In our latest installment of the Tiny Desert Concert series, we're featuring Morphia Slow.
Morphia Slow started as Allene Dugan’s solo project, but now it’s a full-on band. The 23-year-old songwriter calls her music “Murder-Folk-Pop,” and her unique introduction to guitar contributes to Morphia Slow’s unique sound.
Dugan sat down with The Show's Lauren Gilger to talk more about it in a rather odd place for a young musician: At American Legion Post 138.
For the past 12 years, Post 138 has been a community gathering place for veterans. The bar regularly hosts birthday celebrations, open mics, trivia and karaoke.
Full conversation
ALLENE DUGAN: I’ve just been playing music forever, and I think it was because there was a want to just like kind of have me do something that my parents couldn’t do. And for a while, it was just something I did. But I think now I’m realizing that it is important, and it is something I’ve turned out to be really good at.
LAUREN GILGER: But when you say you, you started playing music at a very young age — this wasn’t just piano and guitar lessons. You were playing in bars, right?
DUGAN: Oh, yeah. So let me talk about that. So that was a little later. That was when I was like 11, 12 years old. My mom worked at Maricopa Elementary School, and she had a paraprofessional named Jeannie Jones, and they became friends. And my mom was mentioning that I wanted to learn guitar, which I did.
And Jeannie said, “Well, my husband is a lifelong musician, and he’s never taught anyone before, but maybe he would want to teach her.” So me and Trevor — Trevor Jones — we are best friends. He calls me his best friend. He’s a crazy old dude. He’s a cancer, like me. We just have a very loving and really unique relationship.
We’re kindred spirits, for sure. He was always, he was kind of hard on me, but in like a loving way. And he taught me so much. And he would take me out with him to his gigs, and he would play at different pubs all over the Valley. And let me tell you, I’ve sang “Bobby McGee” about 1,000 times.
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
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Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
GILGER: So an interesting kind of upbringing and music. Does that and does your early guitar teacher have anything to do with why we are here at a veterans memorial hall today playing?
DUGAN: As a matter of fact, it does. He’s been playing here for I don’t even know how long. Years and years. And he would have me come in. And at first I didn’t really love it. I was like 13, 14 years old. But as I got older — and maybe when I started being able to drink — I really loved coming in here.
And the people here have become like, sort of my family. And I would come in here like every Sunday. I’ve kind of called it lately like a pseudo-church in a way. Like it’s a routine.
GILGER: Tell me about the name, Morphia Slow.
DUGAN: A lot of artists do a stage name, and I always loved “Rocky Horror Picture Show” as a kid. Funny story, I accidentally watched “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at like 4 years old.
GILGER: Too young!
DUGAN: Yeah, too young to watch it. But I don’t know if my mom thought I was asleep. This is the story: My mom thought I was asleep, and she’s watching it on the couch, just like chilling. And she’s having her “me time” or whatever. And I’m apparently in the background. And then the next day or so, we go to my Mormon grandparents’ house, and I’m singing “I’m just a sweet trans-essite.” I said trans-essite.
Anyway, the name Morphia Slow, it’s kind of a misheard lyric from “Over at the Frankenstein Place,” when Riff Raff is up in the window and he goes, “The darkness must go down the river of nights dreaming, flow morphia slow, let the sun …”
GILGER: I know that one, yeah.
DUGAN: So that’s where it came from. And I always thought that was interesting. And no one else had really used that name. And I put it as my Instagram handle and I just started using it. And then it became the band.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
Allene Dugan (right) talks to The Show’s Lauren Gilger after Morphia Slow’s Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
GILGER: Talk a little bit about musical inspiration, genres, always an interesting question. I know I hear certain things when I hear your music, but I’m sure you think about it differently. How would you describe the genre you fit into?
DUGAN: If I was to broadly describe it, I would say folk rock. In the era of when I was writing, most of these songs that are on this album, I was really listening to a lot of Big Thief. I feel like that’s the main — I think so many people just look up to Big Thief so much, so I would definitely credit them as an inspiration for sure.
But I think I can’t discredit the influences of just like old folk classics, like I love Lead Belly. I love Bob Dylan. Just all the classic stuff that I’ve learned over the years that I think informs my playing and informs how I come to write lyrics.
GILGER: So how do you write a song? Does it start with lyrics for you? Does it start with a poem? Does it start with a melody in your head?
DUGAN: I think all songs are different methods, for sure. But for example, “Murder Ballad #25,” I was really sad. It was like 2020 and I was on Tinder or something. I wrote this long poem, and all of the rest of it was kind of incomprehensible drivel. But one part said, “We die for love, die for money and fame,” which is the refrain of “Murder Ballad,” so that really stuck with me.
And then I somehow came up with the rest of that. And it’s funny to look back on the songs that you’ve written because I always say I could never write that song again.
GILGER: And we’ll hear that one now.
Morphia Slow plays “Murder Ballad #25”
GILGER: Do you feel like it’s an emotional outlet for you? Like, are you not a super open book otherwise?
DUGAN: I’d say I’m an open book. But it’s definitely an emotional outlet. I find the best time to write a song is when you feel the worst, because it just lets you let it out. And once you can let it out on the page and let it out into recording, you can in a way release it to other people to decipher.
GILGER: It makes sense. All right. So you’re going to take us out on a song here. What’s it called?
DUGAN: Well, “Midday Landslide,” I remember I wrote it sitting under a tree in my complex. And it’s kind of about alcoholism and hope for the future. I remember when I was a child, I one time went over to my uncle’s house, and he was drinking a drink, and I thought it was a White Russian because I was a “Big Lebowski” fan.
But it was a landslide, and that always stuck with me. So the concept. it’s kind of about getting older and coming to terms with who you are, and you kind of have to live every day like you have to be present every day, or else you’re dead, basically.
So it’s about coming to terms with what you can be and like really seizing the moment. And I think it’s just a reminder to myself and hopefully to others too.
Morphia Slow plays “Midday Landslide”
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
Morphia Slow performs a Tiny Desert Concert at American Legion Post 138 in Tempe.
KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.
Lauren Gilger, host of KJZZ's The Show, is an award-winning journalist whose work has impacted communities large and small, exposing injustices and giving a voice to the voiceless and marginalized.
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