February 9th, 2014 - Matt-agascar
I started to like music ever since I was a little boy. My first guitar was a fake popcorn popper that I tied rubber bands and made different noises with it. I grew up in the church playing whether it was bass guitar, piano, or guitar and started leading in the church and started singing when I was about 16, 15. Then about 18, I started doing my own thing performing at coffee shops, performing at free venues where I could. Then at about 21 I really started pursuing my own music and pursuing writing more. Yeah, then I kinda kept going from there and finished my new CD. I was to quit my day job as a lifeguard for 12 years and do music full time; that was two years ago when I made that decision.
Most of my songs are pretty personal and influenced by people around me, by stories. Every one of them has a story or person there connected to. There’s a lot of songs about hope and about people going through circumstances in life whether it’s the loss of a life, depression, or cancer. A lot of the songs were aimed towards that to be able to relate to people and allow people to kinda find hope in music.
I do especially with especially with a lot of the topics. Cancers are hard to be positive with and depression, but people can find some kind of hope with Pearl (song off of Hourglass) in the song in regards to the situation they’re going through or situation they know someone is going through. I like positive music, I don’t want people to listen to my album and be sad and depressed afterwards. But it is about real life and it is about stuff that people go through on a day to day basis.
There are obviously some songs that I do like more than others and it helps that I’m not picky with music. I like anything from old-old country like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline to great new stuff and everything in between. So it just comes down to I love singing and pessimism and especially something I think I can sing well and I feel I can perform well. That is kind of the most joy I find in it, whether it’s a song I love and see how people react to that music and how they react at my interpretation of the song.
It is hard and you are trying to take basically someone who is an established artist and my latest cover Counting Stars, the number one song in the nation right now on the radio, trying to take that and there’s no way I’m not trying to be a duplication of what they are and what they do, there’s no way I can do that. I think to find a balance of bringing what I bring without twisting the pureness of the song without making it too obscure or weird. But it is hard, you don’t want to be and try to copy anybody, there’s no way I can and it makes me look bad.
That’s a tough one. There’s really quite a few when it comes to mind and a newer one, the Mumford and Sons, and a lot of people have been relating to them. But I don’t just relate to his music, but his passion for music and that’s something that I feel I’ve always had, is you can see it in his eyes and his expressions when he’s singing, when he’s performing. He just believes what he is singing and that he believes in the music, he believes in what he’s doing. And there’s so much energy when he sings and that’s something I’ve always tried to inspire to. So that’s one. I’m sure there’s a bunch of others. When I was growing up, it was always Michael W. Smith, which is a well-known Christian artist. Just because of his talent in his writing ability and his musicianship and the instruments he plays.
There’s definitely a huge distinction between my last EP and my new album that just came out. A huge difference of just the sound and the quality of the writing. I think that’s always something I will keep aspiring to and keep on improving the quality of the writing, keep on improving and the catchiness of the tunes. That’s something that this album has that my other album didn’t. I feel like a lot of tunes are more catchy and have more hooks that people can follow than my old one.
That’s kind of my hope for the next album. I don’t think I change genres or change anything drastically, keep on improving on what I have and try to make the next one better than this one. I think people are more drawn to faster songs before they can actually hear from slow songs and be okay with it. People like beat and they like tempo.
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