Page 111 - ION Indie Magazine SeptOct 2018

When people conjure up an image of a violin player, they may well think of some old geezer dressed up in a

penguin suit and sitting in the string section of an orchestra looking bored out of his tiny mind, until his chance
to play comes along after the crash of cymbals in the second movement. I daresay that more often than not,

that would be the case. But here in Matt Howden, we have the antithesis of that. There can't be many violinists
attached to the London Philharmonic or any other orchestra of renown who will play their instrument by

rubbing the stubble on their chin against the strings. Or many, for that matter, who will brandish their bow
above their head, as if in the act of lassoing a wayward steer at a rodeo. Although those people who actually

play in these orchestras may well give him a steely glare if they caught him performing in this way, it would
matter not to Matt, as he is completely self-taught and doesn't play by the same rules.

When I call him “Matt Howden” however, that isn't his real name, as he was christened Elvis Aaron Presley.
But he can't use that name for legal reasons. In fact, Kirsty McColl even wrote a song about him when he
worked in a fish and chip shop on Peckham High Street in London, but that's another story. Anyway, to avoid

confusion, I'll refer to him as Matt…or Sieben, which is his stage name – sometimes billing himself as “The
Mighty Sieben” …depending on how he feels when he gets out of bed on any particular morning.

Matt took up playing the violin at 16 after having tried a couple of jobs. At 15, he'd run away with the circus

and got a job as a human cannonball, which was great until he got fired. Then he went and got a job on a potato
farm, but they gave him the sack on his first day. Not to be downhearted by these setbacks, he realised that

having a “proper” job wasn't something that he was cut out for, so he decided to go on the fiddle (the violin,
that is). And playing the violin was something that nobody could take away from him. He found this especially

true after he started wearing a double-breasted pinstripe suit, a black fedora, and black and white wingtip
brogues -- because when he was out on the town carrying his violin case, people would cross the road to avoid
him in case he asked them for protection money.

Anyhow, be that as it may, that's Matt's early years which are in the dim and distant past. These days, he is an
accomplished musician, having released several albums under the name of Sieben, and yet more releases as
collaborations, plus writing and recording music for films. He's certainly a busy bee, with 2018 seeing the
release of his latest offering “Crumbs,” which is what I collared him about amongst other things. It went like
this: