Artist Bio
Morti, the artist formally known as Bill Hayes, born (as was the tradition at the time) in 1984 is a student from Canterbury about to release his first studio album "Spot The Deliberate Mistakes". The album centres on a variety of lyrical themes speaking particularly to the down and depressed with an overall upbeat message that says "things aren't all that bad really". He writes guitar-led indie/alternative music with a subtle prog-rock inspiration though if asked Morti would describe his music as "a big scary monster who just wants to be loved... also the monster has an acoustic guitar".
Okay, enough of the third person stuff, there was an epic struggle but I've wrestled this website away from my graphics designer. So pull up a chair and let's chat properly. Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee? This is going to be a long one, read as much or as little as you like, I won't be offended.
I started playing guitar when I was 17 simply for the reason that my girlfriend had one. It was one of those tricky long-distance things so whenever I was staying at her house there were times when she'd be off doing real life and I didn't have much of anything to do, so I learned to play guitar. Straightforward enough, really. I wanted to learn to play some of her favourite songs to impress her so I taught myself in those sorts of times.
She wrote Snow Angel as a poem and in one session tinkering with her guitar I came up with the melody for it. My sister Becke has always loved singing so we got her in to sing it since it didn't really work at all with me doing it. Between the three of us we made a band, Sigma Enigma. Naturally it got nowhere but Snow Angel has stood the test of time and is represented here with Becke singing it once again.
My dad managed to "borrow" (although this was at least six years ago and we still have it) an electric guitar from my uncle Ped and auntie Tina. Nothing special about the guitar really, they just had it to hang on their wall because it looked cool. So I got more into song writing from my girlfriend's poems and had a stab at some lyrics myself as well.
Actually my dad's always been a big encouragement, I could always trust him to tell me when something I did was rubbish. Which is good, really, 'cause he's been a professional keyboard player nearly all his life and that kind of feedback is really quite special. The point at which I decided to make and release this album properly actually was when he told me he liked some of the songs I was coming out with.
Fast forward a bit and I go to university, taking my aunt and uncle's guitar with me (I don't know if they ever knew that). I stumbled across an open mic night or two and kept playing. I had also, by this point, met Ben Maydon (hereafter referred to as "Pooka", you'd have to ask him why but it's something to do with the TV series "Knightmare") who liked the same sorts of music as me.
Shortly after being at university I join a church, become a Christian and start to take an interest in the worship team. Gradually I start to get better at guitar so I could one day play with them, I'd always played straightforward electric and acoustic but there were lots of people who could play those. So I got myself a bass. I also learned to do some multitrack recordings on my computer and started "writing" music (although most of it was an horrific improvised mess, it started me on the road, as it were).
After Pooka dated Becke for a bit we got to talking more and I joined Unbalanced Grass, a band of friends of his where Pooka would write the songs and we'd play along, often writing our various parts and collaborating. To this day he and I haven't had a proper gig (we've done short sets in pubs for various things but that's about it) but I did some bass and guitar stuff with him that was pretty good. He really encouraged me to crack on with the music stuff, he was always oddly complimentary about my music. Perhaps he only dated my sister to try and get to me, the person he really wanted. Weird thought and let's never return to it.
Fancy a biscuit? I have chocolate digestives. Unfortunately you and I are several miles apart but feel free to go get a biscuit (or "cookie") and come back. I'll wait.
...
Where was I? I forget. It's hard to put together the rich tapestry of events that kept me writing, playing and recording songs. I did start playing bass in the church worship band, by the way, and still do. It's really quite wonderful and being around all these other musicians (who were and probably still are way better at playing various instruments than I am) pushes me to go just a little further.
The other big element in getting me to a point where I fancied properly releasing an album was FAWM, an online songwriting community where the challenge is to write 14 songs in February. I've done that three years in a row now and several songs have come out of that and the similar challenge 50/90 (50 songs in 90 days, I did it once and didn't complete it but I did finish this album during that time). The wonderful people I've met through there have given kind yet honest feedback on my songwriting which has just been fantastic. Paul Turrell, credited for doing a bit of bass and drums on Intransigence, is one such person from there. In fact there are so many people on FAWM I'd like to thank it's hard to keep track of the names. Burr Settles gets a big thanks for starting and running it in the first place though.
I think that's about it for me, bless you for reading this self-indulgent rubbish and I hope we can hang out again some time.