This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist Interviews
Q&A: Matthew And The Atlas
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 15 July 2010
Hailing from the small town of Aldershot, Matthew & The Atlas are an alternative folk band led by Matthew Hegarty. Drawing inspiration from the likes of M Ward, Joanna Newsom and Sufjan Stevens, the band mix guitars and banjo with Matthew’s graveling, emotive voice, which has seen them described as a cross between Bon Iver and Ray Lamontagne. The band spent the beginning of this year touring as support for Mumford & Sons as well as releasing their EP ‘To The North’. The are now set to play at the Flowerpot tonight as part of the week-long Communion takeover. Ahead of their gig, we put the Same Six to frontman Matthew.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I picked up a guitar when I was fifteen or sixteen and taught myself how to play. I’ve been writing music pretty much from the start, playing in different bands. The process really changed for me when I got a twelve-track, I’d just been writing simple guitar songs, the recorder allowed me to layer more vocals, I started trying different instruments on my songs like piano and banjo. This really started the song writing process for me, and it helped me develop me ideas and sound.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The last EP ‘To The North’ was a pick of a collection of songs I’d been working on. We developed the songs structurally in pre-production, ‘I Will Remain’ especially. That was just a simple folk song before, and we decided to make it bigger and more raucous, which it really benefited from. I wanted the EP to have levels, so when you listened to it, you start of in one place, and end somewhere else by the end. Having a bigger track at the beginning allowed me to put some gentler songs after and do something more epic with the finale.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
The writing process has changed for me over the last few months, and I think it will continue to change. I’ve been writing and performing on my own for a while, so having a band to work with now has affected that. I still start out with strumming on a guitar and trying to find a melody that interests me. I start working on lyrics, and then do a rough demo, trying out banjo, vocal harmonies and beats, trying to get ideas out of my head and into the song. I’ll then send them to the band, and they sit with them for a bit, then we rehearse and see what the guys bring to it.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I seem to listen to Americana a lot, people like M Ward, Micah P Hinson, Joanna Newsom and Sufjan Stevens are artists I’m always listening to. I listened to Nick Drake, John Martyn and Jeff Buckley when I first started playing guitar, they’ve definitely had an impact on me, I still love ‘Pink Moon’, ‘Soild Air’ and ‘Grace’, they’re all timeless. Johnny Flynn, John Smith and Fionn Regan have really influenced me as well.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I do drink whisky in the morning and smoke 50 cigarettes a day to get my voice like that.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Well, we are doing another EP next. The first one was written by me and the band kind of evolved around it. I want them to have more of a input now and see how that develops. Hopefully it will sound bigger, but will still have its quieter moments. Everyone else in Matthew & The Atlas writes their own music as well, so we might try introducing a song that is more collaborative. In terms of immediate future, we are playing the Green Man Festival, then into the studio in September. Then we’ll be supporting Mumford & Sons again on their UK tour, which we’re really excited about. The new EP will be out in Oct/Nov followed by more touring we hope.
MORE>> www.matthewandtheatlas.com
