As some of you may already be aware, over the years I have on occasion had the opportunity to work with a few other musicians, whether live or in the studio (see the side bar with links on the right side of my blog under the heading: "Some Artists With Whom I've Had The Pleasure Of Recording/Performing"). I love these experiences because it gives me a chance to do something outside of what has become my comfort zone, and hopefully helps me to grow as a musician.
I had one such opportunity last year when I was introduced to Eric Mattei. Eric is a Toronto based singer/songwriter, and I had heard that he was looking for a drummer to play on his studio project called "Lonely Commotion". My friend Robin gave him my name, and we got to work!
The project was an interesting learning experience for me because Eric had already recorded most of the instruments on the album by the time he decided to add drums (played by me) and bass (which he played himself). Normally in the studio, you start by recording the rhythm section first, and then layer all the other instruments on top of that. This was like building a house from the roof down, and it was a really challenging and enjoyable experience.
Over the course of the project I got to know Eric and his music, and we became immediate friends. As we talked about his music, I began to realize that there was a complex history behind his lyrics, and that this project in particular was a very special one to him.
I'm honoured to have been part of Eric's Lonely Commotion, and I thought I'd take a moment to introduce you to him and to his work. I've never conducted an interview before, but it seemed like the best way to give everyone a real feel for his music and personality.
Enjoy!
JC: What got you started in music?
EM: Although I have vague memories of playing my brother’s guitar at 4 years old my real introduction to music was through Mr. Anthony Perry. He was my Grade 7-8 elementary school teacher. I actually still have the Goya six string that I bought through him (my first guitar) and I play it in my office. I was brutally bad at playing and I’m still sight reading illiterate however, one day, Tony brought in an electric guitar and an amplifier….when he switched the amp to the “dirty” or distorted channel and I heard that crunch…damn! I was hooked!
I’m all self taught from there out.
JC: Was this your first studio recording experience?
EM: As a solo performance; yes. However; I’d written and recorded two demos and one short length album before I was 21 with my former band; Black Heaven. I’m 32 now so that was a while ago :)
BTW, recording has totally changed. I remember laying down tracks on magnetic tape and if you screwed up you did it again. Now with digital you can cheat in all kinds of ways which is cost effective BUT I have to say that if you can’t pull it off live than don’t do it period. I prefer to try and keep it as close to possible to a live feel with as few touch ups as possible. However; even a 69’ vette needs some polish to look its best right? And I’m far from perfect so cheers to 1’s and 0’s !!
JC: Why the long break between Black Heaven and Lonely Commotion?
EM: Well; life “happens.” The band I was in broke up after our last project and I was admittedly sour about that experience. I had just started working in the career in the business world that I still practice and before I knew it a decade had passed me by.
I’ve been asked before if I regret leaving music for so long. Absolutely not. We are children of destiny in many regards and I find myself in the position I am today for a reason. Would I have been a “better” musician if I practiced all those years? Maybe I’d have been more technically proficient but I think that actually living my life allowed me to have something worth saying and that’s what song writing is all about. I guess I’m kind of like the chess playing Bobbie Fischer without the insane schizoid paranoia and peanut infested beard ;-)
As for why I came back. Well 2005-06 was just one of those years for me. I lost some good friends and family. Some in very tragic ways and all too young and in addition to that I was not doing so well with relationships. By the time my birthday came around it was either sink or swim. I opted to use my guitar as my paddle :) and I used music to get me out of a really bad place.
JC: Did this album turn out the way you originally planned when you first got the idea to record your new songs?
EM: Lonely Commotion completed exceeded my expectations. I went into the studio with an old school ethic where I would just record myself and my guitar with no backing arrangements. I lost my voice in the middle of the process and used that time to layer many backing vocals and guitars and even played bass on the tracks. Robin Eccleston played the keys and you; my friend, filled in the grooves. I’m really proud of the sound we achieved. It’s polished rich and its honest. Also, Robin played a huge part in directing the vocal harmonies that really brought songs like Herd and My Unknown Love to a whole other level.
JC: Did you write all of the songs on this album in one short period of time, or had some of them been kicking around in your head for a while before recording this album?
