Page 112 - ION Indie Magazine SeptOct 2018

Mal Whichelow: Hi, Matt. Your latest album “Crumbs” comes across as quite a dark piece of work. Would
you say that it reflects the social values of today?

MH: Too right. I normally go up to my studio and write floaty, other worldly albums that don't relate to the

real world. But the real world went upstairs with me. The news, current affairs, the political state currently
of the world followed me up and tainted my latest album.

MW: So, it's a pretty dystopian scenario, would you say?

MH: No, it's now; it's happening. I can't understand why people's “spider senses” aren't tingling. The world
has turned in a really nasty direction where basic human decency seems now to be dirty words.

MW: It seems that you're portraying it as a two-tier system of the “haves” and “have-nots” …

MH: About twenty people in this world own half the world's wealth. The decent, nice, ‘just wanna get along

with their life’ people have let psychopaths and fools rule the world. It's the age-old problem that money
creates money, and that shouldn't happen. There'll always be losers in that scenario.

MW: Getting back to the album…you had a band behind you this time instead of playing solo. Is that a
one-off just for this album?

MH: Yes, it was a bit of fun having a seven-piece ban
d playing on it. The new album's quite punky and it
suited a band sound. It fitted the vibe of the album to do it that way.

MW: Is that something you'd consider doing
again?

MH: Yeah, occasionally.
I've done it before. A
band hitched from Greece to see me play in Italy
ur backing band cos we
and said, ‘Can we be yo
see you're playing in Greece in a month?’ To
which I said without knowing them or having
heard them, ‘Of course you can!’ They were
brilliant. They were all really good. I ended up
with cello, flute, drums, bass, guitar, and

percussion. I've done it a couple of times.

MW: Was it a conscious decision to go back to
a more punky sound?

MH: It was led by the content of the words when

as I was singing -- as you put it – dystopian
futures. It's the music of my youth. I grew up

with Joy Division, Magazine, Talking Heads, and
so on.

MW: You've previously been involved with
film music. Is there anything in that vein on
the horizon?