Morgan Evans has officially arrived on the scene with the release of his first U.S.-released single, “Kiss Somebody,” and the Australian country singer recently sat down with Billboard to discuss his journey to Nashville, as well as the people who inspired him to head down this musical path.
Before making the move stateside, Evans saw Keith Urban perform in 2004 and explained that the show helped him realize who he wanted to be as an artist.
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“He was the first artist I’d seen that really started to combine rock, pop and country music,” Evans explained. “That was the lightbulb moment – like, ‘Wow, these are all the sounds that I love all at once.’”
Evans officially moved to Nashville from Australia in 2015, and shared that he found his “person” when he met hit songwriter Chris DeStefano, who has penned tracks for Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean and more.
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“I feel like that was the start of the journey of things starting to click, like if I bring the right emotion into a room then I feel like we can come up with something great with what I really want to say,” Evans explained. “Even though it took a while to get there, when things started to click and feel good, I look back on being lost and confused and doubting [myself] and I just appreciate every second of that so much now.”
The 32-year-old wrote “Kiss Somebody” with DeStefano, and shared that it was the first song they wrote together that felt right.
“We sort of looked at each other and we were like, ‘I think we’ve got something,’” he recalled. “That became the new benchmark for everything else we did… I think it’s just a great introduction to who I am and what I’m doing.”
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Evans also dished on his relationship with fellow country star Kelsea Ballerini, whom he proposed to in December.
“She played a role in supporting me and believing in me. But the fact that she’s just a great singer and songwriter and artist, she’s a worthwhile and unique perspective,” he said.
“It’s funny, I was saying to someone the other day that I used to go into songwriting sessions trying to write the best song in the world,” he added. “And now I go in going, ‘Jeez I hope I get the best song in our house.”
Photo Credit: Instagram / @morganevansmusic
