Matisyahu: Take A Chance

By: Chris Clark

Matisyahu

Over the last four years, Matthew Miller has seen much change. Beginning with his debut, eye-opening performances at 2004’s Wakarusa Music Festival, word spread quickly about his uncanny stage presence, religiously infused rhymes, and delectable pairing of reggae beats with beat boxing and slivers of exploratory jamming.

As Matisyahu, Miller has been able to capitalize on his religious and life transformations and from them produce one of today’s more prominent musical success stories. He has risen, like many reading this article, from the chaotic traveling circus that is Phish tour, converted to Hasidic Judaism and put together a musical outfit unique to themselves. Just as 2007 saw Matisyahu gain steam in major markets throughout the country, 2008 was yet another break out year for the former Mr. Miller. Now, with the release of his new EP, Shattered, and 2009’s forthcoming full-length album, he is poised for even bigger things.

JamBase: How are you?

Matisyahu: I’m great, thanks. I am in Nashville. Tour is still going [and] I had shows at The Cannery. We’ve been selling out pretty much everywhere. We’ve had a couple bad turnouts. Besides those two shows, we’ve been on the road a month and a half now, and it’s been a really nice, long tour. 80 to 85 percent [of shows] sold out per night, which is supposedly pretty amazing with the market right now.

JamBase: Let’s get right into the new EP. There’s a few things about that. First of all, why did you choose to release just those four tracks now and not include them or wait for the new record to come out?

Matisyahu: We did the record and there were about 16 songs on it. I didn’t want to make a really long record, more like a classic record in the old days. I wanted to split up the songs and have some songs on this EP and some songs on the record. The way it turned out was I had realized I hadn’t put anything out in three years and there were certain songs I wanted people to hear for the first time. So, we choose a variety for the different songs on the record. Three of those four songs are going to be on the record. The record company wasn’t really ready to put the record out yet, regenerate a buzz. This was kind of the way to say, “This is what I was up to. Here’s some music and check it out.”

JamBase: That all makes sense. Give the people a little taste to get them warmed up. I like it. It seems like your stock has continued to rise in the music world since I first saw you at Wakarusa in 2004. When Matisyahu began, did you envision that kind of immediate success?

Matisyahu

Matisyahu: In retrospect, it’s like, “What happened?” This whole thing blew up in a pretty short amount of time. As a kid growing up I definitely had the dream to be doing this. This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to try and fulfill that. As it was actually happening it happened in a strange way. I became religious and moved to a small community in Brooklyn, cut myself off from society for a year and a half, two years. Before I know it, everything starts snowballing and I’m playing a sold out show at the Mercury Lounge, then it’s a sold out show at Irving Plaza. Two months, three months out and there’s already record companies who want to make the deal. Then, I got married and had a kid, then had another kid and I’m just now starting to let it all sink in, like, “Whoa, what happened and where do I go from here?” I made a lot of changes and I’ve changed the style of my music – three hours a night and multiple sets, totally stretching the songs. Now, we’re really just going for that [Phish kind of thing].

It’s fairly common knowledge that your musical roots are grounded in the days of Phish tour. What kind of impact did the scene, the traveling, the experience have on you both as a person and eventually as Matisyahu?

I came from following Phish around the country, that’s my turn on to music. I want to create a similar thing at my shows; it’s unpredictable every night. Before I went to my first Phish concert when I was 16, I went to Israel and had a really powerful experience there coming to terms with the fact that I was Jewish and what that meant to me. When I was in college I started to really get serious about my spirituality and I wanted to take it from a different place and move forward with it. I was looking to really have it be a lifestyle that really embraced a life where God or spirituality was the center. I started to go to different synagogues and look into it and I found that the Orthodox, within the Hasidic, that extreme of it, was what spoke to me.

