Michael Lawrence Morgan (RLA): "Music is not only a medium that carries a message, but it also allows intimacy and authenticity"

How did the idea for It’s About Good Music come about, and what does this project mean to you both artistically and personally?

The team that put together Professional Vegan got together in college at Washington University in St. Louis through a love of playing guitar hero and dancing. Rocktopus and RLA teamed up to defeat one of their college’s most notorious Guitar Hero champions and the rest is history. They reconnected a few years later at the University of Southern California where they both were studying and teamed up again. Years later after a lot of detours, they connected in Portland and put together “Professional Vegan.” The project represents friendship and something fun that we both want to dance to. Artistically it’s a creative mashup of comedy and EDM, personally it connects Rocktopus’ awesome beats with RLA’s standup routine performed at Flapper’s and United Citizens Brigade. 

Your single "Professional Vegan" blends music, activism, and humor — how do you balance the ethical message with entertainment in your music?

Both Portland and Los Angeles are, respectively, the number one and number two meccas for veganism in the United States. This track is an homage to cruelty-free living. Music is not only a medium that carries a message, but it also allows intimacy and authenticity to be communicated across airwaves and digital bits to total strangers. We both appreciate and live the vegan lifestyle, and wanted to bring a comedic take on the decisions that we all face everytime we get hungry. For vegans, our angels and demons just look a little different. 

What have been the main musical and cultural influences that inspired you while working on It’s About Good Music?

We’re both really into chiptunes and video game music so even though Professional Vegan doesn’t sound like anything you’d hear in a video game, we both have that running through our veins. Musically, we’re huge into Daft Punk and also Bemani Games from Japan (Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, Beatmania, etc.). Culturally, we both love standup and comedy. We’ve both been film and media composers and the timing in comedy is everything. The timing in this song, breaks, jokes, loops, is what kept our attention working on it from start to finish. 

You’ve mentioned collaborations and live performances — how do you see the relationship between live shows, social media presence, and promoting new tracks?

It’s really exciting to see how live performances are coming back in such a booming way across the USA. There is nothing like the sweat and the shared rhythm of a room full of people. For us, social media isn't just a place to 'post.’ It’s our way of keeping the conversation going after the music stops. We love using our platforms to show the raw, unfiltered side of the 'Professional Vegan' life—the laughs in the comedy club  and the chaos behind the scenes. We see the live show as the big family dinner where we all meet, and social media as the group chat where we stay friends. Ultimately, we want our tracks to feel like a gift to the fans, and seeing them dance to it in person is the greatest reward we could ask for. You can follow Rocktopus @mjmurdoc and RLA @itsaboutgood. 

Looking ahead, what are the next steps or projects for It’s About Good Music? Are there plans for a full EP/album or other creative collaborations?

Very good question! We are just working on our follow-up track to “Professional Vegan” and taking inspiration from some of BT’s earlier works as well as hilarious comedians. Regarding a full-length project—yes, we are definitely moving toward a larger body of work. We’re exploring a concept that breathes creative life into those big, ‘unanswerable’ questions: from the ethics of what we eat to the literal meaning of life. We’re halfway kidding about solving the mysteries of the universe, but then again, isn’t that what the best music tries to do?

With my recent work alongside the Jupiter Classics team and Rocktopus designing sonic landscapes for VRChat, we’re gathering all these diverse influences into one pot. Whether it’s an EP or a full conceptual album, the next phase of It’s About Good Music is going to be an immersive experience. We’re building a world, not just a playlist, so stay tuned!"

Follow Michael Lawrence Morgan (RLA)

Soundcloud / YouTube / Spotify