Morgin Madison – Living the Phantasm (Album) + Interview

After putting out a handful of singles over the past few months, Morgin Madison’s debut album titled “Living the Phantasm” is finally out on mau5trap. The progressive house set features infectious melodies and alluring chord progressions with pulsating synths and mystical soundscapes. Although Madison has had previous releases on labels such as Tritonal’s Colorize (a sublabel of Enhanced Recordings), Nora En Pure’s Purified Records, and Le Youth’s PRGRSSN Records, it’s easy to see why deadmau5’s label is the perfect match once you hear “Living the Phantasm”.

Included in the album from the Boise, Idaho based artist are “Initialize the Phantasm”, “I Hate Portals”, “Far From Home” featuring Gregg Sgar, “Club Dystopia”, “Start Again”, “Rise”, “Free DLC”, “Feels Like”, “Gamma”, “Sun Walker”, “Reflect”, and “All These Worlds”. Visuals for the album were created Thomas Moore, who also goes by the name Cyclo.

Read on for an interview with Morgin Madison as he talks about his highs and lows of 2020, the inspiration behind naming an instrumental track, producers and vocalists he’d like to work with, and more!

Hey Morgin, thanks for your time today! Looking back at 2020, what were some of your highs and lows?

Of course, thanks for having me! I’d say my high was opening for deadmau5 in Atlanta in October at his drive-in show, and also creating my debut album. I’m also super proud of the amount of music I put out last year. Other than that, the lows were pretty much everything about the pandemic. The whole industry took a dive, I couldn’t see friends or family, people got sick… It was really rough. There’s a saying that the hardest times make the best music though, and that’s certainly true with how my album took shape.

How would you describe your sound in three animals, and why those animals?

Hmmm… 1. Elephant for the fat beats 2. Cat for the obnoxious sophisticated attitude 3. Bear because my girlfriend likes them.

Your debut album “Living the Phantasm” was recently released on mau5trap. How did you first get in touch with deadmau5 and the record label and decide that they were the right fit for the album?

Well, I had been in touch with them because my EP “Some Nights” was released in November of 2020, and it got some great reception from their fans. I made the album itself in the late summer/early fall of 2020 in a streak of creativity I got from realizing how fragile the whole industry was. Given the wide range of styles on the album, I knew it would be a tough sell… especially given how specific a lot of dance music labels are these days. Joel’s (deadmau5’s) work is already quite diverse in a lot of similar ways, so I sent the album over to mau5trap and luckily they loved it.

I see a lot of artists compromising heavily in dance music these days, and to me the most important thing for this album was that the ideas remain purely me. mau5trap really was on the same page with me in terms of the vision for the album and they really wanted me to just be myself. That, to me, is why it was such a good fit.

It seems like most songs with vocals are named after a lyric in the track. Your album has a number of instrumentals, so where does the inspiration come from in naming a song with no vocals?

For instrumental songs, I name them on the spot when I first come up with the initial idea. And it almost always sticks. I usually have some abstract vibe, image, or setting in my head and name the tracks after that. Take “Club Dystopia” for example… it’s super heavy, pretty industrial and rough around the edges, but still really clubby. I came up with the drop first, and the name “Club Dystopia” seemed the most fitting thing that popped into my head.

What can we expect from you in the rest of the year?

Tons of music and shows I hope. Seems like the whole industry is still sort of slowly getting back into gear. I have enough music for another album already, but we’ll see if it works better as EP’s or singles. This first album “Living the Phantasm” means so much to me that it’s going to be hard for me to justify album 2 unless it’s exactly right. But we’ll see. I can’t wait to play this album out on big sound systems.

Favorite song of 2020: Maybe this is basic, but “Deep End” by John Summit.

Best track to play at peak time: “Meduse” by BLR.

Producer(s) and/or vocalist(s) you’d most like to work with: Collaborating with No Mana would be amazing. I’d really love to do a track with Lights on vocals. I also really like the atmospheric techno that Joseph Ray has been putting out – would love to make something with him if at all possible. Other hopefuls include Grum, Imogen Heap, Kindrid, deadmau5, ATTLAS, Dominique, Cristoph, and Fehrplay.

Upcoming artist(s) to watch for in 2021: I love what Nox Vahn is doing over at Anjunadeep. Watch out for him. Every once in a while an artist comes around with a super distinct sound, and he’s certainly got it on lock. There’s also a brand new artist called Motives who has been releasing on Le Youth’s new label. He’s super talented.

Take a listen to “Living the Phantasm” by Morgin Madison below and give him a follow!

Morgin Madison – Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / SoundCloud

Gregg Sgar – Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / SoundCloud

Buy / Stream

Morgin Madison – Living the Phantasm (Album) Tracklist:

01. Morgin Madison – Initialize the Phantasm (Original Mix)
02. Morgin Madison – I Hate Portals (Original Mix)
03. Morgin Madison – Far From Home ft. Gregg Sgar (Original Mix)
04. Morgin Madison – Club Dystopia (Original Mix)
05. Morgin Madison – Start Again (Original Mix)
06. Morgin Madison – Rise (Original Mix)
07. Morgin Madison – Free DLC (Original Mix)
08. Morgin Madison – Feels Like (Original Mix)
09. Morgin Madison – Gamma (Original Mix)
10. Morgin Madison – Sun Walker (Original Mix)
11. Morgin Madison – Reflect (Original Mix)
12. Morgin Madison – All These Worlds (Original Mix)