Songwriter Morgan Cole Brown recently released his debut album, ‘Watching Your Friends Get Famous.’

It’s fairly human to feel on the outside looking in. We are such social creatures, and our root systems often depend on collaboration and community with many different people. For songwriter Morgan Cole Brown, the pandemic marked a period of intense isolation. And from the ashes of those forgotten years, Morgan gathered some friends and collaborators together to record ‘Watching Your Friends Get Famous.’

Brown has played in bands his whole life, but this is his debut batch of songs as a lead writer and vocalist. However, this is not his first foray into the industry. Brown worked at Roc Nation, helping put together non-profit music festivals. He’s even ended up in the same room as celebrities like Jay Z and Megan Thee Stallion. Brown truly did watch his friends get famous!

For this EP, Brown collaborated with indie rock legends like Andy Altadonna (Puddle Splasher, Classic Traffic), Shane Furst (Royal Blush, No Curse), and Dante Fotino (Puddle Splasher, Family Dinner). Just before the pandemic lockdowns of March 2020, Brown and Altadonna began demoing songs. Over the course of the next three years, those songs had the opportunity to morph into ‘Watching Your Friends Get Famous.’ Brown recalls, “Between anxiety and comparison culture, I wanted to create a truly authentic piece of work talking about the constant rut of being creative.” Over earnest strums and tight modern rock rhythms, Brown spends thirty minutes coming to terms with what it means to be an artist. From the desire for change on ‘Nose Ring’ to the heartbreak on ‘Pt. 2,’ Brown’s soaring melodies and sincere lyrics help guide listeners towards catharsis.

The songs on ‘Watching Your Friends Get Famous’ feel like they needed to be made, whether it was for the sake of the artist or for the audience. There’s something that feels so universal and yet so personal about the songs that Morgan Cole Brown writes. And if that’s not the ultimate end of songwriting, then what is?

Since this EP (LP) was recorded over a long period of time, did any of the songs go through significant changes?

When I first started on this record, it was 2020 and all of the songs were written with just me and an acoustic guitar. Going through the production process with my producers (Andy Altadonna and Shane Furst), we were really able to see the songs grow into the full band versions they are now. We cut songs, added other songs, but I wanted to find the tracks that fit the themes of the record I wanted to write about more. One of the biggest changes to the actual songs, were a lot of the additional sonic elements added after the initial recording sessions, working with the composer Andrew Pattenaude.

What excited you the most about this collection of songs?

With this collection of songs, the thing I’m most excited about would honestly be the fact they are out! I have been playing in bands and making music that I wrote since I was like 14, but these songs mean so much to me because I have been working since even before covid. Constantly fixing, shaping, adding and taking away elements to really make these songs special, unique and relevant to the themes of the record. This is my first solo album, the fact that this record is out, is the most exciting thing to me.

What makes these songs feel spiritually connected together? The release has a very cohesive feeling throughout, and I imagine that this was an intentional and painstaking writing process!

With this being my first solo record, I really wanted to swing for the fences and put out something that was a concept album. A real introduction. The first thing I had was the name, ‘Watching Your Friends Get Famous.’ which was a lyric I wrote from the first song I wrote on the album ‘Learning How To Drive,’ once I realized that would be the album title, then I wanted to write about isolation, comparison culture body positivity and everything people are going through with the rise of the digital age. Everything is competition, no one makes any money, a&r reps are only scrolling through TikTok, and everyone keeps falling into this cycle of self hate and low self esteem. So taking these themes, also including themes of love found, love lost, both with relationships with others and yourself, I wanted to be able to create a cohesive album.

Are you excited to translate these songs live?

In short, yes. I have actually been playing these songs for around 2 years before the album release show we had when the record came out. Which I would say was the best thing I could have done. By the time the album came out, everyone knew all the words from both seeing the shows in the past and listening to the album when it came out. Seeing that happen just made me feel so elated for the upcoming shows I have, now that the record is out.

What do you hope listeners take away from these songs?

With the album ‘Watching Your Friends Get Famous,’ I just hope people can relate to the hard parts, but leave feeling new, hopeful and optimistic. Discussing topics like body positivity, depression, anxiety, are all hard, but these are themes that everyone I know is struggling with, so I hope people relate, and with that, relate to more people, be the best version of themselves and overall, know it will all get better in the end.

Morgan Cole Brown Instagram / YouTube