South Wales-born but now London-based, four-piece sibling band Morn have only been around for two years, yet they’re already making waves across the capital’s underground guitar scene. From an early Speedy Wunderground signing to headlining Green Man’s Rising Stage and most recently landing their debut single on FIFA, the band’s ascent has been rapid and unrelenting – unsurprising, too, once you see them live. We caught up with Oli, Robert, Mae and Noah in the garden of the Windmill an hour before their headline set, to talk everything from Welsh versus London crowds to meeting Dan Carey and scoring a spot on FIFA.
Looking ahead to their Windmill headline, Oli admits the band are “exhausted, we’ve not slept very much but we’re so happy and excited to be here, it’s our favourite venue in the world.” What is it about the Windmill that makes it so special? “I think the sound really suits us,” says Noah. “But also it’s just very, you know, Lou Smith’s Windmill videos opened up a mad world of bands to us. We don’t shy away from the fact that when we started playing as a band, we came together because we loved the same music that was all from the Windmill scene. It definitely inspired us to play originally, and seeing young people doing it at this venue made us think we could do it as well.”
They’re on their fourth show in five days, and have learnt a few tricks to keep themselves going. Robert credits “having a good rider” and “having friends in all the cities that you play” – a strategy that, he says, saves them from “having to sell your soul.” It also means they get to live like humans: “We actually managed to cook ourselves our own dinner, instead of eating kebabs and pizzas everyday.”
Oli’s already thinking about how to keep spirits high next time. “Something I want to do is bring people with us on tour, so they can help keep the energy up,” he says. “When we’ve played festivals in the past, it’s been so much fun bringing mates along to share the fun – it means that we don’t get so sick of each other.”
Morn describe themselves as a “band of siblings” – though, as Oli quickly clarifies, it’s two pairs. “We’re not all siblings, that would be really weird and creepy,” he laughs. “That would be the ultimate Mbappé project – our parents would be up to something if we were all siblings.” But their closeness runs deep, and Mae explains how the group have grown up together: “We all started playing together when we were really young in school orchestras. We’ve known each other since we were tiny because our parents are friends. Noah and Mae’s mum is a yoga instructor and our mum went to her yoga class. We went to the same baby groups in our local town. We live in a tiny town where everyone knows everyone.” Not that Monmouth is brimming with bands. “There are two bands in Monmouth,” Noah laughs, “and I’m in both of them.”
A few days before our interview, the band announced that their debut and only single so far, Modern Man, had made it onto the new FIFA – or FC26. “Our producer Dan (Carey)’s manager got approached by EA to service some tracks,” Noah explains. “He was really digging Modern Man at the time. It could have been any of Dan’s tracks — like any of the Fontaines ones — but he was really into Modern Man, so it was the first song he pitched and they took it straight off the bat, which was really crazy.”
For Oli, the news earned them a rare kind of validation from back home. “I told my mates from home who also love FIFA — they’re like proper FUT Champs sweats — and they were like, what the fuck?” he grins. “When you meet your old friends from home and say, ‘Oh, I’m in a band,’ they kind of write you off as the one doing absolutely nothing, being a bit of a waster. So being like, ‘Oh yeah, my track’s on FIFA,’ suddenly they’re like, ‘Oh, OK — he’s not just still doing this stupid music stuff.’”
As mentioned, that single was produced with industry heavyweight Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Black Midi, Geese) through his label Speedy Wunderground. “It was really eye-opening,” says Oli. “We did it in one live take, the same way we do our live show, and then after that we’d do loads of overdubs. It’s really fun because the way he likes to do it — or the way we did it together — is really fast-paced. We were in the studio maybe three weeks ago and recorded two new songs in two days, and it was like go go go time the entire time. It means you can’t get away with not focusing on what you’re doing.”
Noah describes how their relationship with Carey and his label came about. “I met Dan in Bristol at a venue festival called Simple Things,” he recalls. “We saw him play in his band Miss Tiny, and I thought it was insane. Then I saw him walking around afterwards and was like, oh my god, it’s the guitarist from Miss Tiny, I’ve got to go tell him how good his guitar playing is. I was saying how I’m in a band and would love to support them, even though we’d only played like four gigs. He asked what demos I had, and I said we didn’t really have any because we’d literally just started. He was like, please send me anything so I told him we had a couple of videos we could send. I thought he was just this random guitarist, I didn’t realise he produced all of my favourite albums.”
Oli laughs at the memory. “And then he just dropped us a DM – we didn’t even give him our Instagram. He asked us to play their Volume 6 release party, and then we did loads together after that. Apparently Noah was really nonchalant, like, ‘Yeah, we could support your band if you play in Cardiff, we could do that.’ That’s probably why he went and found our Instagram — he was intrigued because you didn’t go up to him like, ‘Oh my god, I love all your work,’ and all that.”
Morn are heading to Rotterdam in a few weeks for Left of the Dial, and their excitement is obvious. Robert notes that it’s “our first gig outside the UK, abroad. Three shows in two days is going to be a new experience, I think it’ll be really fun.” They’re a little more cautious when it comes to Dutch drinking culture, though. “I’ve heard that a double in the Netherlands is basically a quadruple in the UK,” Oli laughs. “So don’t order doubles. We don’t drink until we’re on stage – we crack open our first beer on stage – so we always have to spend the night catching up to everyone.”
In a few weeks they’ll be back on home turf, with a run of festivals in Wales. Does playing to a home crowd feel different? Mae pauses. “It’s kind of weird. I think Green Man was a really good one – that felt special. But playing in Cardiff can sometimes be a bit daunting because it’s a different crowd. When we play in London it’s a younger crowd and people just fully submerge themselves, but in Cardiff you feel like you’ve got something to prove, because everyone’s really addressing everything you’re doing.”
For Oli heading home still feels grounding. “I find it really lovely going back,” he says. “We get to stay at our parents’ houses, which we’re very lucky to be able to live at. Noah and Mae live on a beautiful farm, and when we go back, we rehearse in the same room we always have. We always end up getting really distracted because we’ve got so much time. We played the set once in preparation for this tour, and then every other rehearsal we just got carried away with jams, going down these crazy rabbit holes. But it’s great music.”
It’s been almost two years since Morn first played The Moon in Cardiff — the cult local venue where everything properly began. Noah reflects on how far they’ve come since those early gigs. “I feel like it’s developed in every aspect,” he says. “The music itself has really changed – the sounds of everyone’s guitars, style-wise. Our playing’s gotten better and we all just know each other better. It keeps meaning more and more to us; our passion for it has just kept increasing. It’s been so much fun, and it’s taking over our lives more, I think. That’s probably the main thing that’s changed – we’re all just becoming more and more invested in the band.”
When it comes to the future, the band speak with both confidence and excitement. “We’ll play Glastonbury in two years,” says Robert. “It might be a very tiny stage.” Oli grins at the thought. “Hopefully the album will be out. We’re kind of looking to go straight in with an album – that’s the idea – and we’re just going to hopefully blow everyone’s minds. And then we get to play Glastonbury. That’s the dream, fingers crossed.”
It’s the kind of ambition that feels less like ego and more like a quiet understanding of the band’s potential. Watching Morn talk — tired but still uplifted and instinctively in tune — you get the sense that their dream might not be far off at all.
Words: Donovan Livesey Photo: @alisfavouritefilms