“I had taken a break from my personal musical projects to focus on collaboration and co-writing with other artists,” Morgan Nagler says, as she discusses the long gestation of her debut album, I’ve Got Nothing to Lose, and I’m Losing It. “During that time, I kept writing on my own because it’s just what I do. And, at a certain point, I thought, ‘There’s a lot of songs here. I probably should put some of them out.’”
Nagler’s journey to a solo career was circuitous, to say the least. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the now 48-year-old Oregon native had success as an actress, appearing in films and television programs in her teens and twenties. From there, she scored some buzz with the projects Whispertown and Supermoon but then backed into a parallel career co-writing with Margo Price, Kim Deal, HAIM and Phoebe Bridgers, including on the latter musician’s Grammy-nominated “Kyoto.”
“My first co-writing experience was with Gillian Welch and David Rawling in 2008 and what a way to start that process,” she admits. “I really consider that my college because I was very unschooled and coming from a DIY [place] of, ‘I don’t really know how to play guitar or sing—I’m just gonna make it up.’ In retrospect, they were attracted to me because they were so schooled and knowledgeable and had honed their craft so deeply. They got that fearless spirit from me, and I got majorly schooled from them. I had such a great time. I ended up living with them for about six months, and we were nocturnal—just writing all night.”
Following an intense breakup of a long-term relationship and period of self-described “recentering,” Nagler shifted her attention back to her own work. “It was a big midlife transition that brought me back around to where I started, essentially, which is affirming,” says Nagler, who also explains that the “only real modern music she listened to in the ‘90s was rap” and that she was inspired by ‘60s and ‘70s classics, as well as the Dead shows she took in. “I had quite a number of songs, so it was a bit difficult to choose which ones were going to make it.”
In order to help curate the set’s mix of indie, Americana and folk selections, she collaborated with co-producer Kyle Thomas, who performs as King Tuff, working on the material in LA in 2024 and 2025. Allison Crutchfield, Madi Diaz, Bethany Cosentino, Gabe Noel, Courtney Barnett, Meg Duffy, Harrison Whitford and Josh Adams all lent their services as well. “I narrowed it down and saw which ones spoke to Kyle and my manager because sometimes it’s hard to separate yourself from what you’re doing,” she says.” It’s been a lifelong journey toward the distillation of things, boiling it down—the record has a real rawness to it and that’s what I’ve always aimed to do with my lyrics. Using my name, it was almost like, ‘This is what it is.’"
