“It’s like a sleepover party every night!” jokes Morgan St. Jean about her current tour, which kicked off last night in Washinton DC and will find the feminist pop artist playing a rare all-ages show at our very own Kung Fu Necktie this Friday, February 28th. The jaunt has Morgan opening for longtime friend Neriah, who I find out during a recent phone chat actually co-wrote Morgan’s “Me This Time.” “There was always talk about doing this, and maybe her opening for me, but it just never worked out, so when this tour came up, I was like, ‘Girl, do you need an opener? Because I’d love to come out!’” Morgan tells me.
I first met Morgan St. Jean last June, shortly after the release of her My Mind And I EP and shortly before her first-ever headlining tour, which made a stop at MilkBoy, where Morgan managed to bring out an exceptionally impressive crowd of young people, despite the venue’s usually stingy age restrictions. “Headlining is so stressful, because it’s up to you to bring in a crowd and all that, but I wanted to get that under my belt… but in every city, even the smaller shows, the crowd was so excited to be there… Headlining is such a unique experience, but it was important to be able to test myself physically and vocally and all of that,” she tells me.
Over the course of our summer 2024 introductory chat, Morgan St. Jean talked to me about what it was like going viral literally overnight with her 2021 single “Not All Men,” what “feminist pop” means to her, and a new batch of songs currently in the works. And while she hasn’t dropped any new music since the April release of My Mind And I, she tells me that quite a bit accumulated in-between tours, and she’s anxious to drop her biggest release yet in the relatively near future.
“I’ve been writing nonstop, working on an LP… And you only get to release a debut album once, so it’s a big thing, but I’ve been working with a bunch of different producers, and I think I’ve decided on who I want. I’ve written probably 40 songs, and I think I want it to be 12. I’m actually playing one of them on this tour, so hopefully I’ll get a feel for what fans think!”
During our last chat, Morgan St. Jean admitted that her fans are a very important part of who she is, telling me, “I just want to be around ‘my people,’ and the people who listen to my music are those people,” so I’m curious if she had any exceptionally noteworthy experiences on her first headlining jaunt, or the one that followed in September, and she says there were definitely a handful that stood out.
“I had one fan, Sabrina, who made bracelets for everyone and handed them out to all the crowd. She came with her mom to multiple shows and drove from so far away to all of them. And Maria’s a fan from Canada who gave us all of this amazing Canada merch! And Kiara’s a fan who flew all the way to Canada from Germany!”
Those who consider themselves to be Morgan St. Jean’s people (or who would like to be) can keep up with her daily life via her TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube pages (where she recently announced her engagement and her newfound motherhood, with her and her fiancé’ adopting a rescue dog). However, she admits to having had a somewhat complicated relationship with social media. “I think of social media as a toxic relationship [laughs]. The highs are really high and the lows are really low… but, over time, I’ve developed such a positive relationship with it and what it brings to my life,” Morgan tells me, going on to add, “I love my life and to be able to share it. I love when fans share with me and I wanna share with them… Like, I deal with mental health struggles, which I talk about a lot, and sharing that on social media has made me feel so supported.”
And Morgan tells me that those who saw her on her first headlining tour at MilkBoy last year can expect something completely different at Kung Fu Necktie this Friday, February 28th, in addition to the brand-new song: “This is my first tour that I’m doing as a one-woman show. It’s intimidating, but it’s good for me and I think I’ve figured it out. Playing like that, you’re more focused on the lyrics and connection and message, and you can potentially create an even more intimate experience.”
*Get your tickets here.
**Listen for Morgan St. Jean on the next edition of Philthy Radio, 3/21 (9-11pm ET) on Y-Not Radio.