Continue reading for more on Matisyahu…

I started to listen to Phish and that’s what musically developed me and allowed me to start to feel the atmosphere of music. Then, I started to beat box to music I was hearing. After a Phish concert, when you’d be driving to another show, there’d be this music, the residue of the music [and] I’d just start beat boxing. It was how I translate this music that I’m hearing, how the basslines and melodies interact with the beat. –Matisyahu

I know that you recently switched up your band. Tell me a little bit about the process of putting together a like-minded group of musicians and making that whole process as cohesive and simple as possible.

Matisyahu by Jamie Soja

I went to school at the New School in Manhattan and I had run into Aaron [Dugan, guitarist] there. I kind of knew these guys’ music and I would sit in with them. Then, I would just say, “Here’s $100, can you come play my songs?”

And it was that simple?

I just started to feel a certain kind of negative energy and we were touring a lot. For some people it was a nice idea but they’re not happy doing it. I did it again later on, and I found guys I knew would be happy playing music. And it turns out I feel that I got musicians that are top quality guys that can play. Then, I just found guys that I felt were humble people that could learn reggae. Jason [Fraticelli, bass] grew up with Aaron and he can play hip-hop stuff really good, he can play jazz, he can play experimental. I had always been impressed by Rob [Marscher, keyboards] from Addison Groove Project. I right away went to him to see if he’d be into it. Skoota [Warner, drums] is this old school guy. He played with Mary J. Blige, The B-52’s and Cindy Lauper. He’s the hardest hitting drummer I’ve ever heard. I wanted to have a jam kind of sound that could be experimental and go out but have a really solid drum backbone that could hold its own.

For these Festival of Light shows in New York City I have a bunch of different people sitting in to extend the band a little bit for those shows. I don’t like to tell anybody what to play. I try to find people that feel the music and hear the music in a similar way.

So, how does the music feel right now?

I’m having more fun now than I’ve ever had making music.

As far as the converting to Hasidic Judaism and how that both affects your mind and your music, give me a little insight into your religious beliefs and how they affect your songwriting and overall, the music that Matisyahu plays.

Matisyahu

I’m trying to take classic ideas in Judaism mixed with some more controversial ideas about God and spirituality, also based in Judaism. One of the themes I’ve been dealing with a lot is sort of the insanity of this world and the insanity of God. That fits in a lot with my view of the way the world is right now. Take classic stories, fairytales almost, I took “The Seven Beggars” and used it for the inspiration for the record. Take these stories and bring in the modern day counterpart of these stories – how we are all connected, how darkness comes in and affects each of us in different ways.

I just felt that to live you have to take a chance. You have to trust your audience, and if the audience is impatient I have to build a different audience – take this chance where the music doesn’t have to be tight, it doesn’t have to be like a TV show that grips you every second. There has to be this lull where the music kind of dips down, a down for the up to happen. The studio stuff I tried to make really good songs with really good parts, where everything I sing is meaningful and you feel the tension in my voice.

You brought in these new players for the album. Do you kind of act like the bandleader and point and tell people what to do or how to sound, or is it more free form and improvised?

This record is totally different. I don’t try to tell anyone what to do. I let everyone feel it out and feel what they think is right for the music.

To finish up, what were the first influence, the first sound, and your first seduction into music?

The first thing that really brought me in was Bob Marley. Right off the bat, I was kind of like writing lyrics and being myself as someone who could be a vocalist someday. Then, I started to listen to Phish and that’s what musically developed me and allowed me to start to feel the atmosphere of music. Then, I started to beat box to music I was hearing. After a Phish concert, when you’d be driving to another show, there’d be this music, the residue of the music [and] I’d just start beat boxing. It was how I translate this music that I’m hearing, how the basslines and melodies interact with the beat. Then, I started listening to Sizzla. I’ve kind of tried to figure out how to incorporate the voice in a way where it doesn’t distract from the music. It really kind of adds and pushes further.

You can get discounted Festival Of Lights tickets here. Complete Matisyahu tour dates available here.

Check out our exclusive video interview with Matisyahu on JamBaseTV.

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