Name: Matthew Patton
Nationality: Canadian
Occupation: Composer, sound artist, curator
Current release: Matthew Patton's new album Afterlife Requiem is out via Constellation. 



When was the first time you noticed you were drawn to darker themes and moods in music, literature or the movies?

Forgive me but I don’t feel I was ever drawn to “darker” elements. I was just drawn to the music, art, and literature where I felt most comfortable.

That said, I do understand that the art I am drawn to and create is dark. “Darkness” is not darkness to me, it is life itself. Or what I experience as life.

“Darkness” is, of course, not strictly speaking a term related to sound. What constitutes darkness to you, especially in instrumental terms?

“Darkness”, whatever that may be in sound, art, or literature, for me is something purely emotional. I experience music on a purely emotional level.

When you go for a walk in nature you don’t analyze the history of deciduous trees or how clouds accumulate - to walk in nature is an experience, first and foremost. Music is the same - first and foremost it is an experience, on one level there is nothing to “get".

Afterwards if one wishes to analyze things deeper in terms of why certain music has the effect on you that it does, then one can delve into structure, architecture, sound, and timbre.

How would you describe the physical sensation and possible attraction of being exposed to darkness in music?

For me, darkness, melancholy, and tragedy are what I know, the world I live in. Regarding other listeners, I have had people tell me that they were scared and even frightened by my music. To me that is a compliment. Because it is a visceral reaction.

I have had my music psychoanalyzed. I took it to a psychoanalyst and asked him to pretend my music was a person. After all, music is literally just another language, only more abstract than language. But all the same kinds of elements take place such as patterns of speech, rhythm, struggle, conflict, resolution, excitement (higher pitch), depression (lower pitch), repetition of specific elements, etc.

After two weeks the psychoanalyst came back to me and the points he made were exactly spot on and tremendously insightful. In fact they were exactly as I was a human being, as if he had spoken directly to me. That was fascinating.

I continue to have each new work of mine psychoanalyzed, each time by a different analyst who has some relation to the specific material.

Does your interest in darker musical themes extend into extra-musical fields such as fashion, or politics?

Again whatever “darkness” may be, I am certainly drawn to it in everything everywhere and in all things. Because that is where I feel most comfortable and at ease. That is the world I know and inhabit.

I never find these things “depressing, I find them invigorating.

Who/what are currently artists, labels or even genres which draw you in because of their darker approaches, aesthetics and sound(s)?

Recently, I have been listening to Sunn O)))’s new album, Abul Mogard, Roger Eno, Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel, the soundtrack to 2000 Meters to Andriivka by Sam Slater, Burt Bacharach, and Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden.



More specially, the floating point where sound design may or may not become music is an obsession of mine so I would include Johnnie Burn’s work on Zone of Interest and Alan Splet who worked with David Lynch.



[Read our Roger Eno interview]
[Read our Roger Eno interview about his creative process]
[Read our Sam Slater interview]

What were some of the first performances or releases when you became active in exploring truly dark places in your music yourself?

I would say I initially found what I was drawn to more in art and literature. Rothko, Soutine, Kafka, Nine Stories by J D Salinger, The Rings of Saturn by W. G.Sebald.

I once spent a full day with Roger Eno going on each of the ten walks portrayed in the Rings of Saturn. Eno lives near Norfolk and the 13th century ruins of Dunwich where W.G. Sebald lived and later died. It was one of the great days of my life.

I also worked as an assistant with sculptor Richard Serra which was tremendously meaningful.

I have had a hard time explaining that listening to death metal calms me down. When you're performing a piece with a darker energy, does it tend to fill you with the same energy or feeling – or are there “paradoxical” effects?

“Darkness” always makes me feel gratified and positive because it feels true to me.

Myself I don’t really feel calmed by anything nor do I seek to be calmed or healed by anything. I look for a work of art to go deeper into life, thoughts, and feelings, ideally to explore something unknown.  I am drawn to things that require an effort on the part of the listener or viewer.

I don’t much like things that offer “light” or hope because it always feels unearned to me.

Tell me, if applicable, about the concrete lyrical themes that you felt drawn to for your current release.

Forgive me, but I don’t really know what themes I am drawn to - it could be anything. I approach the world and feelings in a very organic and intuitive way ...

I will say that I use audio of people and field recordings of some sort in every piece of music I have done because it connects the piece to the world in a very real way. I view these sections of audio as another line of music. I am especially drawn to audio of people under stress because it is compelling. I am drawn to how people say things, not what they say.

My previous release The Infected Mass may be a good example. The audio is all cockpit voice recordings of planes about to crash, with humans who will be dead within 30 seconds of what the listener is hearing.



The audio is compelling partly because it is so banal. My use of this audio is problematic and it should be.