T. Hardy Morris Details New Carl Broemel-Produced Album ‘Artificial Tears’

Listen to the record’s second preview, “Don’t Kill Your Time (To Shine).”

By Nate Todd Jul 9, 2025 11:25 am PDT

T. Hardy Morris announced a new album, Artificial Tears, arriving on August 8 via the New West Records imprint Normaltown Records. The LP produced by My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel, who also contributed heavily to the album, was previewed with the track “Don’t Kill Your Time (To Shine).”

T. Hardy Morris — who began his career with the band Dead Confederate and also co-founded the super group Diamond Rugs — captured most of Artificial Tears on a four track recorder. When he and Broemel headed into a Nashville studio to expand on the four track demos, something wasn’t quite right.

“The studio was great for some of the songs,” Morris recalled, “but I often found myself drawn more to the demos we’d done at Carl’s house, so we headed back to his place to finish the record the way we’d started.”

“The quiet songs needed that raw and simple approach to feel right,” Broemel added. “As we continued recording back at my house, we elaborated on the four-track process and started recording some more full band tracks there, as well.”

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Morris further detailed Artificial Tears:

“I’ve spent a lot of time parsing the difference between art and entertainment. Not just for myself, but for society at large. What does it mean to be an artist? How do we measure creative success? Where are the boundaries between audience and performer when everyone’s broadcasting their lives 24/7? When you focus on entertainment over art, you start reaching for your lowest impulses, for the lowest forms of security and status. When you let go of the stuff that doesn’t matter and stop being so overly concerned with material things, you can appreciate the real stuff that’s all around you. I’ll always be writing music, no matter who’s listening. Day in and day out, one phrase to the next. This has always been more than a dream. It’s been a calling.”

Morris previously shared the Artificial Tears cut “Juvenile Years.” He now follows with “Don’t Kill Your Time (To Shine).”

“This is a song directed at young artists, young lovers, former selves; don’t waste your time worrying what others think and definitely don’t kill your time by giving up,” Morris said of the new single. “Rock and roll is a young people’s game and that’s what I love about it. I love discovering young artists and especially hearing what they’re creating as they’re discovering themselves. That’s the best music to me.”

Listen to “Don’t Kill Your Time (To Shine)” below:

Artificial Tears Tracklist:

  1. Write It In The Sky
  2. I Guess
  3. Juvenile Years
  4. Breakneck Speed
  5. Don’t Kill Your Time (To Shine)
  6. Sweet Success
  7. Low Hopes
  8. Poets In The Mist
  9. Knowing Me
  10. Shadows Of Doubt
  11. Fight Forever
  12. Trouble Will
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