Morgan Evans Chats About the 'Life Upside Down' EP

The first time Morgan Evans sang "Over For You" was at the CMC Rocks country music festival in his home country of Australia. He sat down at the piano to perform whatever the original song on the setlist was but changed his mind. "I was very in the moment when I played it," he shares. He went to bed after the show and woke up to the internet in a buzz about the vulnerable tune that shares his perspective from his recent divorce.

Evans would later go on to perform the track in Melbourne. He told his sound guys to hit record and the live version was uploaded to streaming services soon after; it has since amassed over 12 million streams on Spotify alone. That show specifically stands out to Evans as he notes, "I remember playing it in Melbourne and hearing the arena of people singing along to a song that I'd only ever played one time." He adds, "I remember that being a really powerful night. Like 'Oh, people get this. People have been through this. People are feeling this.'" Since the track's late 2022 release, Evans still gets numerous direct messages and comments thanking him for sharing the emotional, important song.

As 2023 began, what followed for Evans was even more press about his recent split from fellow country singer Kelsea Ballerini. Instead of turning away, the singer-songwriter showcased himself to his fans and followers in a five-part documentary series that captures Evans' life after the big change. The video clips showcase Evans playing shows in Australia, spending time with family, and he talks openly to the camera about his internal feelings. "I guess we had the choice to be like how much of this do we show? How much of this do we capture? And the answer was just like, let's just capture what it is," he expresses.

Evans soon geared up for a new collection of music titled Life Upside Down, a small EP compiled of five songs that all exude a mixture of different emotions that come after turbulence in life. "On My Own Again" is a jaunty, breezy tune about newfound independence. In the chorus he sings, "I'm gonna drive until the wheels fall off this old truck in my heart / If forever's gonna end like that, I guess I'd better start / The rest of my life, like the best times, up around the bend / Oh-oh, on my own again."

The music video displays Evans traveling to places like Morroco, Germany, The Netherlands, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and England. Traveling, for Evans, has become a way to get grounded and feel smaller. "It's the best thing you can do to get perspective on things," he exclaims, "I think just being on a beach in Morroco and drinking beer with a camel can make some problems in your life, or certain things you're stressed about, or things that seem like they're the heaviest things in the world - you realize, they might be heavy, but they're not the heaviest things in the world."

Other entries on the EP include the flirtatious "Hey Little Mama" and the carefree beachy anthem "All Right Here." Despite "Over For You" sitting at the top of the tracklist, the project, overall, seems to have an optimistic point of view. In "All Right Here" he shouts, "It's all good, all gravy, all comin' up daisies / All the right kind of crazy in the atmosphere / Ain't one thing missin' / Now, we ain't got much but it's all right here."

Evans acknowledges the wide scope of happy and sad songs on the project, some were recorded earlier than others, but decided to lean into the irony of it all and have them live together on the same EP. That was the way he could be most true and authentic to himself. "To me, I wasn't trying to tell the story, at all, of my life but this is the story and these are the songs."

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