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Photo By:  Lily P. McLaughlin

While the name guccihighwaters might be a mouthful to some, the music he creates is pretty easy to digest. Coming right off the cuff wearing his heart on his sleeve, the sounds from singer/producer Morgan Murphy are as raw as it gets.

Take his latest single "Rope," for example. Inspired by the stranglehold 2020′s quarantine restrictions have taken on his personal drive and artistry, the emotional three-minute track is spun as a heartfelt goodbye to a long-lost friend.

"The inspiration for 'Rope' came to me when I was feeling burnt out and drained of all my creativity," says Murphy. "I was writing music everyday but I couldn’t articulate my emotions into lyrics at all. It felt like I wasn’t able to say what I literally felt."

"So instead of that," he adds, "I personified my creativity as a friend that I 'lost.'"

To dig deeper into guccihighwaters and his emotional new track, be sure to check out his "Rope" music video premiering exclusively on Ones To Watch plus our brief Q&A with the emerging artist below.

“Rope” seems to be a pretty personal song for you. What inspired you to write this track?

guccihighwaters: I agree, the inspiration for Rope came to me when I was feeling burnt out and drained of all my creativity. I was writing music everyday but I couldn’t articulate my emotions into lyrics at all. It felt like I wasn’t able to say what I literally felt. So instead of that I personified my creativity as a friend that I "lost." When you listen to the track without knowing that, it’s about me trying to save my friend from suicide but I wasn’t there to help them.

Does that feeling of losing creativity have anything to do with the current quarantine restrictions?

I actually wrote this while in quarantine in my old stuffy apartment in Los Angeles. It 100% influenced the track. Just imagine being stuck inside a room with one window alone. It’s a recipe for a sad song haha.

Can you touch on the idea behind the new music video which Ones To Watch is premiering today?

While still under quarantine restrictions my friend "Fox Beach" and I wanted to really get creative with it and make it special even though we didn’t have the resources like we usually do. We both knew that we couldn’t really convey a captivating storyline in the video due to social distancing rules (we would need actors/actresses for that) so our idea was just to amplify the dark and loneliness of the track using black and white visuals

You’ve always been outspoken when it comes to supporting mental health. For anyone reading this right now who might be struggling while stuck at home, what message do you have for them?

I like to keep it simple for advice because if you give someone a whole speech on something, at least from my experience, the point gets lost a little bit. Whatever you may be struggling with right now is temporary and as painful as it might be you just have to go through it while keeping your head up. If you can speak to a friend or even get in contact with a therapist, it will really help. Keeping things bottled inside is your natural reaction but speaking about how you feel is essential. Don’t be afraid to open up.

Moving forward, what does the rest of 2020 have in store for guccihighwaters?

I’m about to work on a six-track EP for the end of 2020. I also have [a] charity merch drop and a livestream show soon. I took a three week break from music recently because I moved back to New York but I’m ready to get everything going again.