INTERVIEW: Moreton addresses mental health in new single 'See Yourself'

Moreton has just released a new single touching on the topics on self-importance and compassion called ‘See Yourself’ featuring James Vincent McMorrow. The song is accompanied by a music video directed by Mia Forrest who they have worked with on their track ‘Circles’. I talked to vocalist Georgia James Fairfield about the new song, the music video, and the theme of mental health.

Your latest single, ‘See Yourself’ features James Vincent McMorrow. How was the collaboration with him and is there anything about his songwriting process or musicianship that you found interesting?

It was a song that I had written always imagining it as a duet, and James and I had become friends when we went on tour together in 2017. His music has a lot of the same kind of themes in it (bittersweetness, melancholy beauty), so I thought he might relate to the song's intention. It's not something you could really sing if you didn't relate to it. And to my surprise, James loved the song, and in the quickest turn around between the band and I recording the bed of the track live, James had tracked his vocal in Dublin and sent it across. ‘The National’ and ‘Get Low’ are my favourite JVM songs and I'll always be trying to writes songs that good!

The music video for ‘See Yourself’ was directed by Mia Forrest who is an award-winning filmmaker. How was the process of creating the music video under her direction?

Mia and I are also really close friends, and we worked together on the video for our previous track ‘Circles’. We've got a really similar aesthetic and we're also really sensitive to authentic visual moments. We both can read when things feel right, not just look right. Mia has a background in photography and I just think the way she sets up a shot is so incredible. I love her work and I feel so lucky that she puts up with my shitty budgets and my over-analytical mind! For this video especially, we worked with film - which requires you to be so instinctive and fast-moving - and it was incredible watching Mia run that space. I'm not in the video but I was on-set being the audio person and runner! Ha!

How did the writing of this song come into fruition? Were the topics of vulnerability and showing compassion to others something you wanted to address because you’ve had personal experience with it?

I think you can garner from ‘See Yourself’ and from the rest of my music that I address a lot of the darker, more difficult topics in my life through my music. It truly is a catharsis for me, and the yin to my yang, cause if you meet me I'm actually a very smiley fun person, I'm always trying to make people laugh. This song was written a long time after the events that inspired it, about a falling in love at the same time as really struggling with my mental health. At some point, to let that person close to me, I had to expose how much I was hurting and how dark things had become. And this is about that moment of rawness and vulnerability between two people.

‘See Yourself’ addresses mental health and stresses the importance of self-acceptance. Is there anything else you can add regarding the purpose of the song and how you all addresses these situations?

I try not to think too much about a song's purpose beyond how it feels to listen to. I knew I wanted it to feel really raw and big and beautiful, so we decided to track it live all together in the one room so it had lots of human energy. We'd been setting up and getting levels etc, and went for our first 'proper' take, and something just happened in the room. We were all so connected to each other as a band. At the end of that first take, I looked at my drummer Myka, (my best friend) and we just smiled at each other. We did two more takes for safety, but we just knew we'd use that first one, and we did. Even the vocal ah's in the bridge were a warm-up improvisation, I'd never sung it before. It was all very special and magical.

You have described that you wanted to show the extraordinariness of ordinary people during the music video. What do you think the impact of the song’s meaning could have on listeners?

I heard Nick Cave once say that an artist should never turn around and reflect on their work. I really try not to project too much into that stuff or wonder what people will think or feel. I think staying in my own little bubble and making things that are as authentic and specific to me, is how I will make strong work that speaks to others. But let me tell you since ‘See Yourself's’ release, the messages and stories I have gotten from other people, sharing their experience with a similar struggle, has been the most heart-warming and powerful thing I've ever experienced. To see something I made out of my most difficult days become a beacon for other people to discuss their experience feels like another kind of magic that I could never have expected.

‘See Yourself’ has garnered significant attention since you’ve released it. What was your reaction about the popularity of the song? Do you think you connected with listeners because of how relatable the song was in addressing widespread problems people might be having in their life?

You just never know which songs are going to speak to people! People could have just as easily cringed at this and found it too intense. But I think the honesty that everyone, including James, poured into it, means it has a kind of resonant energy about it. And yes, I think we all know what it's like to doubt whether we are lovable, to wonder whether those around us will walk away, there is a universality there. And those reading this who experience mental illness will know - it is just so hard to get those words to pass your lips, to say I'm not okay and I need you.

Being from Brisbane, are there any Australian artists you’re currently listening to?

So much Australian music! Over in the West, I'm a big fan of Jacob Diamond and Carla Geneve. I also love Good Morning, Emerson Snowe, Jen Cloher, Angharad Drake, Jade Imagine - gosh there's too many! And of course, The Drones are my favourite band of all-time!