Playyard: Making Music in the Light of the Uncertain
★ interview by Liv Bjorgum ★
photos by @zadebatal (first set)
+ Drew Nelson (second set)
Playyard is a duo from Santa Barbara, by way of Los Angeles, composed of Henry Morris and Michael Sack. They capture the essence of their beachy roots in their sunny, yet introspective songs, melding guitar and piano beautifully to accompany the lightness of their pop and R&B sound, while providing an undertone of jazz inspiration.
Even when things are uncertain, Playyard is here to remind you that it’s all worth it for the song, and that they’ll make one you can dance to. We chatted with the band about the continual learning process that is music, staying playful and positive during quarantine, and OMM — their new single out today (ft Brooke Sierra).
Hi! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to Pure Nowhere! Would you mind introducing yourselves? How are you?
We’re great, we’re really excited! Playyard is a duo with Henry Morris (guitar and vocals) and Michael Sack (piano and guitar). We’re two UCSB college sophomores from LA currently living the college life in our living rooms. Times are weird right now, but we’re trying to make the best of it. Like by releasing this track!
This is such a weird time in our world. What have you been doing to keep busy during the lockdown in California?
Going crazy haha. I’ve reorganized my room twice and have been playing Uno with my friends on Zoom when I can. We’ve been trying to write songs since we can’t go outside and all we have is time. The problem is that we take a lot of inspiration from the things that happen in our lives, so staying inside all day playing uno or watching Trailer Park Boys doesn’t translate in the same way.
You two met at UCSB and were roommates. What was it like to live with the person you make music with?
Still do. Oddly enough, we usually write separately and then collaborate once something shows potential. But honestly, it's ALWAYS better when we both work on something from the start together. I think it also helps that we both have slightly different music tastes that we can draw from and combine when we make a song. It just makes everything more interesting and unique when it comes together.
Were there any specific artists or projects that you connected over? Who should we look out for this year?
TOM MISCH. I think that’s the number one answer for both of us. Sometimes we’d rather listen to his music the whole day instead of making our own. I think having people to look up to in music and in the industry is really important, if you listen to someone enough, you can start to hear their influence in your own work. That’s why listening all the time is key.
The name Playyard has such an innocent quality to it. How did you decide on your name?
We really wanted to capture the California, LA roots along with the joy we get from music in our name. We kind of thought of it as music being like a playground for us. In the same way we used to go jump on the swings or take a dive down a slide to exhaust our energy, we now use music to get all that pent up feeling out. A lot of the time we’ll skip going out or head back early just to get in the studio. It’s really where we want to be at all times. It took a while to find the name but we figured “Playyard” sounded better playground.
Your first song, “Long Distance,” came out less than a year ago. What have you learned since then?
It feels like a lifetime ago, and we’ve learned soooo many things it’s crazy. Marketing, song writing from a live panel, how to turn art into a story, how to turn that story into something people might care about and relate to. Having people listen to our music has taught us that some of the emotion that went into these songs is accepted by other people. That was hard to realize before. The most fascinating skill we’ve picked up is on the music engineering side, we know so much more about music production now. It takes about half as long to finish a beat now than it did when we started.
Your music has an intimate quality to it, yet songs like “Long Distance” have so much bounce. What is it like transitioning your music to a live stage? What reaction do you aim for when you are making a song?
I think that while some songs are actually quite sad/nostalgic like ‘Long Distance,’ the fact that they still have a bounce to them represents the lighthearted outlook on a not so lighthearted situation. When we wrote ‘Long Distance,’ it was weird because Michael and I were both going through a breakup. College had just started, and we moved away from our home. Even though it sucked, it was kind of a way to learn that you can’t let things that are out of your control affect your core. Some things might not go the way we wanted, but that’s never going to ultimately change how we live our lives. We’ve been working a lot on making the live shows more energetic. We’re experimenting with making a live version of the songs that are slightly different so that they’re more fun to play and listen to. We always make sure the guitar, piano, vocals are live and sometimes add more percussion and or raise the bpm a little.
Your lyrics sometimes discuss feeling out of control, yet your instrumentals feel very light, calm, and controlled. “Strings” brings in more drum beats to accompany your usual guitar and piano. How do you blend your lyrics and instrumentals? Are they created simultaneously?
We definitely start with the beat and guitar. Those two things set the mood for the vocal melody - and then finally, the words. From the second the guitar chords layer over the beat, the song already has a personality. Our job is to match that personality with a vocal melody. At that point the lyrics just try as hard as they can to match that unique vibe the song already has. That’s why we usually write a song in one or two sittings tops. It’s so the song captures the specific feeling/mood we were in when we wrote it. That’s how we made “Strings.”
OMM, your first single of 2020, features Brooke Sierra. What have you learned about collaboration and your process?
We learned that it’s super fun and that we want to do it a lot more in the future. The song went really fast, it was just like hanging out with a few friends. It was perfect for a collaboration because it’s upbeat and definitely a more feel-good type, the energy we had was so free and easy the session went the same way.
The lyrics in “Coffee,” such as “everything we do could fall apart,” resonate with the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of the world right now. Some people have said that this will be a very pivotal creative time for our generation. Everything feels like it’s taking on the quality of a time capsule. How can you see our current reality affecting what you create?
Everything we create is just a reflection of what’s happening in our real lives. I’m sure the current situation is going to change how we view the world and music. No matter what, we’re gonna keep it together. Even though everything could totally fall apart I think we owe it to ourselves to stay positive during the uncertainty.
We’re just gonna try to keep the same beachy mentality from the confines of our homes (laughs).
What do you have in store for us in 2020?
Our main goal for 2020 is to release an EP with all our old songs on it. Right now we have a bank of about 20 unreleased songs that we’ve been dying to share. They range from acoustics to 80s inspired tracks, so fitting them into a cohesive EP will be difficult but progress is definitely being made. Hopefully now that we have some experience releasing singles we can speed up the time between releases. We’re also working on our first music video! One of our best friends is filming it, and it’s taking place up in Santa Barbara. When we shoot videos we usually get caught up trying to make it perfect. That’s why this time we’re focusing on what we know best: our friends and the type of life we live at UCSB. We had a list of shows in the works but with all that up in the air due to recent events we’re just hoping everyone is staying safe and inside.