JOVM mainstay Kendra Morris is an acclaimed Florida-born, New York-based singer/songwriter, musician, and multi-disciplinary artist. As a singer/songwriter and musician, the acclaimed Florida-born, New York-based artist can trace the origins of her music career to discovering the joys of multi-tracking and harmonizing with herself on a karaoke machine in the closet of her childhood home.
Morris went on to play in cover bands in Florida before relocating to New York with her band, which played her original material. Her first band split up and she dealt with the aftermath by writing material alone on an 8-track recorder in her closet. Sometime after, she met longtime collaborator and producer Jeremy Page and signed to Wax Poetics, who released her full-length debut, 2012’s Banshee.
The JOVM mainstay self-released her sophomore effort 2016’s Babble. She then went on to collaborate with DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, MF DOOM, Czarface, Ghostface Killah, Dennis Coffey and Dave Sitek among others. And while being a grizzled, New York scene vet, Morris’ work generally embodies a broader sense of American culture, drawing from a wide array of influences across music and film dating back to the mid 20th Century.
Last year’s Nine Lives was the Florida-born, New York-based JOVM’s mainstay’s first full-length album in about a decade. The album represented a major turning point in her life both professionally and personally for Morris: The album heralds the beginning of a new chapter, an evolution to the next level of adulthood — and the first on her new label, Karma Chief Records. Thematically, the album’s material encapsulates moments from what could easily be nine lifetimes lived over a chronological time period — or nine lives lived simultaneously in parallel and convergent realties in the multiverse.
While celebrating a recent birthday, Morris was shaken by the realization that old habits were holding her back from growth. Something needed to change — and fast. She began writing new songs and rethinking of her old ones. Less-than-perfect takes were tolerated. She put a moratorium on love songs. As Morris puts it: “I needed to scare myself into growth.” The result is the Florida-born, New York-based artist’s highly-anticipated, Torbitt Schwartz, a.k.a. Little Shalimar-prorudced fourth album I Am What I’m Waiting For.
Slated for an August 25, 2023 release through Karma Chief/Colemine Records, the forthcoming album is reportedly a a sophisticated, playful and joyful reinvention and an unfiltered expression of Morris’ weird universe that sees her delving deep into the little details. “How do you put yourself into a record? I wanted to make it feel like you cracked open the ooze in my head,” Morris says. Fittingly, the album is an unvarnished self-portrait of Morris with all of life’s odd imperfections that captures the artist at the time of its creation.
The 11-song album pairs Morris’ towering and effortlessly soulful vocal with a sound that features elements of dusty funk, R&B and touches of indie rock. Thematically, the album at points touches upon the mundane conflicts of domesticity and cohabitation, the Butterfly Effect, her fear of flying and even an attempt to expand the birthday song canon among others.
I Am What I’m Waiting For‘s first single “What Are You Waiting For” is a seamless synthesis of Muscle Shoals soul, psych soul, and Spoon-like indie rock built around a gritty, swaggering groove and Morris’ sultry and effortlessly soulful delivery. The song is a bold and playfully defiant feminist anthem that champions self-reliance and realness above all.
The accompanying video for “What Are You Waiting For” was created from VHS footage shot by Morris’ friends Yvonne Ambrée and Leah Levitt, filmed in Morris’ neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Chinatown. Edited by Morris, the video is rooted in a familiar premise. “A lot of my life in New York is either getting from point A to B or just waiting around,” the JOVM mainstay explains. “New York is the city of Hurry Up and Wait.”
Morris will be embarking on a lengthy tour to support I Am What I’m Waiting For, and it includes a September 23, 2023 stop at Union Pool. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
TOUR DATES:
9/6/23 – The Lyric Theater – Blacksburg, VA
9/7/23 – Black Iris – Richmond, VA
9/8/23 – Evening Muse – Charlotte, NC
9/9/23 – Otis Fest – Macon, GA
9/10/23 – Charleston Pour House – Charleston, SC
9/13/23 – Pour House Music Hall – Raleigh, NC
9/14/23 – The Southern – Charlottesville, VA
9/23/23 – Union Pool – Brooklyn, NY
10/3/13 – Het Depot – Leuven, BE
10/4/23 – Le Pop Up – Paris, FR
10/5/23 – Jazz Sur Son 31 – Toulouse, FR
10/6/23 – Gorila – Zaragoza, ES
10/7/23 – Loco Club – Valencia, ES
10/8/23 – Intruso – Madrid, ES
10/9/23 – Sala Upload – Barcelona, ES
10/10/23 – Iboat – Bordeaux, FR
10/12/23 – La Sirene – La Rochelle, FR
10/13/23 – Paul B – Massy, FR
10/14/23 – Le Forum – Charleville Meziere, FR
10/17/23 – Le Poche – Bethune, FR
10/18/23 – Blues Kitchen – Manchester, UK
10/19/23 – The Forge – London, UK
10/22/23 – De Oostepoort – Groningen, LA*
11/3/23 – 7th St. Entry – Minneapolis, MN
11/4/23 – xBk Live – Des Moines, IA
11/5/23 – Hideout – Chicago, IL
11/6/23 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
12/8/23 – Tellus 360 – Lancaster, PA
12/10/23 – DC9 – Washington, DC
12/14/23 – Motr – Cincinnati, OH
12/15/23 – Square Cat Vinyl – Indianapolis, IN
*supporting Lee Fields
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