Maggie Morris seems to have a love-hate relationship with being alone. Morris is originally from California, but has lived in Portland for the past seven years. Around town she’s known for fronting the popular dream-pop band Genders. Last year they played at Bernie Sanders’ rally in Salem, and in 2014 toured with Pacific Northwest legends Built to Spill.
But when her bandmates needed a break, Morris felt adrift. She’d shaped her entire life around Genders, working a dead-end job and living in what she describes as a “slumlord palace.” “I set up everything else in my life just to support music,” she says, sitting at a North Portland patio with her dog June. “If I’m not playing music, nothing else in my life makes sense.”
So when Genders was briefly removed from the equation, life stopped making sense. To regain a sense of balance, Morris began writing under the Sunbathe moniker, and eventually recruited Jenny Logan (Summer Cannibals, Deathlist) and Pieter Hilton (Typhoon, Secret Drum Band) to back her at shows.
Two years later, she’s releasing her self-titled solo debut. The music Morris writes as Sunbathe would “feel weird to sing together [as Genders],” she says. Being alone gives Morris the space to write more personal lyrics, and her creative solitude is also reflected in more vocal melody-heavy songs. She cites Joni Mitchell as a major inspiration: “I kind of identify with her lone wolf vibe.”
Most of the dark pop songs on Sunbathe swing between feelings of independence and loneliness. Morris sings about the endless frustration of human relationships and the guaranteed disappointment that comes with having expectations. They’re slow jams saturated in reverb, the kind that call to mind ’90s singer/songwriters like Liz Phair.
On “If You Want,” Morris agonizes over “writing messages I’ll never send/and emptying bottles I’ll never put them in.” Tracks like “Magic Number” specifically address her trying relationship with her dad, which she describes as “a constant source of heartbreak.” Standout “With a Little Help” is both stormy and bright; she begins in throes of self-doubt, but by the end works her way into the light.
Though they’re borne from disappointment, the songs on Sunbathe’s debut twinkle with hope. Morris says “All Yours / All Mine” is “a love letter to nobody”—an ode to her independence, and an openness to whatever the future holds.