As she chats about the making of her new songs, Morgan Saint radiates an effortlessly cool energy. Out of the Blue, the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer’s debut full-length album, channels the coolness into 11 tracks of vulnerable pop anchored by Saint’s unfettered vision and newfound personal insights. 

Saint returned to her hometown in Long Island two years ago, and the complexities of this reflective period are expressively captured throughout Out of the Blue. There’s a sense of melancholy as she reflects on her childhood, but also an exuberant celebration of love. Songs like “Kiss” and “Out of the Blue” illustrate the elation of romance, while “15 Forever” ruminates on a hometown friendship from the past.

Love is a continual theme on the album, and it’s clear why: Saint’s collaborator for the album was her wife Carley Ridersleeve. In addition to writing, producing, and engineering Out of the Blue together, the couple also provided creative direction for Saint’s haunting music videos and imagery.

Describing Out of the Blue as a metamorphosis, Saint points to this moment as pivotal. Fort the first time, she’s an independent artist releasing music on her own label. The process of collaborating with her partner and having such a hands-on relationship to the music resulted in, as she states, an album “coming from my heart, and there’s nothing in between.”

Her authenticity in songwriting is complimented by delicate beats that allow her vocals and words to take the spotlight, but there are also dance floor-ready passages during tracks like “Slipping Away” and “It Hurts to Be Human.” She wanted to let her full range of emotions show, and Out of the Blue combines a sense of reflection and living in the moment. 

During a conversation with Culture Flux, Morgan Saint discusses the vulnerability of her new album, what she learned from making Out of the Blue, and creating her overall vision.

Culture Flux: I wanted to ask, first of all, you have such a DIY approach to your music and also the art surrounding it, so have you always had that confidence and determination to execute that vision by yourself? 

Morgan Saint: I think, yeah. I mean, I’ve always loved like, I think in a way, being able to touch everything and be a part of everything. It’s kind of like, I don’t even know how to do it in another way. It makes me really happy to be doing it that way. So yeah, I just I love it, and I think I’ve always leaned in that direction of just wanting to like, have my hands in everything. 

And you said that this album was transformative to make for you, so was that mostly because of returning to your hometown and the moments of reflection that happened? 

Yeah, I think that definitely inspired a lot of it. And I think this was like a pivotal moment for me because prior to this, I had been like, with a label and I wasn’t an independent artist. So this is my first time doing everything independently and starting my own label and really taking charge of that side of things. I think that process gave me a lot of self-confidence and producing it all on my own with my wife. It was just a very even extra intimate way of making everything, and so I think that just resulted in a lot of self-reflection.

Moving back to where I grew up, like all those things affect kind of what I’m what I’m talking about on the album. 

Do you ever feel concerned about being so emotionally vulnerable? Because there are a lot of songs that talk very specifically about, you know, looking back at your childhood and growing up. And so is that difficult to share with people or is that something that you feel confident with sharing? 

No, I really I haven’t struggled that much with that side of things. I think I actually struggle more if I feel like there’s something that came across in the song that doesn’t feel 100 percent honest. Like, I feel more comfort in feeling like I just told the authentic, true story to whatever I was feeling or whatever I went through. So that’s something that I don’t struggle with.

I struggle with a lot of other parts of making the music and writing and stuff but I feel happiest when I’m being more vulnerable, I would say. 

And Out of the Blue has a lot of dynamics and I feel like it has more diverse sounds than you’ve ever had before on a piece of work. Is that more reflective of the headspace that you were in while you were making it? Is it more because of the music that you were being inspired by at the time? 

I think it was the headspace that I was in. Also, I had always worked with other people on the production side of things and it was more collaborative, which was awesome. But this time, although I did make the music with my wife, it was really intimately made.

And I just had since I was the one playing all the instruments- and like Carly, too, my wife was as well- but we just had like a lot of time just her and I to just experiment and like try things and maybe try instruments I hadn’t used before in my music, get creative, make sounds with like things around the house, just like really have that space to be creative. Like, I think that’s really what was reflected in the album at the end of the day, because it was just made just so intimately, you know? 

What did you learn about yourself from making Out of the Blue? 

