We welcome Morqix on board phuture collective with his track ‘Desperate Measures‘ as part of issue eight | LUST.
You’ll get the chance to read our exclusive interview with this emerging artist based out of Austin, TX. We wouldn’t have heard this track if it wasn’t for Jonny of Night Owl Collective, so here’s a big shoutout full of love! Go ahead and press play below, then start reading <3.
Interview curated by Soba & Floret Loret of phuture.
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phuture: Hey there Morqix! Welcome aboard phuture collective <3. Tell the world a bit about yourself!
Morqix: Hi! My name is Matt McDonald and i’m currently residing in Austin, TX. I started making music when a buddy of mine introduced me to Fruity Loops back in 2005. Fast forward to about 2008 when I dropped out of college because I was partying too hard, I started getting more serious about music. At that time, I was actually collaborating with one of my best friends Amir and together we became known as Ameerkat & Matheus. We played showed all around the DC, Baltimore, Richmond areas right around dawn of modern EDM on the east coast. Shit was crazy honestly. Dubstep and glitch hop was our thing and people were eating it up because it was all so new and fresh to the scene. After a few years of that, I ended up going back to JMU to finish up my degree in Graphic Design and then ended up moving straight to Austin to continue chasing good art, good music and good people. While I had a lot of fun producing for A&M, my tastes were changing and my buddy Amir was getting busy with his own life too, so I said heck..why not do my own thing. So at the very beginning of 2015, I started Morqix and got super serious with producing. I’m now 29 years old, I just had a son who is now 4.5 months old, and I work my 9-5 as a graphic designer. Life is good and getting better <3 I spend about 10 hours a week on tunes and am still able to be a family guy, so don’t let anyone tell you you’ve got to give up your dreams after you have a kid. it’s bs ;).
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phuture: Why did you get into music in the first place? What birthed your creative ingenuity?
Morqix: I got into music because it made me feel good. With producing and being able to put my ideas out in the form of audio, I quickly learned that I could make others feel good with it too. My roots were always hip-hop and indie music, so naturally I gravitated toward producing bass music usually always infused with some sort of touchy-feely type chord progressions. Happy stuff! The creativity spawned from just trying to experiment with sound design and genre bending. Naturally, we are all influenced by what we hear, but I think there are ways to transcend that and generally once you commit to not trying to sound like others and just make what you feel, that’s when you start to get into something interesting. Taking my favorite elements of music and combining them is what gives me my end result. For me those are heavy bass lines, lush chords, orchestral instruments and vocal chops.
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phuture: If you had to lose a body part, what would it be and why? Personally, I would give up my appendix. Who needs it!
Morqix: Probably wouldn’t mind losing my tail bone. Can’t tell you how many times I smashed that thing snowboarding or skateboarding growing up.
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phuture: What is the last song on soundcloud that truly captivated your attention?
Morqix: This is really hard because I probably discover one song per day that does this, some more than others. For the sake of emphasis though, I will have to say the song “Raven” by CharlestheFirst. Something about it just gets me going.
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phuture: What is your dream collab? If you had the chance to work with any other musician or artist, who would you want it to be and why?
Morqix: Probably Mr. Bill to be honest. I just have such mad respect for the guy. He is such an underrated producer, although now he has made quite a successful music career for himself, but I just think I would really learn a lot working with him. I have been a big time Ableton user since 2008 and Mr. Bill is probably one of the more knowledgeable and innovative producers using the DAW.
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phuture: What goals do you have for this year musically? (Keep in mind, reach for the moon because if you fail you’ll still land among the stars 🙂 )
Morqix : This year, my goals are to get a #1 song on Hype Machine for any amount of time, acquire 2000 new followers and play my first show at Empire Control Room in Austin because that’s my favorite venue 😀
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phuture: Have you ever used any psychedelic or mind altering substances, either to influence your sound, or otherwise? What are your thoughts on psychedelics?
Morqix: Yes, i have experimented abundantly lol. Perhaps more so in my earlier 20s. It was never to influence my sound, but more of an effort to influence my outlook on things and to help me learn more about myself and reason with my inner demons. I think psychedelics are super important in evolving our tiny human brains. This is proved over and over by elite thinkers all around the world, not to mention the countless cultures in the Americas and Africa who build entire traditions around plant / animal extracts that contain psychoactive chemicals like DMT. I think where our current western society falls short is probably in large part due to not using enough psychedelics. Think about it – and this is not to say that psychedelics are meant for everyone – but if we were to have flown planes packed to the gills with LSD and psilocybin and rained these down upon the people of America the day before this past election, do you think we would have ended up where we are today?
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phuture: Give us some shoutouts of artists who deserve more recognition.
Morqix:
Next to Blue (Next To Blue) – not sure why this guy doesn’t have more followers.
Poles: (https://soundcloud.com/itspoles) – doesn’t have much music out, but boy when he does get more out you will know.
Chuck Sutton: (Chuck Sutton) – love this guys style.
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Explore more Morqix here:
Soundcloud
Facebook