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After achieving prominence in the dance music world during the late '90s through a series of high-profile remixes and his work with Deep Dish, Richard Morel decided to step out from behind the mixing desk to offer his own tunes. But Morel's solo debut, Queen of the Highway, reflected more than just his background in electronica: it gave him a chance to draw off a lifetime of artistic experiences. Growing up outside Boston, Morel was turned on to literary titans like Tennessee Williams, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald by his mother -- while soaking up musical influence from his grandfather, a classical pianist, and getting an education in rock and R&B from his two older sisters. Leaving home as a teenager in the mid-'80s to explore the country via hitchhiking, Morel fell in with artists like filmmaker/photographer Mark Morrisroe, who cast him in the movie Nymphomaniac. He'd also taken up guitar and was beginning to write his own music, although it would be some time before it saw the light of...