Well, I think I gained some confidence. I’ve always had confidence, but I think I think being in the music world, it is a sexist industry. I really do believe that, I’ve seen it firsthand. As a female artist, you really don’t get as much respect in terms of like, producing and writing, there always needs to be a man involved for it to be done, it seems like in that space.

I’ve just really took that completely out of the equation by doing it all myself, so I just gained a lot of confidence… but yeah, just being able to see that I can do that all on my own. I don’t need anyone’s help and I’m not looking for that validation. It’s just coming from my heart and there’s nothing in between. 

Did you find it difficult to balance both of those types of emotions and tones on the album? Because you wanted to ebb and flow, you know, feel like a journey on the album, but you also have these different emotions that are all culminated as well. 

Yeah. I mean, I think that’s just like who I am naturally. Like, I definitely think that I’m just the type of person that feels everything, from, you know, those darker thoughts to really embracing the lighter moments, and I think it’s been a goal of mine to just let myself feel that range of emotion, especially while making the album, because I felt like that was the best way that I could access just like a really authentic part of me. So that’s been really cool to kind of like learn about myself, if that makes sense. I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but yeah, just like letting everything come in. 

Did it feel kind of like brainstorming? Like when you were writing lyrics, was it kind of off the cuff and you were just writing down what you heard or was it more kind of intricate and figuring things out in a more kind of intellectual way? 

I think it’s like a combo of like both, because I think that a lot of the best ideas just come out of out of the blue, no pun intended. But like, when you least expect them, or maybe you’re just experimenting and something really exciting comes out of that. So like a lot of that, but then once you find that idea or that like special piece, then it’s like taking that idea and like perfecting it.

So that comes like the like picking it apart, trying every different sound possible. Like, you know what I mean? So it’s a little bit of both. And in writing and stuff too, I think it’s that too. I’ll be walking or driving the car and I’ll hear something and then I’ll sing it into my phone just to remember or something like that. But yeah, then there’s also times where I’m writing like very specifically, I’m really editing and making sure that it tells a story. So a little bit of both.

This is the first time that you’ve collaborated with your wife Carly. So what was it like, you know, collaborating with her? And what did she bring to the project that you feel like you didn’t have before? 

Yeah, I mean, she, she brought so much, I think just being in this really great, like healthy- healthy is a silly word- but just really loving relationship like that in itself added so much new perspective for me, but then being able to make it with her just was really fun. We learned a lot like about even more about each other. Like, we knew we thought we knew each other so well, but when you’re really like dissecting feelings and working every day together, there’s so much even more to learn in that space.

So yeah, I just love that. But from a musical perspective, I mean, she’s like amazingly talented, and she’s very musical and, and everything that I seem to struggle with, she’s really good at. And then there’s ways that I think that things that I’m really good at that I can bring to her because she’s a musical artist as well and we make her music. So we’re constantly working together on each other’s things, but yeah, she’s also primarily, like is more acoustic, like acoustic guitar, more acoustic elements where I’m maybe lean a little bit more, like not quite as organic, a little more synth heavy.

I think us coming together created a cool blend of the two that I’m proud of, and that I think wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been making it with her. So yeah, I mean, every bit of it was, you know, influenced of course by working with her. I’m just happy we could do it together. It’s really special. I want to keep doing it. Yeah, absolutely.

And you’re incredible too with that, because your creativity with her extends far beyond the music, since you also conceptualize a lot of the visuals as well. How do you feel that the visuals further allow you to express yourself beyond just the music, especially since you have such a clear role of what you want? 

I think that they’re… it’s kind of like an extension of the music… to me, like the music is not just like its own thing. And then the visuals are its own thing. I guess they are to a degree, but like, whenever I’m making a song, or I’m even making a video, a video I might be making now is kind of in my head, inspiring the next song I want to make. There’s just this kind of world in my head that they all live in together. So it’s not like… it just feels like an extension of it, if that makes sense.

So, I don’t know, they really kind of just go hand in hand and work together. but they definitely inspire one another. And I have a lot of fun, even sometimes creating a juxtaposition between the two that says something. It’s just a really fun extension to the music.

Do you feel like your creativity and your creative vision is a little more freeing now that you’re an independent artist and you’re not on a label? Did you feel in any way kind of limited by having a label, or did it help in some ways? 

