Name: Matt Elliott
Nationality: British
Occupation: Songwriter, composer, improviser, producer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist
Current release: Matt Elliott's new album Drinking Songs Live: 20 Years On is out November 8th 2024 via Ici d’ailleurs.
Recommendations: uff ok ... well my favourite films from the last decade or so were Synecdoche New York and Submarine (but there were also a bunch of others), there's simply too much music to recommend. Of course the artwork of Vania Zouravliev. I'll think of other stuff once it's already too late.

If you enjoyed this Matt Elliott interview and would like to know more about his music, visit him on Instagram, and Facebook.
 


Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Well I mean, as long as I can remember I wanted to create and it's only as I got older that I realised how and what I wanted to create so it's something that is very natural to me.

Inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere. The first real song I wrote, “The Sinking Ship Song,” floated into my head from, I don't know where, fully formed as I was waking up one morning.



[Read our Yann Tiersen interview]

Then of course, the crushing disappointment that can be life, love and relationships, especially if you are somewhat a romantic soul, is of course an inspiration and politics is a must.

Artists throughout the ages have always commented on the politics of the day and it's perhaps never been so important for artists to voice their opinions. When a nation burns people alive and the press say nothing, it's left to artists to voice the sadness and the horror of the rest of us who are largely helpless and whose voices are ignored.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

For an album, I will have a vague plan and I will head toward that plan as best as I can. And of course, along the way I'll realize things won't necessarily work the way I thought they would or they'll work better than intended. I'll also realize I'm not as capable as perhaps I assumed and there'll be some happy accidents along the way.

Recording an album is essentially a series of compromises. The albums almost never sound how I intended them and it would be impossible, however it can be strange the way it works. I remember clearly daydreaming about some beautiful music and I thought 'fuck! It's times like this I wish I had a background in written music and the music came and went in my head ...

Cut to almost 20 years later, I have a bunch of new effects and I'm messing around and lo and behold the music comes out almost exactly as it was in my head, the sound and everything. So I don't know if I somehow dreamed the future or if I subconsciously spent 20 years working towards finding the elements in my playing and the hardware necessary to make that music.

Another strange thing that happens is often I will write a song from the point of view of someone else and then some years later, exactly what I wrote about will happen to me and the song will take on a whole new meaning.

I always, always love to leave as many elements of chance as possible. I like to leave a little space and invite the universe or what or whoever to add their little bits and pieces. It is one of the most wonderful things about working with music. Sometimes you feel like you're capturing or discovering something, other times it feels like something is using you as a medium. It's very difficult to explain and probably sounds absolutely crazy to anyone who hasn't had this precious link with creativity.

But really, often it sounds like a communication. If you listen hard enough, you'll hear the universe whisper to you ...

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

Normally no, normally the creative process works roughly like this:

Right now, I have 2 classical guitars less than 2 metres away and a third 3 metres away. I play, all the time, doing little exercises or now, I mostly improvise away, I find nice little movements or chord structures and I remember them, maybe I'll make a recording so I don't forget, and I'll have maybe 6 maybe 10. For “Farewell to All We know” I had maybe 60 ideas I didn't use (but they sometimes come back and will appear at some point in the future).



When I have enough of these that I like I will normally go to the studio.

The songs are in various stages, some long pieces like, “The Right to Cry” or “The Calm Before” were structured and the lyrics mostly written when I went into the studio, others are vague ideas like “Crisis Apparition” which then come alive in the studio.



I quite like that because the magic happens, almost in front of your eyes. However now I'm trying more to prepare stuff before I record, so I have more planned before I commit to tape (as it were)

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

No, I wish I did! hahahaha. I avoid coffee, I vape weed when I rehearse, but never on stage.

Unfortunately I'm quite inconsistent. When I'm alone and it's night and there's no one to hear me I can play like a genius, when I'm in a room playing to 300 people I can fuck up a song I've played over 100 times. A lot of my rehearsal time is spent trying not to get distracted, trying to hone the focus.