EM: I wrote the bulk of them as I was teaching myself to play again. So from my birthday in June 06’ to July 06’. Then I left for Europe for a month. Came back; wrote a few more and I was in the studio by September and the album was done in the early spring of 07. It was a lightning fast feeling and yet there was so much depth coming through me. It’s as if 11 years of holding music inside me was bursting out like a dam breaking.
I had one overlying rule…no bull. The songs had to be what I experienced and no punches were pulled.
JC: It seems like some of your songs have a certain air of sadness, disappointment or feelings of loss in the lyrics, while many others seem to suggest a sense of rebirth or rising above difficulties and looking towards a bright future. Do you feel that this thematic counterpoint speaks to any particular time in your life, and if so: in what way?
EM: Check the calendar. We’re all dying everyday. Nobody gets younger. But it’s what you do with the time that you’re given that constitutes the quality of your life. I was in a REALLY emotionally confused and depressed time of my life and although I didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel at the time, music made me feel as though I was working towards something. That’s where the optimism within the calamity that I was experiencing comes into play.
JC: Was recording this album as cathartic an experience as you hoped it would be?
EM: It was that and some!! My life has changed entirely since I’ve released the album. I feel balanced; content and full of purpose. I’ve been using my music to raise money for the foodbank to feed our friends who are a bit down and I just love every note that I play, good, bad or otherwise. I know that some songwriters say this would be a poor metaphysical state for songrwriting but tell that to Bob Marley. Life can be a really good thing to you sometimes and I think where I’m going not just in music but in general is a good place.
JC: Have you had much opportunity to perform the songs from Lonely Commotion live since recording the album?
I’m very proud to say that we sold out Revival in Toronto at my CD release party and we kicked some serious arse live (if I may be so bold to say). What’s great is that since the songs were written with just me and a guitar on a couch they can come across in so many different ways either with a full band or acoustic solo. So I’ve been playing coffee houses and full venues. We actually have a show coming up in Vaughan at Vinnie Gambini’s on the 24th and Mr. Campbell will be featured on drums at the show! Info: http://www.lonelycommotion.com/
JC: Do you have a preference between recording in the studio and performing live?
EM: There’s a definite sense of immediacy when you play live. The crowd never lies. If you’re not getting their attention you’ll know it. That doesn’t mean that they have to remain fixated on you; they just have to be interested. A lot of the live feeling has to do with being a performer and providing an experience and touching people in a way that a performer can whereas recording to me is kind of like being an artist working a blank canvas. Each audio layer is like adding more depth and texture to the painting. Plus, you don’t have any drunkards falling all over your gear in the studio….well; unless you play for the Stones.
Both experiences are vastly different and totally rewarding. If I had to regard one more than the other I would have to say recording because you’re creating something permanent; a legacy that can continually move people if you create it with honesty to your humanity in mind.
JC: I'd like to ask you about some of the lyrics to specific songs if you don't mind.
EM: Of course! Fire away….
JC: The album title, Lonely Commotion, is mentioned specifically in the lyrics of two of the songs on the album: the title track, and the live in studio piece My Song. Can you tell me a bit about what these words mean to you, and why you chose them for the title of the album?
EM: I have to give credit here to my friend Mary Bertolo. She’s the one who coined the phrase “Lonely Commotion.” I was talking to her about my moving to the downtown core of Toronto one day and she said: “beware of the Lonely Commotion. So many people around you and none of them say hi.”
What a great thought. Once I heard that phrase I knew that I had a theme to tie the whole experience I was personally going through in a macro sense of my role (if any) within our little world.
JC: I was particularly moved by the lyrics to Guilty Victims. Would you tell me a bit about what that song means to you?
EM: Guilty Victims has quickly become the most regarded track on the album and I save it for my encores because it means so much to me. I like to think of the way it progresses from just my voice and my guitar and culminates in a big jam at the end is a musical statement of how life can be sometimes.
Furthermore; the lyrics really sat in a shirt pocket by my heart for me.
The chorus… “Winners and Losers, we’re all the same if there’s no race to win. Life is rolling if miss your turn you don’t go again. So stay strong. Make your life your own.”
