Self-proclaimed UK Americana rock band Morganway will release their next studio record ‘Kill The Silence‘ on January 31, 2025 (distributed via Earache Records). Recorded in a whiskey-fuelled four-day haze within the Welsh valleys, Morganway pay homage to life as independent musicians for all its faults and joys, aided along by lead vocalist SJ Mortimer’s incredible vocals.
The Morgan Twins Kieran (guitar) and Callum (bass, vocals), as well as Matt (keyboard, vocals) and Ed (drums, vocals), are all from Norfolk, where they met at Aylsham High School. The band name comes from the twins’ grandad and the road that was named after him in Norwich.
Nicole (fiddle, vocals), Kieran and SJ (lead vocals) met later in Cambridge and played together for years in a band called SJ & The Flying Pigs and Kieran and SJ are now married. So it’s definitely a bit of a family band!
The album was reviewed by our very own Anna-Louise (link here) and this is what she had to say:
In summary, melody and harmonies are skillfully employed in this eclectic pleasure of an album. It is like a box of chocolates where every one has a slightly different taste and texture. I would honestly say there are no fillers in this album that doesn’t so much as squeeze that lemon of success; it blasts it upwards on a rocket. A band going places for sure.
Standout Tracks: “Boy on a Train,” “God Damn Time,” and “Halfway Tonight.”
Post-review, we reached out and were very happy to sit down with vocalists CJ, Kieran (guitar) and Callum (bass, vocals) to talk about the album and tour.

We began by noting how much we liked the cover for their debut album, the self-styled “Morganway” (2019); it has this clever blending of the figures. In the old days of vinyl, we think this would have been a cover that would attract the eye.
CJ: We had the photographs taken separately.
Callum: It was a friend called Gordon who is insanely gifted with Photoshop and a photographer from Bury St. Edmunds called Richard Ecclestone who is a wonderful music photographer who I met by chance in a cafe. He did the photos in a separate studio and then we sent them to Gordon.
Kieran: And he is a Photoshop genius who lives in the US and he just does insane stuff. We asked him what he could do with the photos and he sent them back to us. It is a great vision for the band and the six of us have very different influences, and what makes the band sound is when the six of us come together. I always see that first album as a symbolic version of the genre that is Morganway, the six of us and our ideas blended together.
CJ: We went for the same vibe with the second cover as well; again, we had individual shots taken and then Nicci designed Morganway with the colours moulded onto faces in between the logo. It’s all about the mould!
On that debut album is a track called “You Can Only Die Once,” and we all thought it needed to say “You Can Only Die Once, Mr. Bond,” with a Bond villain saying the line. This had to be a missed opportunity for a 007 signature tune! Is it still played live (and if it is, they should do the Bond pose at the tracks end)?
Callum: Just maybe, now you have said that!
CJ: We played it on the last tour.
Callum: We play it live as it is a good live number so it still creeps into the set sometimes. It is getting harder to do set lists as this is our third record so we want to do a nice mixture showing the first two records, but really play a lot of new songs. Every artist has that conundrum as their career progresses. “You Can Only Die Once” is an older song, like “Let Me Go.” At the time of recording that first album, we hadn’t been playing it too much, so we knew those two songs less, but I think they both came out really fresh from that album. A similar approach was there for this album, as tracks like “I Feel the Rain” and “Halfway Tonight”—the versions we recorded for that album were largely discovered in the studio.
CJ: “You Can Only Die Once” has a middle section that we strip down live and almost whisper. But the funny thing about the James Bond thing comes from a fan who comes to a few shows and we nickname him Mr. Bond because his favourite song is “You Can Only Die Once.”
The new album has one mean fiddle. Songs like “Boy on the Train” and “Feels Like Letting Go” just showcase how hard this band is to umbrella under a genre. A band like Queen can move from ragtime to heavy rock at the flick of a switch, but bands like that are few. Morganway seems to be one. How do Morganway see themselves?
CJ: We are definitely a band that is genreless; we don’t tend to go into the studio with a specific vibe for an album in mind; we write music that feels good for us and we have different influences that we bring to the table. It always ends up being an eclectic roller coaster of a ride.
Callum: You mention Queen; we get compared to Fleetward Mac a lot. They don’t really have a genre. I guess we live in a genre-dictated market but we are aware we are genreless.
Kieran: Audiences don’t really worry about that. It is the algorithms and the industry; it is interesting though that the audience are not judging over genre so we feel at home on stage and play for fans who love us for who we are and this record that we are proud of.
CJ: Genre helps Spotify pitch you, and you have to tick three genres from this crazy number when you place your music. Our music changes from rock to country or folk vibes and everything in-between. So it is hard to pick three.
Also, understanding of genres changes over time and things are massively subdivided now (math rock??).
Kieran: I was watching an interview with the guitarist from Slipknot talking about his band and he was saying they were a band of seven or eight people, all from different musical genres and they just make music together and the sound arrives, and I thought that was just like us.
We spoke to Georgia Nevada recently about the release of her EP, and in that interview (linked at the end) she said, “I’m also hosting 2x EP Launch shows on the 4th and 5th of December in Hertfordshire. I’m being joined by SJ Mortimer (of the band Morganway) and Gina Larner for a songwriters round on the 4th and Darcy Beau is opening for my band and me on the 5th.” So we asked CJ how that went!
