Artist. Activist. Alt-pop hitmaker. Advocate. For years, MORGXN has built his career on the borderlines, blurring genres and disciplines into a platform that's every bit as diverse as his music. 

He strikes a new chord with HEARTLAND. Written and recorded in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, it's a pair of cinematically cathartic EPs, stacked high with melody-driven songs about conversation, connection, and coming back home. For an Emmy-winning musician whose voice has taken him everywhere from Broadway stages to the Billboard charts, HEARTLAND marks something new for MORGXN: a full-circle return to the city he once left behind, inspired by the new love he found waiting there. 

A third-generation Nashville native, MORGXN was born as Morgan Karr and grew up in the conservative American South. Music and theater were safe spaces, but he struggled to reconcile his queerness with the area's traditional values. His first job was bartending and singing at the world-famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in downtown Nashville. Moving to New York City after college, he performed in the Tony and Grammy-winning cast of Broadway's Spring Awakening and continued sharpening the songwriting chops that would soon turn him into a mainstream name.

What followed was a decade of success, from Top 10 radio hits (including "Home," his crossover collaboration with Walk The Moon) to late-night TV performances alongside Sara Bareilles. All the accolades in the world couldn't make California feel like home, though, and MORGXN eventually found himself pulled back to Tennessee. Upon his return, he rediscovered a place of inspiration and frustration, both of which made their way onto the strongest album of his career. 

"With every record, I feel like I'm starting over… and with HEARTLAND, I'm fully hitting the 'reset' button," he says. Without a manager or a record label, MORGXN began writing songs for the sheer joy of it, plucking out new melodies on the piano he'd been playing since childhood. He teamed up with friends and collaborators, too: duet partners like Katie Pruitt and Langhorne Slim, Ruby Amanfu, and Maggie Rose; co-producers like Marshall Altman, Josh Ronen, and PJ Harding; and countless musicians who, like himself, were drawn to a variety of sounds, from the uplift of gospel music to the soundscapes of electronica to the southern storytelling of American folk. As he started to work on the music, he found a team that saw what he was trying to build and wanted to be in the trenches building it together. 

Most importantly, MORGXN fell in love — not just with the city he'd left a decade earlier, but also with the man who became his husband. Much of HEARTLAND unfolds like a love letter to that relationship. "EVERGREENS" funnels the thrill of pure love into a campfire-worthy anthem, punctuated by banjo and strings. The emboldened pop song "H O L Y" celebrates all forms of love, even in the face of religious zealots who may deem some unions profane. "TALK ABOUT IT" — a collaboration with Katie Pruitt, fueled by vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar — calls for open conversation during times of disagreement, while "MAKE IT OUT ALIVE" is a rallying cry for the marginalized, inspired by the resilient queer community MORGXN found in Tennessee.

"I didn't come home to become an activist," he says, "but I'm not going to be quiet, either. It's time this town opens its eyes to the rainbow that exists here. I'm talking about the whole spectrum of humanity, and that's what I hope HEARTLAND represents." Using his singing voice as a megaphone, MORGXN has become an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, women's reproductive rights, and pro-drag legislation. He sang at the State Capitol on the day three Democratic reps became known as The Tennessee Three. He bought acreage in the Tennessee countryside with his husband, Gabe, and opened his own farm. The couple named the property Fruity Farm, and when they discovered the nearby town wasn't going to be able to host its own Pride Festival, they held a grassroots Pride event on the farm itself, earning coverage from Good Morning America. 

That same irrepressible spirit fuels HEARTLAND. Resilience, resolve, and romance are woven into these songs, all of which were either co-produced or produced by MORGXN himself. Somewhere along the way, what began as a DIY labor of love — as a loose collection of love songs, battlecries, and tributes to the human spirit — became his first release for BMG. MORGXN may have moved alone to Nashville, but he found a new family in Tennessee, partnering not only with Gabe, but also with a team of music industry professionals who shared his commitment to honest art and equal rights. Joining the roster of a major label hasn't dampened his independent ethos, and HEARTLAND stands as a showcase not only for MORGXN’s larger-than-life voice, but for the very things he's fighting for, too. It's an album for those who deserve to love loudly and live proudly. An album for those who long to boldly exist in spaces that previously felt closed off. An album anchored not only by melody, but by a message, too.

It is, most importantly, an album about the geography of the human heart — a force so powerful, it can move mountains. With HEARTLAND, MORGXN shapes his own landscape, building a world that's as beautiful as the songs he sings.

"The heartland is not normally a word associated with the kind of life that I live," he says. "But here I am, straight from Tennessee, redefining what the heartland can be. It's not just a place. It's a feeling. It's a hope. It's a community. It's a chord. It's a vibration."

It's a soundtrack, too. HEARTLAND is MORGXN's musical homecoming: a bold, empowered folk pop record from a longtime Nashvillian who's willing to dig up his roots and plant a new landscape.