More about: Matt Maltese

It’s been an exciting couple of years for Matt Maltese. 2018 saw the release of his debut album Bad Contestant, which quickly propelled the London-based crooner to realms of international recognition for his emotionally candid yet lyrically lighthearted songwriting. After a busy few months of touring throughout the UK and US, stepping away from life on the road, Matt Maltese returned to the humble confines of his Elephant and Castle bedroom to record his latest release, Krystal. Though the new album isn’t as grandly composed as debut Bad Contestant, it retains the satirical commentary on the inevitable twists in tales of modern love that the scene’s favourite romantic is known for. Gigwise caught up with Matt to talk poeticism, artistic freedom and keeping up a lighthearted silliness in songwriting. 

Gigwise: Hey Matt! It must have been so exciting to play this recent string of dates, especially with there only being a select few across the country?

Matt Maltese: Exactly, yeah. It's nice that it was just easing back into it and I got to try out a whole load of new songs which is really nice. 

GW: Are your sets predominantly made up from songs on the new album? 

MM: Yeah, mostly that. Basically the whole record, though maybe not the interlude, and then some songs from the first album and some songs from even before that. But it's good cos it's quite a short record, so I can definitely afford to play it all and some, which is cool. 

GW: Do you ever get to a point where you feel like old songs have passed? Are there any songs on the old album that you don't really want to play anymore? 

MM: There’s a few where I feel like that. I definitely try and pick the old ones that I do still enjoy playing, but they always take on a whole new space in your mind and heart I guess... They don't mean the same thing because you've probably dealt with that emotion two or three years on, in a different way than you did at the time. They definitely don’t have that freshness, but I still haven't reached that point - I guess it's because I haven't done years and years of touring yet, so I haven't reached that Elton John ‘Tiny Dancer’ stage where I'm sick to death - I still enjoy the old ones I play. I should probably count myself lucky now, and then reconsider that the day when I'm 40 and still playing ‘Like A Fish’. 

GW: On the topic of songs having an emotional back story to them - you lyrically tackle and discuss what's going on in your life so openly, in quite a poetically conversational way. Do you have a particular method of lyric writing, or is it more of a what comes in the moment kind of approach? 

MM: It’s often what comes in the moment. For all intents and purposes, I try not to make things more complicated than they are. I find giving actual details is often more weird than me coming up with a clever metaphor. It's nice you say poetic, but I never wanted to be writing songs that didn’t feel conversational. When feelings are in the form of a song, and you’re singing it emotively, then it’s naturally going to have a more elevated feeling than if you were just having a conversation with someone. But I guess I just quite like the mix of putting the banal details of life and finding sort of strange real life rhymes for them. I enjoy the lyrics being really obvious, but also being a bit silly sometimes with it. 

GW: That’s what makes it so relatable. When we’re thinking and talking about things, we generally don’t embellish our thoughts with imagery. 

MM: Exactly. I'd hope that I wouldn't say something in a song that in real life people would say an, ‘Oh shut up you dickhead’ kind of thing to... I don't want to be one of those poets at the party, I really don’t want to be that, so I hope the songs don’t come across as that. That's why I have an aversion to metaphors and all of these things. They separate you from the person listening to you a lot of the time.

GW: I guess there's such a cringe potential with metaphors, which is so often heard in mainstream pop song lyrics… 

MM: It’s funny. I think there's definitely a mixed bag with pop songs. There are some that are great; a lot of pop songs nowadays have a silliness and darkness that I actually really like. Like Billie Eilish, or even some Ariana Grande songs that actually kind of nail it. But then you get lyrics that sound good to sing, but you really are affecting teenagers who listen to music and making them feel like that's what love is. It's a bit gross. 

GW: It’s a bit of a classic, throwaway phrase, but would you call Krystal a breakup album? 

MM: It’s funny, I feel like that's what everyone's calling it. It's a very ok thing to assume, because a lot of the songs are heartbreak songs. There's obviously some heartbreak, but there's also a lot of falling in love there. It explores a few sides of love, but I guess to lots of people 'heartbreak album' probably sounds or fits the best, because the songs they notice the most are the heartbreak songs. 

GW: You’re known for being quite the romantic. Does that represent you well? 

MM: That is a thing I guess. I feel like maybe this album I was more ok with that representation? It's always been something that friends have teased me about, just always being that kind of person. Maybe with the first album I feel like I kind of... I didn't try to cover it, but I made a concerted effort to sort of tease myself for it, I think. But with this album I just let myself be that person and have a bit more sincerity in the silliness, and be a bit more ok with being a romantic. I don't want to call myself that, but I’m ok with who I am a bit more on this record. 

GW: Do you think there’s been a similar progression musically and instrumentally between the albums - have you actively curated any significant change? 