CJ: It was lovely; she did a Nashville thing that is becoming more popular in the country vibe at folk and country festivals where it is all acoustic and usually solo. There are three or four people on stage and you take it in turns to sing one of your songs. You get to chat about the song and it is like an intimate, laid-back gig and I love doing them as I get to do some songs that I never usually get to play as we will rock it up to the max. This gets me playing a softer side and it was a great evening.

In the office here, a favourite track was “Halfway Tonight,” but our next question concerns “Edge of the Sun.” Who was the pianist on that, and is the piano the instrument of choice for songwriting?
Kieran: In the Beatles documentary “Get Back,” we all watched, and we have a lot of songwriters; we collaborate and I may bring an idea, but things come from all different places. Watching “Get Back,” where one would bring in a song and they would hear it together and then work on it for a couple of hours and bring a record we all know and love; it made us think. On “Halfway Tonight,” it was in a swing style and then the day of recording, we all hit it harder.
Callum: It wasn’t in swing, but I was obsessed that it should be in swing; we played it a bit before that, then Nicci, being very diplomatic, suggested we try it in swing, which we did a few times. I didn’t realize it, but she was actually cross because it wasn’t done straight. So just before we recorded it was still in swing, and she was jamming with Ed on the mandolin, and Ed was on the sofa drumming. Then what they were doing I said was amazing and asked what it was and she replied, “Halfway Tonight” played straight. It was then a done deal; there is mandolin on the track but it is hard to pick out. It’s all about being open so that the band can go off in different directions. With the piano, a song may originate from SJ or myself but Matt was playing piano on that song. He is such a good musician that you can bring him an idea of a song and he will interpret it on the piano.
CJ: With “Edge of the Sun,” Kieran had the riff, which was the chorus melody, then Nicci and I wrote the story and took it to the band. Matt then added the beautiful lines on the piano. It turned into a lovely ballad.
Kieran: And an interesting point: the album was recorded live but the piano used was a really old, honky-tonk piano. It worked for most stuff, but for “Edge of the Sun,” afterwards we re-recorded it on a proper grand piano to get the proper sound. It is a piano-led song.
Talking instruments, how do the band view solos when playing live? Are they note-for-note perfectionists or more toward the Zappa anything goes style of delivery?
Kieran: We are more spontaneous.
CJ: Structure wise we are pretty solid. But Nicci will experiment, as will Kieran, they solo together.
Kieran: I will catch the band out on stage by doing something different, a bit of unexpected slide. I’m inspired by John Frusciante and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and they never do the same thing every night.
CJ: And Nicci likes to mix it up on the fiddle a lot as well as she gets bored with the same riff, so it suddenly will take a song up a level.
Kieran: And Matt on the organ, he says he never remembers what he plays so he sees how it all works out on the night!
Callum: That works less on bass, I can’t just solo on a song. But bass players can be exciting on the live stage and the whole bass side of things…I stumbled into music as I was into other forms of writing and I ended up in music. I went to school with Matt our keyboard player and he had a bass, so I thought I would play bass and I got into it from there. It may not be a lead instrument, but look at Flea from Chilli Peppers! He subverts any notion of bass not being a lead instrument. With Morganway I went through phases of writing songs through guitar, but gradually I developed my role with the bass. It is a great fun instrument to play and maybe I just need a 15 minute bass solo!!
In the age of streaming – the audience do tend to cherry pick songs, undermining the attention bands give to running order. The new album opens with a big number “Don’t Turn the Lights on Yet,” although we may perhaps have started with “Boy on the Train.” How much consideration went into the running order?
Kieran: Album orders are so difficult to do, especially as we have an eclectic song mix. But the one thing we all agreed on early on was that “Don’t Turn the Lights on Yet,” would open.
CJ: It was written at a time when we were snowed in in Scotland on tour and we were in this little cottage in the middle of nowhere. What can you do other than get drunk on whiskey and write this song! It is a combined effort written from start to end.
Kieran: That felt the beginning of this album process.
Callum: It is so hard, and with the streaming age, we feel there is an art to album order but it is hard to get it right and there were so many possible variations suggested. But I don’t think anyone ever suggested “Boy on the Train” first! With streaming people can make their own order, and how people want to listen to it is fine by me. Although some classic albums can only follow a certain order.
And there we closed the chat, for now! After all, the guys are off on tour and Rock the Joint Magazine is catching them at the Cluny in Newcastle (watch out for the review and accompanying pics). They are a band on the rise, and its a tour worth checking out.
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Stream music from the band here
Band website here
By Mark C. Chambers
and
Lorraine Foley
Following the release of “Kill The Silence” and their first headline tour in Germany, Morganway will embark on their biggest-ever headline UK tour. Full dates below
The UK Tour 2025
Book tickets here
Wed 2 Apr – Norwich, Epic Studios
Thu 3 Apr – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Fri 4 Apr – Newcastle, The Cluny
Sat 5 Apr – Glasgow, Drygate
Sun 6 Apr – Whitby Pavilion
Wed 9 Apr – Hassocks, Mid Sussex Music Hall
Thu 10 Apr – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
Fri 11 Apr – Manchester, The Deaf Institute
Sat 12 Apr – Bodega Nottingham
Sun 13 Apr – Birkenhead, Future Yard
Wed 23 Apr – Winchester, The Railway Inn
Thu 24 Apr – Oxford, The Jericho
Fri 25 Apr – Bristol, Thekla
Sat 26 Apr – London, Omeara
These guys are some of the best up and coming British bands. Catch this tour for sure while they are still playing smaller gigs. I think before long they are going to be supporting major acts in arenas.