I think it helps in ways, in terms of just force and exposure and things like that. But I think from a creative perspective, like, even when I was with a label, I really fought for my vision to come across, but it was more challenging.

Now that I’m independent, I really don’t have to answer to anybody and I can really create whatever I’m wanting to create. There’s not as many boundaries, so I think that naturally makes me feel more creative and more inspired. And so yeah, I think that freedom’s always lived in me, but now there’s just like, less things holding me back in a way, so definitely.

And I get the feeling that you’re a fan of film from your music videos.

 Yeah, I do love film. I feel like the way that I think is dreamy, and so there’s a bit of that dreamy element that I like to feel in my visuals, or that come across naturally, I guess. But yeah, I do love film. I think it’s just really pretty.

I’m curious about fashion. How did fashion inspire? Did it directly inspire this album? 

Yeah, I mean, I love fashion… yeah, I think it definitely just being able to express myself as an extension of the music was just like really, it’s always something that I think works with the music for me. Maybe just because I like it, but yeah, it’s just being able to kind of create the… I feel like when you’re making music, it’s kind of like you take on a version of yourself that you are in that moment. Then you create like a character based off of that, if that makes sense. And I just have fun kind of creating that character through fashion, and it’s really just an extension of who I am. But it’s an excuse to be more extreme in that character building, and that’s fun through fashion, because I think you could say so much through what you’re wearing. 

When you were making Out of the Blue, did you already have in mind the kind of imagery you wanted to create in this kind of character and the storytelling that you wanted to build through the album? 

I think there’s always this constant sketchbook in my head, like you were saying before, where ideas are flowing, and as I’m making the music, and as maybe I’m making more visuals, I don’t want to say it gets to a clearer picture, but it just evolves. And with this specific narrative where it’s flowing out of me and I’m just like capturing that. 

So are you planning a miniature tour or anything or production to go with this album? 

Well, right now I’m doing one-off shows. I just did one in LA, that was really fun. And I’d like to do that in New York, but as of now, I’m just taking one day at a time and just seeing what comes of all this. I would love to tour more, and that’s something that I’m excited to do, so we’ll see. 

So as far as you said that you were listening to a lot of other music while you’re making Out of the Blue… what kind of albums were you listening to? And I’m curious, is it the sound and the production that you’re inspired by or the lyrics, or is it more of the mood that the music’s creating? 

I think everything. Every genre from every time period. I just hadn’t had the opportunity yet. I think when I started making music, I was literally just making it. I wasn’t finding necessarily direct inspiration or anything like that, or even doing much research. I just was simply making music, which was really awesome, but I just hadn’t had the opportunity to really deep dive into every time period, as many genres as possible, like really educate myself to a degree.

I think most of that came from me really wanting to learn how to produce and be a better producer, and understanding the instruments from all the different time periods and things like that. So yeah, I was just listening to every type of music, watching all types of music videos, and when I was listening and watching, there wasn’t any boundaries on what inspired me. If something caught my eye, it could be the visuals or it could be just anything. Sometimes it’s just someone’s essence that captures you and pulls you in. So yeah, everything.

And I wanted to ask, as my closing question, I wanted to ask, how do you think that you’ve changed since the beginning of when you started making music to now? Whether that’s musically or personally, what are some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen in yourself and how you’ve grown? 

That’s a good question. I think that, I don’t know, life’s so funny, because you can grow in certain… like, I can look back and be like, “wow, I’ve really grown in these ways,” but then I’m also gone backwards in other ways. So this circle of you improve some things about yourself, or you learn and then you make sometimes the same mistake, or sometimes two new mistakes after solving the first mistake. So it’s just this certain rotation for me, but I think that I’ve definitely seen what I’m capable of more.

I’ve really watched myself overcome fears that I didn’t think I ever would and things like that, so I think I’m stronger, but I also think I’m just trying to be more present and in the moment. Sometimes that can be uncomfortable, but that’s something that has been… that I’ve been focusing on. It’s been a challenge, but I think I’ve come a long way.

And yeah, I think I’m just a better artist. Just have more knowledge and more life I’ve lived and more feelings, and I think I understand myself a lot better, so it makes being honest easier.