…precisely summates what I wanted to impart about living in such a confused and strained world. There is no tomorrow. We all have to appreciate the sanctity and value of each moment we live in. That’s the best way to live; it’s not a competition or a race; it’s a journey that happens one moment at a time and you have to make the best of each one with each other in mind.
In fact; Guilty Victims is the feel of where my storytelling is going with the next project.
If it sounds preachy to some; well, you’ve missed the point. Spreading a message of love and regard for living is never a bad thing in our world and I’m not ashamed of that.
JC: The song Herd seems to me to talk about some of the problems that all of us face at one time or another in our lives in our relationships with others, while also making some sociological observations about people in general. What motivated you to write this song?
EM: In a way, this is the oldest song on the album. I wrote it eleven years ago just before my band; Black Heaven broke up. It’s the piss and vinegar to Guilty Victims sympathy and observation. I dislike falseness and a lack of authenticity in people. Nothing is worse than that and when we behave this way; following without caring just for the sake of doing so or to appease others without regard or loyalty for who we really are and the friends around us…we’re in a Herd.
JC: What made you decide to record My Song live off the studio floor?
EM: My Song just had to be that way. I love the message in it because when I close my eyes I can see what I’m saying in the Theatre of my mind. There was no need to adulterate it with fluffery. Plus, it gives the listener a really good sense of what I sound like in one take without any polish. The next album will have more of this feel (if I don’t lose my voice again that is!!)
JC: There's a wonderfully exposed quality to the emotion in both the lyrics and the vocal performance on My Song. Does this piece resonate with you in the context of this project any more than any of the other songs?
EM: This is a killer question!! Kind of like Sophie’s Choice you know? I certainly have songs that I prefer to perform which resonate with me more so than others. Some songs like Goodbye or Dreaming and Crying are very much a moment in time. Then, songs like No Boundaries and Lonely Commotion defy to be quantified by time and they are universal to me. My Song is the same way. I really love to play My Song because it’s just as emotionally valid for me today as it was a year ago and it will be so ten years from now.
JC: The song Legacy contains the repeated lyric: "Yesterday still stands". How do you feel this ties in to any thoughts you might have about your own legacy, musical and/or otherwise?
EM: Hmm….i’m not really sure to be honest. Where I’ve been certainly mitigates where I’m going. I used to ask my mom as a child…. “how will they remember me when I’m gone.” I was obsessed with this idea. Now I’m obsessed with living and I try to put a rock on the past and keep looking forward.
JC: In the song Based On A True Story you sing about a friend of yours named Manny. In the lyrics we get a glimpse into what seems to be a much deeper story about hard times. Have you kept in touch with Manny? Do you know how he's doing now?
EM: I am very sorry to say that Manny is no longer with us. He found himself challenged in a dark place that he just could not resolve or find a way out of and he tragically took his life. I wrote that song because I wanted to express that he was a human being just like you and I and there is no need for judgement in this situation.
The biggest loss is that we won’t be graced by the presence of such a beautiful spirit. It was his time to go as it will be my time some day one way or another. I still think of Manny every single day. Particularly when I’m down I miss him dearly. Wherever he finds himself I’m sure he’s smiling because I can feel his warmth when I remember him.
JC: I really enjoyed the lyrics to Goodbye, which starts with the spoken phrase "You chase the things that run from you, and I'm tired of chasing". This line colors the story of the whole song and seems to me to speak of learning to let go of things beyond your control. Was this song motivated by a single event in your life, or by a number of different ones?
EM: Which one of us hasn’t chased something that wasn’t meant to be? Love is fleeting as they say isn’t it? So get on a good pair of runners!
Goodbye was very much part of the catharsis that I spoke of earlier. About changing my direction in life. The amazing thing is that as personal as these songs are; I certainly don’t OWN the life situations I found myself in and so many people who’ve heard the album come up to me and say that they think I wrote the song for them :) That’s fine with me :)
JC: The song Dreaming and Crying and the secret track Dreaming and Running have very similar titles. Are the lyrics of these two songs part of one larger theme, or were they always meant to be separate?
