Gloorp is the experimental electronic project of Philadelphia percussionist and producer Garrett Burke; Morgan Garrett is an experimental electronic musician also based in Philly. The new Gloorp record, Gloorp Life, came out earlier this month on Wharf Cat/Jolt Music, so to celebrate the release, Garrett and Morgan met up for dinner and caught up about it.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
Garrett Burke: We're at Pho 75 in South Philly, where a few years ago the owner was killed by his son.
Morgan Garrett: That's true actually.
Garrett: We can talk about that later… But what we were talking about was Jack White not having a phone until a year ago, and all these music publications thought it was really hilarious and cute, but I think it's really annoying because obviously he's just been rich for three decades and hasn't really needed a phone. He has people that are texting for him.
Morgan: He probably doesn't have to post on Instagram a normal person.
Garrett: No, he’s never even seen Instagram probably. But Morgan, you and me, we're on that shit like crazy.
Morgan: Almost only on Instagram.
Garrett: What's your screen time?
Morgan: I think it averages four hours a day.
Garrett: I think mine’s higher.
Morgan: Is it eight?
Garrett: No, no, it's less than eight. But I'm not proud of it.
Morgan: Are you proud of [Gloorp Life]?
Garrett: I feel OK about it… Yeah, I'm proud of it.
Morgan: You should feel proud of it.
Garrett: I think it's pretty great. But I feel like… I've definitely been more concerned about the likes and subscribes.
Morgan: You're forced to be.
Garrett: It ruined my day today, honestly. I haven't had to go to work all this week because my boss is out of town, so I thought I was gonna have a really productive week at home, but I didn't do anything. I did literally nothing all morning.
Morgan: Except you were working on the optics.
Garrett: I wasn't even working on optics. I was just, like, hitting refresh.
Morgan: It wasn't satisfactory, the feedback you were getting?
Garrett: It was unsatisfactory.
Morgan: What were you expecting?
Garrett: Nothing. That's the thing: There's literally nothing you can expect that is updated every 45 seconds… Well, I did get offered a gig yesterday.
Morgan: OK, good thing you were online.
Garrett: I responded right away.
Morgan: They could have given that to your enemy. They could have had them pulled up on a separate phone at the same time.
Garrett: “Which one of these idiots is going to respond first?”
Morgan: “I can't wait to scam him.”
Garrett: Yeah, the show hasn't happened yet, so it could be a scam… Have you ever been scammed at a show?
Morgan: I think almost all of them.
Garrett: Since this has become kind of a pessimistic conversation, what's the worst show you've ever played?
Morgan: I guess in some reality it was probably a great event, but I think the worst show I played was one in which I just totally melted down in Fargo in 2017. I think it was a good performance, but it was like a mental breakdown, relapse. I think for the crowd, there was an element of thrill. But because of my weakened mental state and alcohol consumption, it was a bad show. It kind of harmed my relationships with the band I was touring with.
Garrett: Did it change things for you?
Morgan: Yeah.
Garrett: Because you don't drink anymore.
Morgan: But I drank after that.
Garrett: That wasn't the moment.
Morgan: No, there were many moments. Following that, there was probably two or three more until 2018 or 2019.
Garrett: Do you think that's changed the way you make music? The absence of alcohol.
Morgan: Yeah. I think I probably work on it less. It's still pretty much constant, but it doesn't go until 2 or 3 AM. It stops at, like, 8 o’clock as opposed to droning on until some sickening time in the morning. What's your routine like?
Garrett: Well, I'm the same, but I am drinking alcohol. It's never made me more productive. I just fall asleep.
Morgan: While you're drumming?
Garrett: [Laughs.] I'll just be like, I'm too tired for this. I'd rather just sit on the couch.
Morgan: Do you experience moments like you're accessing some level of creativity or openness in states of inebriation when you're working on music?
Garrett: No. I think actually, to perform at the level that I aim to perform, I need to be totally sober. Especially live. I mean, I learned how to play my instrument really fast, like, 20 years ago when I was in school band. So I have to tap back into that. But I do access a flow state on a good day. That's the fun part about performing, I guess.
Morgan: The catharsis.
Garrett: Yeah, or the psychosis.
Morgan: Do you feel like you enter that any time you perform? Is there a degree of euphoria or excitement?
Garrett: For Gloorp, I kind of have to. If that doesn't happen, I'm like, Well, that was boring. I'm trying to make the project more generally musical, as opposed to just being a spectacle of sorts, [where] people are like, “Woah, look at that guy, he's really going crazy on the drum machine.” Which, I guess “look at that guy going crazy” is possibly what they say about you, too.
Morgan: Yeah, perhaps. That sentiment is often expressed, but I don't think anyone's ever outright said, “Man, you were really going crazy up there.”
