awareness of the project/music as much as I can, in or out of the live context. Oh, and a full-length album would be cool.

Stream and Share “Priority” on: Bandcamp | Spotify

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