I have ADHD which also, let's say, is a blessing and a curse. It does help somewhat in creating things (although it gets in the way) and also I can be 12 minutes into a song and think 'that's a weird sign for the emergency exit' or something. But I'm getting better at being focused.

The bigger problems are technical problems (I'm talking here about playing live, when I'm creating at home I can do it almost in any state of mind).

What do you start with? And, to quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

As I insinuated earlier, it's very difficult to know where it all comes from. I like to think of it as a collaboration with whatever is behind the universe (or the universe itself)
 
Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

As I said I'm really happy to leave a door open for chance or ghosts or whatever the fuck hahaha.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

If I feel something is leading me. I follow, both creatively and instinctively in life. I follow my instincts a lot.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Absolutely. Music is where mystery and logic meet. It's built upon mathematics but is beyond explanation. We don't even know why it exists and it speaks to us in a way that nothing else can.

So I absolutely say that when you step into the realm of music you are in a fucking huge cathedral.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

Frankly this is one of the worst aspects of being a musician. I find it very difficult to listen to my own music after it's been released and I can only really evaluate it in any real sense many many years after when I'll perhaps reevaluate it again.

I mostly hear mistakes and things I wish I'd done differently. I'm almost never satisfied with anything I've done but in the end you have to compromise or you end up like Kevin Shields, taking 20+ years to finish an album

When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

This is also something bad about being a musician. When I play at home at night, it's nice. When I'm in a studio and there's 7,000 euros of mikes pointing at me I suddenly realize how bad my technique is and how unpleasant it sounds and again it's awful.

It's difficult to play in a studio the same way I play when I'm relaxed and I try my best not to rely on post. But the reality is a lot of post stuff goes on of course ...

Even recording a solo song is usually a collaborative process. Tell me about the importance of trust between the participants, personal relationships between musicians and engineers and the freedom to perform and try things – rather than gear, technique or “chops” - for creating a great song.

Well I'm very lucky to have a team of people whom I deeply trust and who know and understand how I work and contribute in their way. Most musicians who work with me enjoy it.

I normally get the other musicians in when it's 60-90% done and I get them to play stuff, maybe me and David (my co-producer) will have some ideas so we'll get them down, then I'll say, 'ok be free, do what you want.' Then I'll say, 'ok now go crazy', then I'll say 'now go really crazy' and between all this we will find some beautiful magic and it's a really beautiful stage of the recording process.

My last few albums were recorded by my amazing co-producer David Chalmin who is the closest thing to a musical brother I have. He knows my music and what I want to do as well as I do. It's amazing working with him because he's a genius and a very very cool guy with an amazing studio and he really brings out the best in me

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?

Of course the most important thing is the song. Some of my favourite pieces of music were recorded in a room with a shitty mic 60 years ago, but of course if it sounds good then all the better.

Mastering is always the worst part because by the time you get to that point you've heard the song 1000 times and any mistakes are beyond repair (and often the mastering process actually brings out these errors)

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Well normally after mastering there's a 3, 4, 5, 6 month wait and in that time I'm normally already thinking of the next album

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or perhaps the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

Well that is out of my hands. Firstly I deliberately leave my music and lyrics open to interpretation. But, yes, this can lead to misinterpretations. For example, the last album was described by one fucking journalist as being about Covid which it fucking wasn't and I don't even know how he got that. I would never write about something as specific as covid, let alone a fucking whole album and for fuck's sake listen to the fucking album!

And, not to disrespect but journalists are often the worst because they will make assumptions and run with it and then it ends up being part of the mythos or something. Whereas I find listeners often ask if they want something clarified. I have to say I have the best fan base anyone could have.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Everyone has their creative things and I encourage everyone to do something creative, whatever the fuck you want and do it for the sake of creating, not for any other purpose. It's good for the soul.

I don't know much about other creative processes, I enjoy cooking but I'm not super adventurous. But I'm a great admirer of other people's creativity, whether it's paintings, dancing, skateboarding, a great cup of coffee or gin and tonic ... I love anything that is created for the sake of creating, like outsider or in-patient art.