Garrett: People say that about me all the time. They're just like, “Wow, you were really going crazy.” And I'll just be like, “OK. Did you have fun?” Most people like seeing a guy go crazy, I think. But I don't want it to be like a sport, you know? Or, I do want it to be a sport for me, because it's fun, but I don't want it to be a sport for the audience. I want them to be like, “I enjoyed this concert. I liked that music.”
Maybe this is revealing information about your new music — you have new music. You have a new album that's unheard.
Morgan: Oh, yeah. It’s all done. It's unheard.
Garrett: It's live recorded, right?
Morgan: A lot of it is. I mean, not all together.
Garrett: But it's all live instruments, basically. Did you write out parts?
Morgan: I think I wrote it in the same way that I always start by myself. Where I would have completed this record and said, “This is done entirely,” I just treated those as demos. So taking MIDI drums and MIDI everything, and previously that would have been something we mixed and mastered.
Garrett: But then you replaced it.
Morgan: Replaced 60 to 70% of it with real instruments, or rerecorded instruments or retuned instruments. It's a proper studio record, with a large component of it still being the computer sounds, but less of it.
Garrett: You composed it on the computer?
Morgan: The guitar and the computer. And programming the drums with my fingers.
Garrett: Oh, really? That's cool.
Morgan: Yeah, it always starts like that. That's why nothing's in time. I'm just using the keyboard.
Garrett: I love that. We need more slightly out of time music.
Morgan: It's definitely more in time than previous stuff, but it's still kind of on its own timeline.
Garrett: I never type in MIDI notes. I just play the drum pad.
Morgan: So do you nudge?
Garrett: I nudge. But I think it's actually a true talent when people can actually make a beat just looking at the computer screen. It makes no damn sense to me. I cannot do it. Like, people that are in their car and making a track in the backseat on their laptop — on the freaking airplane or whatever — it blows my mind.
Morgan: Yeah, I wish I could.
Garrett: I wish I could too. I feel like I've tried to do that and it just ends up being the most boring shit ever. I very much need something in my hands.
Morgan: Do you play other instruments? Besides the drum pad or the drum kit.
Garrett: Not well. I could kind of play keyboard. Bass, sort of. I would never try in a serious way.
Morgan: Do you play the vocals?
Garrett: No way. [Laughs.]
Morgan: I bet you could.
Garrett: I have a guitar, but I have no idea what it does, really… I want Gloorp to be a band — or, I think it is a band, but it would be cool if someone was playing a melodic instrument. I feel like that would make people would be like, “Oh, it is a band.”
A year ago when we played in London, Gabe [DeSanto] was playing with me, and there was this drunk dude who was like, “Yeah, this guy's pretty cool, but I don't really know what the drummer is all about. He’s not really adding that much.” Because he thought Gabe was DJing and I was just like playing the drums, having fun. I was just like, Damn, some people really have no idea.
Morgan: It's true. The illusion of just being on stage, I think it's kind of enough for people to have their own idea of what someone's doing. And it's kind of fun to play into that.
Garrett: Well, also, it's a thing where, like — we've allowed DJs to exist. We've allowed DJs to infiltrate the live music world. And I think that's kind of sad. Don't get me wrong, I love a good DJ — and I hope any DJ listening right now isn't offended.
Morgan: This isn't a pointed perspective.
Garrett: There's no target. It's all peace and love. But these damn DJs, man…
Morgan: Do you think it would make sense for someone to DJ your music?
Garrett: They've tried. I've heard it once or twice. Actually, there's a local DJ in Philly named Caiya — he came to a show and he was like, “Yo, I really love your tracks… I played one of your tracks in a set a month ago, it was really cool but it ruined the whole thing.” [Laughs.] I was like, “Sorry about that.” But I was thinking of that conversation when I made the new album because I was like, I'm gonna make at least one song have a normal beat. And unfortunately, that's my least favorite song on the album.
Morgan: There you go.
Garrett: That's not true. I think in general, I was kind of like, OK, if DJs want to hear this shit, maybe I'll try to make it a little more DJ-able. But people still get so confused. These concerts I'm doing next week, there's no DJs. Last year, my headline Philly show, I had two DJs play — and it was cool, I thought everyone played really great music. But people were showing up after midnight just because there was a DJ on the lineup, like “Uh, is the party started?” And it's like, “Yeah, it's a fucking concert. It started four hours ago. You missed it.” They were like, “Have you played yet?” At, like, 1 in the morning.
Morgan: “Nah, I'm playing tomorrow.”
Garrett: [Laughs.] “You got here a day early.”
Alright. Is there anything else we should add to this?
Morgan: I feel like we gave some good insight.
Garrett: We talked about our music. We talked about DJs and Instagram.
Morgan: Alcohol.
Garrett: Kind of sums it all up.
Morgan: Just about everything.
Garrett: New record, Gloorp Life, out five days ago. Morgan Garrett’s unreleased, unannounced album coming out 2027.
Morgan: Good dinner.
Garrett: Thanks for the pho.
(Photo Credit, left, Eve Alpert; right, Morganne Boulden)
