music: interview: Matteah Baim
Matteah Baim is a singer/songwriter from Brooklyn who collaborated with CocoRosie's
Sierra Casady on a project called Metallic Falcons, has released one album, and has
another due for release in January 2009.
Myspace page
Dicristina Records
Voodoo Eros records
Let's start with now and the future and work back .. you've got a new album almost finished we think - Is the label and release date finalised yet?
Yes, Yes.. there is a new album, Laughing Boy. It will be released in January, 09 by Dicristina Stairbuilders/Revolver USA.
Your last album, Death of the Sun, had people throwing all sorts of descriptive phrases at it such as "neo-psychedelia". Is your new one inhabiting the same sort of ground or are you off on new pathways?
Well in general, I wouldn't say I've ever tried or am trying to be a part of any staked out ground or territory. That wouldn't be much fun, right? One pathway leads to the next. Are they new? I don't know, but the sounds are talking everyday.
Your myspace page describes what you do as 'visual/grunge' which we think is nicely evocative of an associated idea rather than a description of the thing itself - like looking at it out of the corner of your eye. What do you think?
That is a nice thought.. 'the corner of the eye'. I do think they try their best to describe the music from the last record. I suppose I am asking them to do a job that is not exactly theirs. As far as 'visual' goes, the songs were built with these sort of visceral layers of texture and sensation. They move around leaving tiny images imprinted for a moment. These images start to stack up and overlap, making a kind of picture-painting or maybe a song-pyramid. Grunge also attempts to nail down an aspect of those songs. Extreme in feeling, rough in manners, immediate in need, the last record expresses itself in terms from the land of monsters. Grunge, yes, that lives at the heart of the beast.
On Death of the Sun you had some interesting guests including Jana Hunter, Devendra Banhart, Butchy Fuego, Robert Lowe, Rob Doran, Jon Beasley, Birdie Lawson, and Emma Yohanan. We guess they didn't come along just because you were hanging out in Chicago and L.A. - how did they come to be part of it?
They all said yes even before I asked them. I don't really know, it's a little mysterious to me, but they got behind the music and into it. For this new record, there is an amazing group of musicians contributing... Hisham Bharoocha, Robert AA Lowe, Butchy Fuego, Leyna Marika Papach, Emmett Kelly, Birdie Lawson, Rob Doran and Rose Lazar.
Would you trace any kind of line between what you're doing and what Sonic Youth have done - more in ideas than actual sound?
I've never been asked at that before. I am so happy you asked me that because I am so often thrown into being a part of the folk tradition or the new folk scene. This has never made much sense to me. Sonic Youth is coming from the school of do-it-yourself, of making up your own tools and then using them to build the music house you want to live in. I very much relate to that experience.
Before Desert of the Sun you collaborated with CocoRosie's Sierra Casady with a project called the Metallic Falcons which has an album out on Voodoo Eros. How did all that come about?
It came about very naturally actually. Sierra showed up at my place one day with a bunch of instruments and we recorded an album's worth of demos right then. It was so electrifying to us that we made a band out of it. We went on to make the full length, Desert Doughnuts.
... continues below ...
Love the photo with the two figures in black and white - who styled that?
Those photos were taken by a great New York photographer, Leila Hekmat. They are very much of her style and way. We brought her the idea of figures masked and robed and she made a real picture out of it.
Are there plans for more Metallic Falcons releases or was that a oncer?
That is all from the Metallic Falcons.
You play guitar and there's talk in your bio of a much-loved pawnshop guitar, and then of it's replacement. What was the replacement?!
Mine was a black acoustic guitar. I traded it with someone for his childhood guitar, which was electric. It was a good trade.
Some people taking up the guitar are keen to start by playing other people's songs as much as they can, while others think that job is best left to the originals and pursue making their own sounds while trying to put together some chops. Which camp were you in - or did you move from one to another? ... which must make up a sizable third camp!
I'm afraid the way I first learned guitar has most likely ruined me. A friend of mine, when I was growing up, studied classical guitar. For whatever reason, I had this strange attraction to play only that kind music on the guitar. So I took some of her sheet music and photocopied it. Not knowing how to read music, I went to the library to try and figure it out. The whole thing resulted in a sort of Frankenstein-ish version of the songs. But those are the melodies that have lingered with me. I still have that stack of photocopied music and still play it in my funny way.
In your sound there's a fair bit of electronic alteration, and with your voice as well. On stage, do you use a fair battery of effects?
I would love to have an extremely large room extremely full of only pedals, synthesizers, and what not. All of them patched and ready to go. I actually don't use any effects on vocals for performance and have used them very rarely in recording. Effects on vocals are like sunglasses for your eyes. When the moment calls for shades you wear them, and when it doesn't you don't.
On November 28 08, you're playing in Bordeaux, France at what sounds like an interesting gig. Do you have a French connection?
I do have one.. ha ha. I've been working on a soundtrack for a film being made by two artists in Paris. They are going to screen it and we will perform the music live at a festival being held at the Bordeaux Contemporary Art Museum. There are some exciting musicians performing at the festival including, Lichens and Black Dice. It promises to be a wild and strange couple of days in Bordeaux.
Thank you.
Tip of the flower-covered fedora to Miranda
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