PJ Morton’s New Song, ‘Still Here,’ Is About Surviving 2020 : NPR

From the outset, 2020 has been a roller coaster for R&B singer PJ Morton. It started in January when he received a Grammy and missing one of his heroes, basketball star Kobe Bryant.

“Of course, it is really amazing to gain a Grammy, but there was a darkish cloud,” Morton claims. “So for me, even just before the pandemic, it sort of started off as a weird year.”

A several months later on, Morton embarked on a main tour participating in keyboards for Maroon 5. They were being in South The us when the pandemic compelled them to pull the plug. Morton rushed household, the place he’s been at any time given that, but the tough year was not completed with him. He shed an uncle to COVID-19, then contracted the disease himself.

If the 12 months had a dazzling location, it was that Morton — the son of a pastor, lifted in the church — was ready to history a new album, The Gospel In accordance to PJ, which was alone recently nominated for a Grammy. Currently being stuck at residence freed him up to last but not least make the gospel document that he’d prolonged been imagining about, and it freed up quite a few of the gospel stars he’d been hoping to do the job with on it.

“These music, you know, gospel in specific, this is what people today have to have,” he suggests. “This is the mild that is required for this darkness right now, so a mixture of that created me say, ‘We’re just heading to have to figure it out.'”

PJ Morton spoke with NPR’s David Greene about turning his year of extremes into a new tune, “Nevertheless Below.” Hear the radio version at the audio website link, and browse on for an edited transcript.

This interview has been edited for size and clarity.

David Greene: Your complete household contracted COVID-19, appropriate?

PJ Morton: I handed it on to my full spouse and children except my youngest, my daughter. And it was a huge problem.

Were being you obtaining to do the job on this track, and then you and your household obtained unwell? Or had you already gotten sick although you had been crafting the music?

When we [first] talked about the tune, I hadn’t gotten it nonetheless. I consider it was before long thereafter that I received COVID-19 and went via it. That was a really, really reflective time for me. So it was immediately after that I started to think about what I needed to say. My mom-in-law lives with us as very well, and I was actually apprehensive about that.

Did she get it also?

She did, yeah, she got it as nicely. Practically the full residence. We experienced to quarantine from every single other in the house. That was emotionally type of draining for me, not remaining able to actually get close to my daughter. My spouse experienced to dress in gloves and masks to deliver her meals through the working day.

PJ Morton, ‘Still Here’ (Net Exceptional)

You have an 8-calendar year-previous, a 10-yr-outdated and a 16-calendar year old. Your 8-calendar year-aged did not get sick, and you were hoping to hold absent from her as a lot as you could.

That is right. When we had been all carried out quarantining, it was like, big hugs all all around, for the reason that she couldn’t seriously be near to her moms and dads or her brothers. But the reality that we produced it by way of gave me even far more — mainly because I consider I was presently reflective — gave me even more of a point of view on life in typical.

You sing in this music, “We have found the worst of our life and nevertheless we survived.” Are you chatting about you and your loved ones, or all of us?

I believe I am talking about my human race family, all of us. I assume that is it’s possible one of the additional fascinating elements about this. Becoming from New Orleans, Katrina felt like our initially pandemic. It was the exact type of, you never know what’s heading to take place working day to working day. But what is so fascinating about this pandemic is I was heading via it with my buddies all close to the globe. I was basically in one more state when it begun to get lousy. That’s who I’m conversing to. We’ve all witnessed one thing hitting the entire term at 1 time. Then you stack on racial division and you tack on all these other things. When I was contemplating of that, I was contemplating of anyone.

I are unable to stop pondering about how we started this discussion with that minute in January, losing Kobe but also you winning a Grammy. I indicate, there’s one thing about that that has remained kind of a concept for you this 12 months: panic, disease, reduction, but also an album that’s gotten a good deal of terrific interest and seems like it was definitely significant to you.

Extremes, without a doubt! The gospel album that I felt was so important for now is Grammy-nominated, [so] it is really like, oh man, that lower took me here. But it more describes that I you should not actually have control. I only have what’s in my hand, in my intellect, what I can do. The rest is really gonna materialize, and I are not able to stress myself and obsess above the end . All I can do is what’s suitable right here. And extremes, without a doubt, has been the theme.