On Kevin Morby’s latest record, the twenty-eight year old sings about how he’s discovered a songbook. Not a literal songbook but one that lives inside his head, and sort of haunts him. The theme, along with the ethereal sounds of a musical saw helped his latest hauntingly beautiful album Singing Saw come to life, and with it the next chapter of the young artist’s budding career.

When it came time for Morby to write his third solo record and first for Dead Oceans, his craft for songwriting had already gained him some attention. Morby, whose story from high school dropout to indie cult wonderkid began in Kansas, got his feet wet when he hopped a train to New York and found roles in two very different kinds of rock bands. He met Jeremy Earl who invited him to play bass in psych-folk band Woods and then Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls, who he went on to co-front garage outfit Babies with. With those credentials came the opportunity for him to not only live a life as a full-time musician but the chance at being a songwriter, eventually releasing and touring behind two records of his own name. Between his chalked up experiences with former projects and newfound life as a solo artist, Morby felt a shift that allowed him to tap into a new mystical outpouring of the self-revelation. The results evident in each of the ten songs that make up Singing Saw, an immediate desert island record.

It appears that the revelations Morby sings about are really that he’s figured something out. That something he’s referring to might just be the craft of songwriting itself. On Singing Saw, he’s achieved a cognitive understanding of the process to a point where he can almost make beautiful songs appear out of thin air.

Where his first two records 2013’s Still Life, and 2014’s Harlem River might have summarized his declarations and desires to step out on his own, the songs that make up Singing Saw dance along with confidence. His words paint pictures and tell stories from the simplest of observations of the world he sees around himself. These days that world is Mt. Washington, a quaint and rural Los Angeles suburb where Morby now resides.

In a way, Singing Saw is Morby watching his life unfold one beautifully orchestrated, diligently handcrafted song at time. On top of the lyrical divulgences, the album was produced by Sam Cohen, a multi-instrumentalist and solo artist in his own right. Cohen influenced an ambience on Singing Saw that makes Morby’s vintage imagery and simple two chord song structures lift up with cinematic life and movement. Cohen’s production also captures Morby’s sense of the past without resorting to lo-fi retro recording tricks, instead keeping things crisp and clear, letting space and Morby’s deadpan voice and sparse cadence be the driving transcendent forces.

On top of Morby’s steady strumming and gently plucked droning guitar style, spooky organ and keyboards from experimental jam-world fame pianist Marco Benevento find places to dazzle throughout the record. Toss in the vibrant backing singers, brass, and some carefully placed string arrangements and Singing Saw doesn’t have a song you should skip. It’s undeniably Morby’s most complete piece of artistry yet.

Singing Saw transcends the listener in the same way a band like Wilco was able to capture a glimpse of the daily life of Woody Guthrie and in turn launched themselves in folk revival superstardom from the Mermaid Avenue Sessions. Singing Saw, and Morby’s geographical inhibitions give off that same sense honesty and timelessness. However, what Wilco pulled from the life of Guthrie, Morby pulls from his troubadour imagination, but with the same instant classic results.

Out now on a tour to support Singing Saw we got the chance to catch up with Morby and chat with him about his favorite songs on the record, writing his very first song with Cassie Ramone, and his budding friendship with neighbor and fellow musician Kyle Thomas, a.k.a. King Tuff.  More importantly you can catch him bring Singing Saw to life this Sunday, June 19th at Great Scott.

Allston Pudding: It seems like Singing Saw was in a way a metacognitive exercise for you, like there are a lot of songs about songs, would you describe it that way?

Kevin Morby: Sure, yeah that’s definitely a big part of it. I think because a lot of the other records I’ve written were on tour were very transient. This one was written while sitting still, it’s this way because I was alone and in my own space I was really reflecting on my life as a musician and as a touring musician and also just being sort drawn in by it all the time. I didn’t have much else to do but work on music. So I kept on seeing music from all these different angles. It’s kind of like having my appreciation for it and like loving music a lot,  but also having it drive me kind of crazy.

AP: You were maybe thinking about your role and life as a musician and a songwriter?

KM: Sure, absolutely.

AP: “I Have Been to the Mountain” stands out a little bit because it’s a protest song in a way. Was this first time you have sort of taken an activist stance in a song?

KM: There’s a song on Harlem River about Columbine, essentially, it’s inspired by Columbine. I didn’t set out to write any sort of protest song it was just sort of started to write it, then halfway into it I was like ‘whoa I just wrote a song about that.’ It was just something that was on my mind at the time and it was very disturbing to me. I wasn’t really trying to make too much of a statement but just to tell the story.

AP: So you don’t see yourself using your writing as a tool to take on a cause or a stance on something in the future?

KM: Yeah, it’s gotta be in the moment, I mean I gotta feel moved to write a song about anything, and so it’s not something I go seeking out, just like I don’t seek out heartbreak to write a love song, it just sort of happens.

