Pop music surrounds us, but how often do we really listen to what we’re hearing? Switched on Pop is the podcast that pulls back the curtain on pop music. Each episode, join musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding as they reveal the secret formulas that make pop songs so infectious. By figuring out how pop hits work their magic, you’ll fall in love with songs you didn’t even know you liked.

PJ Morton is one of the hardest-working musicians on the scene today.

Maybe you’ve seen him playing keys with Maroon 5, or fronting a full string section in his NPR “Tiny Desk” concert. Maybe you’ve immersed yourself in his Grammy-award winning album We Are.

On all of these projects, Morton evinces his mastery for taking classic soul and R&B and updating it with modern sounds. Other musical legends have taken notice.

On his latest release, Watch The Sun, Morton is joined by some of his own sources of inspiration, singer Stevie Wonder and rapper Nas. The three combined forces on Morton’s track "Be Like Water", which recites an uplifting mantra over unsettled harmonies. The effect is hypnotizing.

Morton spoke with Switched On Pop about what it was like to work with his heroes, and to share overlooked modern classics from Wonder’s and Nas’s catalogs.

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