Many of us tried to keep ourselves busy when the pandemic hit earlier in 2020; baking, gardening, and so on. Lunenburg-based singer, songwriter, and drummer Morgan Zwicker took this time to record his EP, Songs For No One, To You.
On Songs For No One, To You, Zwicker wears his heart on his sleeve and presents himself to the listener at his most vulnerable.
Zwicker, who describes the record as a “quarantine activity of sorts”, has made a name for himself as an in-demand session drummer around Nova Scotia. Having appeared on over a dozen records with bands such as Skeleton Club and Juicebox, Songs For No One, To You is Zwicker’s debut under his own name.
While his other bands are ripe with distortion, danceable drum beats, and humorous pop-punk lyrics, Songs For No One, To You is introspective and romantic. All the album’s tracks border on ballad territory. Acoustic piano or Fender Rhoades are featured prominently throughout, which helps to give many of the songs a seventies pop vibe.
The five-song EP covers the spectrum of indie, pop, and folk; and Zwicker says the album “reflects on love, life, death, and humanity with sombre introspection.”
Even before listening to a single track, you can see these feelings hinted at in the EP’s simple artwork: A stone-faced Zwicker stands in front of the foggy ocean, his dark grey shirt buttoned all the way to the top.
“Songs for No One, To You is the condensation of a millennial’s experience navigating life’s hurdles; the five songs are sequenced in a way to show progressive self-discovery and worldview,” says Zwicker.
“Why’re you walking alone in this Canadian cold?” sings Zwicker during the opening verse of “Walking Alone”. He describes the song, as well as the second track “Floating Away” as “the feeling that there’s only one other person in the mess of seven billion who matters to you”.
On “Running”, Zwicker references his time playing on cruise ships and uses his vivid descriptions of travelling the world to describe a restless young man finding himself. This song is a bridge between the first two tracks where Zwicker reflects on his teen years and the final two tracks about growing and learning “to make sense of life and its complexities”.
“Meditating on the idea of ageing and death may seem like a strange practice, but it’s dramatically helped me to enjoy the moment and realize that what we know is finite,” says Zwicker.
Having performed on albums ranging from progressive rock to R&B, Zwicker has an eclectic taste. Zwicker says his musical tastes have been evolving in 2020, but he had one major influence on Songs For No One, To You.
“I really fell in love with Andy Shauf’s music recently, which was a huge inspiration in the composition of this EP,” says Zwicker.
Having shifted gears and recorded an instrumental jazz album to be released in April, Zwicker says it’s hard to say what’s next for him; but says there’ll definitely be more music in the vein of Songs for No One, To You.