Musical auteur Kevin Morby shares a new song and an accompanying video, ‘Nothing Sacred / All Things Wild,’ from Oh My God, out April 26th via Dead Oceans. Following the previously released ‘No Halo,’ ‘Nothing Sacred / All Things Wild’ blooms slowly, beginning with minimalistic percussion before swelling with gospel chorales and the occasional flutter of saxophone. The video, directed by frequent collaborator and filmmaker Christopher Good and produced by Andreina Byrne, presents off-kilter imagery – Morby walking barefoot through a greenhouse as children sleep on the floor, football players huddling in a cloud of smoke, a young girl’s ankles ensnared by vines. The result is a beautifully constructed exploration of oscillating time.
In terms of the song itself, it holds the key to the sound that Morby and producer Sam Cohen developed that would come to define the whole record. “‘Nothing Sacred’ was the moment that Sam and I stumbled into what would become the sonic landscape of Oh My God by breaking the songs down to their parts and doing away with a conventional band,” explains Kevin. “Rather than I play the song on guitar as originally intended, Sam suggested I only sing while he play organ and Nick [Kinsey], who is the drummer of my live band, play congas. Within moments of the first take it became clear what the record was to become, and how we wanted to represent the songs. What you’re hearing here is a first take and the sound of us walking into a new discovery. ”
Throughout his past work, Morby has noticed the ubiquity of an apparent religious theme. Though not identifying as “religious” in the slightest, Morby recognises in himself a somewhat spiritual being with a secular attitude towards the soulful. And so, in an effort to tackle that notion head-on and once-and-for-all, he sat down in his form of church—on planes and in beds—and wrote what would become his first true concept-album. If Singing Saw was Kevin’s LA record, and City Music was his ode to New York City, then Oh My God lives in the sky, above the weather, both nowhere and everywhere at once.
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