Dream pop sensation, Canada's own Matty is back with another single to prep fans for the arrival of his forthcoming album Pops.
"Boyfriend" marks the latest release for the recent Lex Records signee and continues the singer's approach to writing layered rock music with a modest take on love song lyricialism. The latest video for the artist takes a shot at influencer culture so EARMILK spoke with the eclectic musician on understanding his trials and inspirations for the road to Pops.
How did signing to Lex Records move this new direction?
Other than the two jazz records I did on Mr. Bongo in 2020, I haven't released a project on a label since leaving BADBADNOTGOOD so it felt like a big leap to try the whole "proper" release thing out again. It honestly hasn't been my style, I really like making something and following my intuition and not having to wait a year to be able to put it out. But of course these things go in cycles and the whole process of not being on label was starting to feel stale to me, so when I started considering releasing a new record LEX felt like the best choice.
I've worked with them in the past and they are really really awesome people and that's really the only thing I'm looking for. As far as if it inspired a new direction I can't say – I try not to take too much credit for the artistic process I just follow wherever it goes and this is what happened to come out. If that sounds like a pretentious ass answer that makes sense because I'm currently drafting these responses on my steampunk typewriter ipad keyboard. Something about the typewriter keys just feels more…real…y'know?
The new album cover follows a similar theme as last years KISS as well as your bandcamp project as Dandelion. Who designed the covers and is there a mutual theme fans can expect to find?
The cover was designed by David Costa (https://www.instagram.com/
He added the wings and rendered the whole thing by hand – really blew me away when he showed me the final version. He made the logo as well which is the handle of the sword. This whole album felt like playing with the archetypes of pop music – risking leaning in to convention as opposed to leaning away from it just to show people I'm Mr. Coolguy PHD. So many people have leaned away from the obvious that it's more obvious than the obvious. So it made so much sense to lean into the most universal iconic imagery possible to represent the record.
Out of the three singles you’ve put out so far, which gave you the hardest time to conceptualize?
It's not that serious for me honestly. I'm not brooding in a dark room with a single candle lit while it thunderstorms, feverishly typing into my typewriter ipad keyboard I got off amazon. Everyone is entitled to their own process but I think we mythologize difficulty in art too much. It's entertainment. Even if it comes from a serious, sad, place it ultimately just becomes someone's entertainment. And more so than that it is impossible to control whether something is good or real or not.
I don't have a ritual or anything regarding creativity because it's all bullshit. If it doesn't come out easy it's not worth it in my opinion. I'm not in control of my inspiration. Every song on this record came out especially easy, and all the ones that didn't make it were the ones that did not come out easily. The most difficult thing about this whole process was just my own ego-ideal shit of "how will people know I'm so good at piano or blah blah blah if I just make simple ass love songs?". It really became clear to me that it's harder for me to make something with basic chords and a basic structure than to do something really "weird" and "cool".
There’s a real spooky, apocalyptic atmosphere to the Madly music video. How do you blend surreal, more uncomfortable concepts with something as opposite with romance and love?
That was all the AfterFX GOAT Wirmwood (https://www.
Anyways, I asked him what song he wanted to animate and then he said MADLY and he sent me the character sheet of the angel cat things and the post-apocalyptic landscape. I originally wanted him to do something funnier because I loved the humor in his videos but I'm so glad he just went with it and did something dark and sincere. So to answer your question of how do you blend surreal uncomfortable concepts with romance and love – you'd have to ask him. But my take on it is that the darkness in the video only makes the romance and love stronger, it's like all this shit is happening around us and we're still in love and it's not even phasing us. That to me feels like a way more deep and honest depiction of love than bouncing in a field made of chocolate with bunnies and flowers. I love sweet shit I love Cinamoroll but that's half the picture, life is fucking dark and scary sometimes.
Do you plan on buying back your website domain anytime soon?
Lmao. I had to double check but I still own it, I dunno why GoDaddy says "get this domain". I own the domain for like a long ass time but I let the hosting side of it slide because I didn't know what to do with my website. I grew up making websites and playing with html and java and php but having a "website" for music in 2024 feels like im grandpa. The GoDaddy splash has more vibe than any Web3 whatever I could make for my portfolio.
I have an instagram and a bandcamp and spotify and that covers all the bases. "Getting a website" feels like what any dime a dozen music industry manager would tell their client to do – I have a really good friend who's music is blowing up and all these people are on his ass about a site and a mailing list. If any music industry person is reading this who actually cares about websites: put that idea in da trash bin 4 me plz luv u.