MM: Yeah. Because I recorded Krystal in my bedroom, it's a lot less grand in instrumentation and arrangement. With this album, I've kind of stripped it back and drawn the line at a point, rather than feeling as though I could add strings or whatever. It's a privilege to have been able to do that on Bad Contestant and completely go for it, but with this record it was less about that for me, I just wanted the songs to really be themselves and the production to be a bit simpler, in an honest way. Because I was singing quite simplistic, honest, stripped back things, the instrumentation didn't ever make me feel like I needed to go an add an orchestra - that would've gone against the sentiment. To reveal yourself and then cover it up with 40 instruments just didn't feel like the way. 

GW: There’s a complete correlation between your aversion to extravagant lyricism and simplistic instrumentation - you're saying it straight musically as much as you're saying it straight lyrically. 

MM: Yeah, completely, that's intentioned, definitely. 

GW: Have you produced the whole album? 

MM: Yeah, other than ‘Jupiter’ which was done by this guy called Joe (who goes under the name Vegyn), and then ‘Human Remains’ was produced by my friend Alex, but the rest of the songs I produced, yeah. The first album was done with Jonathan Rado from Foxygen. It was a really great experience, I went out to LA and had 12 days with him and we did most of the record in that time. So it was a really different experience this time round, a bit more intense. It was much more all-consuming than last time. Also, I think because I was trying to do the job of three or four people in the studio - trying to record it, play as many of the instruments, produce it and trying to mix some of it - I think I sort of went a little bit mad, but in a kinda good way. It was what needed to happen with this record, I needed to keep it in house. 

GW: It’s interesting, because I suppose most people would expect that you'd start with album one in your bedroom and then progress to the flashy LA studios for album two -  it seems kind of backwards! 

MM: I know, yeah, it's funny - I have a few friends who've done the trajectory that way around and it's often the case that you start where I am now. But I think I maybe thought for a moment that it felt backwards, but it also felt very right to go back to how I used to make music. I needed to do that to be in love with it all again. It's not at all that I wasn't happy with how the first record came out, but I really wanted to make something that wasn't influenced by people I respect, it's just every decision is what I feel, rather than looking for validation from someone who's great. I needed to go back to something simple. Also, having financial restraints this time meant I didn't have the money to do it that way again. I don’t even really want to do it that way again either, I just wanted to do it myself so it would sound more me. This whole album is trying to be as best a representation of me, so there wasn't that much to be gained by bringing anyone else into the picture. It is backwards a bit, but I guess I like that. 

GW: Do you write much with other people, or is it more of a solo pursuit?

MM: Yeah, it's pretty solo. I've had days of writing with people, but it's never really... I've never really involved someone in my own process. The closest I've got to that is my friend Alex who sometimes will write something instrumentally that then inspires me to write a song over it. But that's probably two percent of all my songs. I don't know, it got suggested a little bit at times by people but I guess I never really wanted to do that. I think it's probably quite difficult to find that one person that you feel as comfortable with as you do on your own.

GW: There’s such a personal element to writing music, it's so of your own mind and feelings and thoughts, and of your own creativity, that there's always going to be a need for a sense of privacy. 

MM: Yeah, I agree. You're often saying things that you don't really want to say to people. I feel like a lot of the songs say things that I would never want to say just to someone standing in front of me in a way, I'd be too shy! But there's also that when you're involving someone in a room and you're saying things that you'd rather people reacted to away from you. I don't want to see people's reactions. I think the honesty you put out in songs doesn't necessarily need to match you in person. You sing into a mic, you're kind of in a confession booth. I guess I feel like a lot of the time a mic acts as that, you can confess the things you don't want to say to someone's face. 

GW: What are your plans in the new year? 

MM: I don't really know! I guess a lot of it will be dictated by how Krystal does. I'd love to tour more, if I'm honest. I'd like to play some shows in Europe, do more UK shows and whatever I can get away with really, I'd love to do. I don't know if my immediate fans would like more music. 

GW: Is there any music you're always listening to at the moment?

MM: I weirdly didn't listen to loads of music this year, I was kind of always listening to podcasts. I definitely don't think that I can say the record was really inspired in the same way my first album was - I think I was obsessed with some bands during it, but I lost a bit of that this year. But there's some I'm listening to at the moment. I really like Caroline Polachek, I've been listening to her album. She's got this song called ‘Door' which I just think is so good. I'm listening to film soundtracks, I'm listening to John Brian. He did the soundtrack to Punch-Drunk Love, the one with Adam Sandler. I'm also listening to a soundtrack for a film called Wilson, which I've never seen, but the music is quite good. I've also been listening to a lot of early Smokey Robinson. I've realised that he's got some of the sexiest songs I've ever heard, I really like them. Listen to ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’, that's one I've been listening to on repeat, and it is really good.

GW: Thanks Matt!

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More about: Matt Maltese