Warganization is an alternative electronic outfit fronted by Jack Morrison & formed in the early 2010s in Lafayette, LA. Initially conceived as a relatively large-scale collaboration project, Morrison’s focus quickly turned more toward his immediate vicinity as he began to handle most of the work (both musically & visually) himself. The project is still handled largely by him in the studio, with a live band currently composed of fellow Lafayette musicians taking the music to the stage.
The project’s sound is largely electronic, with elements of other genres (rock, hip hop, house music) and a driving energy which is sometimes interspersed with softer, more introspective songs. The group’s main influences include Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Gorillaz & Tame Impala, though they’re constantly discovering & listening to new music (mainstream or otherwise) which is often on display in their not-so-weekly mixes entitled Warg Wednesdays which they upload to Mixcloud essentially whenever the feeling strikes them.
The group’s newest EP, entitled Priority, includes 3 (drastically different) versions of the title track as well as a cover of “Disappointed” by Electronic (a side-project composed of members of New Order, The Smiths, and occasionally Pet Shop Boys) and is available now on all major streaming/download services, including the group’s own Bandcamp where all purchases (digital or physical) include 4 exclusive bonus live tracks recorded during a recent show.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Warganization about the new project, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from Lafayette, though in this project I’ve worked with people anywhere from Los Angeles to Germany, so I don’t normally consider us a “Lafayette band” so to speak, though the live band currently all hails from here. I used to be a bit more pretentious about what to call us, musically, though now I pretty much just throw out “alternative electronic music” to anyone who asks.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
Warganization initially started when I was a teenager frustrated that I couldn’t seem to put together an actual “rock band” to my liking. So instead I just decided to extend my reach outside of my immediate area and do something that was both a solo project & a hugely collaborative thing (though by this point it has admittedly become more of a solo thing, at least in the studio.) I keep going because it’s almost always a great counterpoint to whatever else I’m working on, there’s a bit of healthy escapism involved since I’m not just making music in the traditional way or with a more traditional rock band setup or anything like that, so it’s almost always incredibly refreshing.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Priority EP is a lot more direct and unapologetically electronic, I think. There is “Priority R” which is kind of the “alt rock” song of the bunch, though even that is led largely by the lead synthlines that’s kind of a pre-chorus in the song. Even though Warg was always at least in part an electronically-driven project, I think I’ve grownto appreciate & obsess over full-on electronic sounds even more by this point, and it didn’t hurt that I was listening to a ton of Pet Shop Boys and Aphex Twin and stuff at the time of writing the main track. “Disappointed” is actually a cover song originally made by Electronic, the “supergroup” thing between Bernard Sumner [of New Order,] Johnny Marr [of The Smiths,] and Neil Tennant [Pet Shop Boys] so that’s a fairly big nod to that sort of stuff, I guess.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Getting to the top of the mountain, so to speak. I feel like we have the material, now it’s all about uncovering all those dirty little marketing/promo secrets that bands used to just rely on labels and stuff for. That kind of thing is not exactly my forte but I can definitely pull it off at least to some extent – you know, a half-decent “campaign” for upcoming releases and all that – but I’d say it needs to be about a million times bigger if our stuff is gonna reach the number of ears it needs to.
What was the last song you listened to?
“Right Where It Belongs” by Nine Inch Nails. I always thought With Teeth was underrated.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Tapes
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
As far as the mainstream streaming services, Spotify feels like the most artist-friendly. I mean, not financially obviously, haha, but in terms of connecting the artist with their actual profile on the platform, it’s pretty nice. Bandcamp is pretty great in terms of letting you have all your stuff in one place, downloads and merch alike, without having to pass moderation or really have to do any waiting at all. Of course by this point I’ve sort of learned the advantages of having a more planned-out release schedule, but sometimes you just wanna have that day-of announcement and release and I don’t think there’s really a better place for that now than Bandcamp.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
We’re pretty active on Facebook & Instagram, and we do have a Twitter which gets about the same amount of activity. So whichever you prefer of the three of those, just follow us on that… or all of ‘em!