AP: I love the story of you moving to New York right after high school when you were eighteen. It’s pretty endearing, but how would you describe your evolution as a musician during that time, and also as a songwriter.

KM: A big part of it was that I joined Woods; that was huge for me, because before that I just playing with no real ambition. So I got to join this thing where everyone in it was a few years older than me and was sort of a professional to an extent. Ya’know at the time I didn’t even know how to like wrap up a cable, they taught me everything from things like that to what it means to go on tour for a living. But also I really admire Jeremy, the singer from Woods, it’s one of those things where I got to watch someone that I really admired, and watching him write and perform songs and it was kind of a thing where like ‘that’s something I could do, like I just felt like I could do it as well…watching the process was really inspiring to me and I was just able to learn a lot.

AP: At what point being in Woods do you start to craft your own songs and then also realize that like ‘oh this is good’ I have something worth sharing here.’ When does that moment happen, when you say ‘I got it’ during the first batch songs or even the first one?

KM: I was telling a friend about this recently. Almost the exact moment I remember was when I was living with Cassie Ramone from Vivian Girls and we had always kind of just played guitars in the living room. One day me and her just got together to play songs and said “let’s start a band” and so we just got together to see what would come out. And I had written a song called “Meet me in the City” which was the first Babies single to ever come out. I played it for her, and there was just something about it- when I played it for her and she put a guitar line over it. Then she kind of sang along with me, there was something like, something in there where I was almost kind of hearing it from like an outside perspective and I was like ‘oh this is like a song, this is good I think we should actually record this and it would sound good.’

AP: So your first song was with Cassie and was the first Babies single?

KM: Yeah, for sure.

AP: You’ve become good friends with Kyle Thomas. How beneficial is that to be friends with another solo musician like him? Do you get to bounce ideas off each other, collaborate?

KM: Totally, it’s funny you ask that because Kyle is building a studio in his house right now and we just recorded a couple of my songs of mine the other day for the first time. With someone like Kyle, what’s cool about him is he’s been apart of so much. He’s been apart of so much, so many different scenes. He was in a metal band Witch, and then also in like a pioneer freak folk band Feathers, and then he has garage rock band King Tuff, but also he makes sort of like country songs too. He’s just one of those guys that has like a huge record collection, who like, you can tell he just knows his shit and he’s done a lot of stuff so he kind of gets every reference and stuff. He’s definitely someone that I like to run art by, I like to run song ideas by him, and rough mixes… It just benefits to have people you admire who are friends that are really cool because it kind of helps to sort of have people around that are also unpaid, that are real artists, in a way.

AP: You stated that “Destroyer” is your favorite song off of Singing Saw, could you describe how that song came together from the theme, to the kind of waltzy swing feel to it? And why is it your favorite?

KM: I think it’s my favorite because it’s the first song I ever wrote on piano. It’s was one of those things where I didn’t know how to play piano. I kind of just ya’know the song is just super simple, but even though it’s so simple I kind of couldn’t believe that I was able to play and put words together on the piano and build a song out of it. I think there’s a certain magic that happens before you master an instrument where you kind of go about in this way where a song like “Destroyer” could only be written by somebody like that. If if that makes any sense.

I don’t know; I guess I kind of got bored of writing on the guitar, because I feel like I know the guitar so well at this point. It’s just like, it was a reach for me, and in the studio it was like “oh there’s no way I’m going to be able to play it; I’ll have to get a piano player play it.” But the producer Sam Cohen was like “well just try it.” and I was able to do it and it was a challenge I don’t know I felt very compelled by it.

AP: So your band is expanded to a four piece live now as well? Is it expanding your live sound as well.

KM: Yeah, there’s something about a four piece that is really a step up from a trio. I love trios too. The record is so orchestrated so when we do the songs as a four piece we almost play them as a sort of Velvet Underground sort of way or something. Kind of make due with what we have, but it’s got a really good energy, I’m very confident in it right now and I feel good about it.

AP: I found out about your first project the Babies after hearing you solo stuff and there’s seems to be a lot of people that are totally into them. Can you give any hope to them that they’d ever see the Babies play together again or cut another record?

KM: I think if we were to reunite to would be a very long time. Maybe in like two years or something. I hope and see it happening, but I don’t know when, somewhere down the road.

AP: I know Sam Cohen had a huge influence on this record, is he someone you would tap again to produce the next record? Like a quick follow up in the way you released your first two records?

KM: The next one is not going to be with Sam, but I definitely want to work again with him for sure. The next one is all finished. It’s kind of like the other side of the coin of Singing Saw. I would like to do similar stuff to what I did with Sam again though for sure.

Kevin Morby is playing with Jaye Bartell this Sunday, June 19th, at Great Scott, Boston.