How Tony Morris became Scotland's most unlikely pop sensation

Thanks to a mixture of intermittent performances in the flesh and unremitting activity on social media, Tony Morris has, at 72 years young, achieved both cult status within Glasgow’s underground electronic music scene and viral fame online.

Influenced by the likes of The Fall, The Second Viennese School, Captain Beefheart, The Beatles and Béla Bartók, Morris describes the music he produces as “kind of” songs with “a distinctive vibe but no meaning”, made using his own voice alongside “simple electronic backings” of his own devising. 

And yet, despite confessing to spending a lot of time trying to situate himself within the world of art, his experimental music and sensual-religious outpourings on everything from his recent experiences of ‘Glasgow coffee howffs’ to Don Quixote and fabricated memories of Scarborough, combined with his flair for visual production, are inspiring others to chase their own sonic, and artistic, dreams.

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“I can honestly state that I feel impelled to do what I am now doing. For the first time in my life, I feel I have found my niche. I think about what I’m doing every waking hour and since I incorporate my dreams into my work you might say that the involvement is 24/7”, Morris told The Herald.

“I’m not a musician in any shape or form. My discovery of the music software Ableton instantly allowed me to make simple percussive backing tracks over the top of which I could vocalise in anyway the fancy took me. So, it turned out that there was no need for me to be a musician.

“Erroneously, I thought initially that I would have to learn some kind of musical instrument and since I thought equally erroneously that even a twerp like me would be able to learn the bongos, I put an advert in the window of Oxfam in Byres Road for a Bongos tutor. Laurie Pitt, a very well-known percussionist on the Glasgow music scene answered it. 

“After a few lessons around at Laurie’s flat I asked him what musical pursuits he had. He told me he was a member of the Glasgow electronic music group Golden Teacher. I listened to some of their music and was instantly smitten with the digital rhythms. I abandoned the bongos and Laurie taught me how to use Ableton. After that there was no stopping me.”

After graduating from the University of Glasgow in 1976, Morris, whose biography on social media reads simply, “denizen of Broomhill”, worked in a variety of roles: lecturer; academic; accountant and taxi driver. 

Tony Morris has breathed new life into Glasgow’s underground electronic music scene (Image: Robert Perry)

He said: “I graduated with the only First in Psychology and supposedly a glittering academic career ahead of me. After lecturing part-time for 10 years at the university in the Psychology of Personality I realised that I wasn’t cut out to be an academic or a therapist and spent the next 30 years paying off the mortgage by teaching, driving a black cab around the night-time streets of Glasgow and finally retraining as a bookkeeper until I retired. That whole era can be summed up as Waiting for Godot.

“Finally, when I was 65, Godot turned up in the form of the Glasgow underground electronic music scene.”

Morris’s viral success - and appeal - online, it seems, is the fruit of his penchant for “micro-songs”, the likes of which can be found on his most recent release, ‘An Exemplary Earthling’. And while he describes the collection of 17 one-minute tracks - released on online platform Bandcamp - as “suitable for playing on niche internet radio stations”, these “kind-of songs”, and accompanying videos performing the songs posted on TikTok and Instagram, have seamlessly tapped into the cultural zeitgeist in a social media landscape where short-form video is king.

In Morris’s case, necessity has been the mother of invention, as issues with his health prevented him making or performing songs of a standard three to four-minute length. Instead, it led him to “make material that is ideal for clubs that play electronic dance music”. 

He said: “Pop music has always played a big part in my life. I like music that I can listen to again and again and again. I like the unpretentiousness of the lyrics and the fact that they deal with the concerns and delights of everyday life. 

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“But once I got into electronic music, I wanted to ditch the conventional format of the pop song - verse chorus verse etc - but keep the unpretentiousness of the lyrics.

“Then a health issue intervened which greatly shaped what I now do. During 2022 I was extremely ill and was hospitalised with multiple and varied afflictions including a bout of sepsis which almost killed me. As a result of this my various internal organs have been damaged, and I get exhausted very easily. Even now, two years later, I have great difficulty climbing a short flight of stairs. 

“So, performing live was out of the question and lockdown had closed a lot of other avenues as well. So, I had the brainwave of making one-minute videos of myself performing micro songs, as it were, which I then posted to Instagram. One minute’s action was all I was fit for.”

He continued: “Going on Instagram was the best decision I ever made. One particular video has now been viewed by more than half a million people and that has led to my other videos being watched as well. I now have almost 14,000 followers and that has undoubtedly led to people in Scotland wanting to see me play live. And some ridiculously high-profile people from the world of the arts have made contact with me and offered me encouragement, all as a result of Instagram.

“That health constraint has also led me into making short snappy pieces which, ironically, can be stretched infinitely, as it were, into loops of 5, 10, 15 minutes. The lack of conventional song structure has allowed for that looping. And, I love listening to rhythmic loops, I can listen to the same 10 second loop for ages - 10 minutes, 20 minutes.”

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While he accepts being likened to a '72-year-old Minimal wave Ivor Cutler' - “Well, I am 72”- he prefers comparisons to other artists such as pioneering New York synthpunk duo Suicide, whose signature sound was based around a beat-up Farfisa organ and drum machine set-up.

“The lyrical content comes mainly from dream material or, and I know that this is an increasingly unfashionable thing to say, from being in a state of slight alcoholic inebriation,” he admitted.