EM: I wrote Dreaming and Running first. I also added the instrumental part to the beginning of it….to find it you must…..muhahhaha…you’ll just have to listen to the album (hint-look at it in a mirror). In any event; I used the same chords for Dreaming and Crying but bounced the groove around to a whole new swing so they’re sister songs in a way. The former is about my errrr….tolerance for alcohol…while the latter is about longing for someone.
JC: Dreaming and Running contains one of the darkest lyrics on the album with the line "All I want / is to drink 'til I'm alone". I think this line perfectly characterizes a state of mind that we've probably all seen someone in at one time or another. Is this something that you went through, or was it just a well chosen poetic image?
EM: None of the lyrics on this album were derived from anything but personal experience.
Therefore; if I say “when the devils’ in a black dress with long hair and a soft caress. I play along. I know she’ll be gone.”
I lived that and had a couple of dances with the devil on occasion. With Dreaming and Running; we all have vices…whether they be gambling, sex, drugs, speeding or all of the above. Sometimes it’s just easier to hide in those vices than to face your life. That’s a dangerous philosophy but it is one that is becoming more and more prevalent. I have to say that I think I somewhat have that beast in a cage…for now. I’d be foolish and naïve to try and say that I’m perfect so I won’t.
JC: Do you have plans to record another album in the future, or was Lonely Commotion a one-time thing?
EM: I’m not a huge fan of the industry as a whole. There are a lot of amazing people in it though that truly love music and that’s where I think I’d like to fit in. I’m entirely self funded and self produced which means that my material is without bureaucracy or mitigation. It’s become my love in my life too.
If; at some point, the need for me to express sentiments through songs escapes me again…well; I’ll see you in another 11 years I suppose. But until then; I want to get back in the studio next year and add another chapter to my Legacy.
JC: Now that you've had to live with the finished album for almost a year, is there anything you would do differently if you had it to do over again?
EM: I know this is going to sound like I’m taking extreme Yoga classes in an effort to try and kiss my own arse but I really have to say that I loved the whole process of making Lonely Commotion and with Robin Eccleston’s help it came within 99.9% of what I had envisioned and in many ways exceeded that vision. I had a very high goal set for the project so that’s insane when you think about it. I’m very proud of Lonely Commotion and although I know it’s not perfect; that’s what makes it human ;-)
JC: Has your return to music affected other aspects of you life at all?
EM: Well, aside from the personal benefits of having a better centre on what’s important; the only real difference is how I prioritize my time. I still work as hard as ever at paying the bills but I’ll make time say when I wake up in the morning to play the drums or while I’m making myself dinner I’ll have a notepad to scribble down song ideas….music has become integrated into my life and that includes my daily life.
JC: Do you still keep in touch with any of the musicians from your earlier work, and have they heard your latest music?
EM: Thankfully I’m able to keep in touch with a good portion of the band and at the CD release party they were so proud of me! We had a big hug after the gig and a good chat over a beer. I’m 32 and getting back into this at my age I really feel like I have no pretensions. I just want to share as much as I can with as many people as I can. In fact; I found out today that I inspired a buddy to buy a blues harmonica. Something he said he’s been meaning to do all his life….now that felt great ;l
JC: Can you give me any insight into what people should expect to hear from your future work in terms of thematic content?
EM: I’m very glad that you asked this question. Lonely Commotion was an effort to expunge some demons, set forth a personal biography and in many ways leave a testament as to who I am behind. This next work (as yet untitled but about half way written) is going to be a much broader message and more of a perspective of US rather than ME. You and I. The community of humanity.
God willing; if I remain in good health then it will be another chapter in this book of music that I’m trying to make.
JC: Well, I think that's about it Eric; unless there's anything else you'd like to add.
EM: I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to prepare these questions and thanks to all of the Haggis Fans out there for taking the time out of their busy days to read this. You guys really are amazing. I needed a good picture of James for the album and I made a request on your site and I received a bunch of pictures in no time flat. One ended up in the album!! I hope that as the Haggis fans read this they’re in a good place surrounded by good people.