“Words and phrases come to me from these two sources, and they usually have an irrationality which I think has led to the Ivor Cutler comparison. 

“I saw Ivor play live in Glasgow at the Third Eye Centre so I have always been a fan. Certainly, my song, ‘When I grow up I want to be a great big German’ has an Ivor Cutler feel to it.

“But I actually prefer another comparison that followers of my Instagram account often make and that is with Suicide, Scott Walker and the films of David Lynch. I’m more comfortable with that, I think.

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“I’m really a petit bourgeois version of Suicide. Whereas they sing of life on the streets of downtown New York, people struggling with various addictions and petty crime. My lyrics feature privet hedges, the pitfalls of trying to be polite, and the various repressed worries that we all suffer from in western society.

“My ‘stuff’ is basically unusual vocalisations and unusual lyrical content set against simple percussive loops. The simplicity is very important to me. Mark E Smith is probably my most important artistic influence and his mantra was ‘Keep it simple, Cock, keep it simple’.”

He continued: “A point that I feel very strongly about is the orchestrated and highly rehearsed nature of my work. I am not into jazz or extemporisation. Both Captain Beefheart and Mark E Smith always drilled their bands of musicians. Their music is considered avant-garde but it is highly orchestrated and so is mine.

“That brings me to another important part of what I do. I do it alone. I simply cannot collaborate live with other people; I like to be in total control. I want to be confident where the beats fall so that I can come in with the exact vocal intonation. I’m basically a highly rehearsed karaoke singer who sings to his own material.”

As well as being a musician and performer, Morris also anchors a regular show on Clyde Built Radio, a non-profit community radio station broadcast live to the world from the Barras Market which 'celebrates Glasgow's musical misfits, amateurs and seasoned DJ's every weekend'.

Morris has achieved both cult status within Glasgow’s underground electronic music scene and viral fame online (Image: Robert Perry)

Morris credits the radio station, and its co-founder Andrew Thomson, with helping him connect with his fellow artists within Glasgow’s underground electronic music scene.

“Clyde Built Radio has helped a lot”, he said. “Andrew Thomson has been a big supporter of mine from the very beginning. So, his imprimatur I think has led to Glasgow artists taking me seriously. Also, I often include tracks by Glasgow artists on the show and make sure they know in advance that I have done so.

“I’ve had a lot of support from the Glasgow underground scene. Mark Vernon and Barry Burns of Radiophrenia (a temporary art radio station broadcasting intermittently from the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow) have also been great supporters, presenting my work on the station and giving me live gigs. Radiophrenia is at the Fine Art or avant-garde end of the musical spectrum.

“I’ve performed at most of the underground venues across the city from the Centre for Contemporary Arts to Nice n Sleazy. More recently my involvement with the dance music maestros that are Optimo has been incredibly exciting.

“But I have strong emotional ties to Glasgow that go back to when I was a teenager and made a weekly pilgrimage to that hip record store The 23rd Precinct on Bath Street.”

Speaking of Optimo, in the wake of his celebrated performance at the duo’s bi-monthly residency at The Berkeley Suite, Morris confessed that it left him feeling both “justified and ancient”.

Glasgow eclectic dancefloor duo Optimo (Image: Matthew Arthur Williams)

He expanded: “Well undoubtedly, I am ancient! And although I have played live on many occasions, I wanted to test myself in probably the ultimate live crucible in Glasgow - the Optimo residency at The Berkeley Suite- coming on at midnight! The reaction was unbelievable and so I feel I’ve passed the ultimate test. Hence, I feel justified. 

“Obviously, the reference in the phrase is originally to The KLF but for me there is an additional connection because I am an extremely religious person and the Biblical term to be ‘justified’ before God has a special nuance. 

“And since I believe that God wants us all to find our niche in life and so use our talents well, I am happy to use the word justified in that sense too. Also, Wittgenstein was a strong believer in human beings realising their humanity by finding a niche where their talents can be unleashed, and he is a hero of mine.”

What about being hailed as “the pop sound of the Summer all the hip kids are into” by one person who witnessed his performance? A performance that, judging by the responses on social media, may very well end up going down in distant lore as Glasgow’s very own Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall moment, which famously spawned a generation of bands. 

“I am delighted by the accolade. I would think that my music appeals to only 0.5% of the world’s population. But that 0.5% totally get what I’m about regardless of their age”, he said.

“They see someone who lays himself bare (sometimes almost literally) in his videos and in his lyrics. When I perform, even though I hardly move, and wear just my everyday clothes - no hats, headbands, or fancy coloured braces - I metaphorically spill my guts on the stage. Folk of all ages recognise that authenticity and even though our superficial characteristics may differ, I believe that at some unconscious level they see themselves in what I do. Can we include hip old folk too?”

In the meantime, having found his true métier, the world is set to hear more from Tony Morris, thanks to a forthcoming release on esteemed Glasgow label Optimo Music, the musical outlet of Optimo.

He said: “I’ve more gigs lined up at the Poetry Club on June 20 and possibly Stereo in July and a gig at God's Waiting Room, David Holmes’ residency in Belfast in August.

“I can hardly believe it but yes, my rendition of House of God will have a digital release on Optimo Music probably in early July. I think that would be my bucket list ticked off.” 

You can listen to the music of Tony Morris via his bandcamp page at https://tonymorris1.bandcamp.com