Matt Jasper is a New York based singer songwriter. With clever lyrics and catchy hooks, he is sure to catch listeners attention. To learn more about Matt, read the following interview or check out his website at http://www.mattjasper.com/.

INTERVIEW with Jen Andujar and Matt Jasper

Hi Matt!

Before we get into the interview, could you please give a brief introduction on who you are?

Hi Jen!

Thanks for the interview. Sure thing! I’m a pop rock singer-songwriter living in New York City, working in the music business during the day, and making music at night. I started recording demos on my four track in high school, and have since made five albums, the latest being this year’s album Bored Games.

1. Who are your biggest musical influences?

Some influences include Ben Folds, for his lyrical wit, Elliott Smith for his song craftsmanship, Andrew Bird for his innovative live performances and nuanced songwriting, as well as producers such as Phil Spector and George Martin for creating new recording techniques that influenced this generation of musicians. Vocally, I’m probably unconsciously influenced as a child of 80s music, since I’ve been compared to singers such as David Byrne of the Talking Heads in the past. However, I’ve admired Scott Weiland’s ability to turn his voice into a chameleon’s, which is why on Bored Games, there are vocals that might have three or four different sounding singers. More immediate influences tend to be interactions with the people I know, as I tend to incorporate details I come across into my songwriting.

2. How old were you when you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I was probably sixteen when I knew I had a talent for music. It was the first year I played in my high school talent show, and I was playing an original song solo, playing an electric guitar through the school’s amp. The music teacher had a DJ on before me, and he blew out the speakers, so when I plugged into the same amp, it began crackling and popping loudly. Still, I played through, and then next day, all types of kids, including a number of young ladies who I hadn’t ever spoken to before, came up to me and complemented my singing voice. I figured if I could make it through that gig, I could make it through the rest.

3. Describe your dream tour.

Right now, I’ve only been able to have regional Northeastern tours on long weekends, and local shows during the week, so I’d say my dream tour would be to be able to have a tour that would allow me to go from the East Coast to the West Coast and back and provide enough to pay the rent when I got home. What would make it a dream tour would be if every show had a sold out crowd. It’s both a blessing and a curse to have a day job within the music industry, since you end up learning all about what you need to do to make it, but you still have to go to the same office building from Monday through Friday instead of to a different city every day. It’s a compromise self funding your own publishing company and record label without major investment backers, because it means that you have to generate revenue in other ways from traditional touring and album sales, which ends up leading to a day job. I’m fortunate enough to land a job at a royalty company, so I know now what I need to do in order to get to the next level and try to become profitable when it comes to, say, touring.

4. Bored Games is not your first record. How would you compare this new album with your others?

What’s great about Bored Games is how quickly and easily it came together. Bored Games came about from Jake (Skolnick, producer of Bored Games) asking me if I wanted to record a couple of songs at NYU before he finished up working there in August of 2009. By the time we got into the studio, it was the beginning of July, so we laid down drum tracks in two days with Eric (Lense of the band The Instant Classic and Fio), and followed it up with bass tracks in a day and a half, guitars for the next two and a half days, and vocals in two more days. Then we mixed and mastered over the next two days. It averaged out to two nights a week for five weeks from start to finish and we had the entire album. I really tried to keep it simple, compared to As A Matter of Fact (2007), which was recorded in bits and pieces over the span of roughly 2 years. As A Matter of Fact is more orchestral, but also felt labored to me, since it’s partly a breakup record where the band broke up halfway through. The Distance Between (2004) was recorded in a similar fashion, in that it was recorded real quick over the span of a winter break. Both The Distance Between and Bored Games are stripped down full band albums, just drums, bass, guitars and vocals. As A Matter of Fact was more orchestral, with strings, bells, and trombone in addition to the traditional band setup. I also have two full length “home demo” albums, Jasper Makes Music (2001), and Thinking Back (2003) which were acoustic based recorded on my four track, was when I was still honing the art of recording and songwriting.

5. If you had one hour to spend with any musician (dead or alive), who would it be and what would you do?

I’d say it would be Elliott Smith, and I’d talk music for the first couple of minutes, and discuss life for the rest of the time. I read book of interviews of some of his closest friends a while back, where his friends said he was one of the best one night conversationalists that they knew. If you only had an hour, you’d want someone who’d you both could pour your hearts out to, understand what it would be like to have a life on the road, and to jump from obscurity to popularity nearly overnight (with the Good Will Hunting Soundtrack Grammy nomination). As far as well known singer-songwriters who I have had the opportunity to spend an hour with, Duncan Sheik, Ben Kweller and Butch Walker all took the time to talk with me, and I’ve learned a lot about being a humble artist and a warm person at the same time

6. What’s the most played song on your iPod?

The most played song is Aerosmith’s Walk On Water, since it’s the first song that comes up when I forget to set a song on my iPod alarm clock. Non-iPod alarm clock tracks (Aerosmith, Air, Aimee Mann, and Albert Hammond Jr excluded) Nada Surf’s See These Bones, The Shins’ Australia (and Pam Berry) and Spoon’s Don’t You Evah are in the top. Still, I’ve slept through Aerosmith 39 times compared to Nada Surf’s 24 times. I don’t know what that says about me, that I’m either too diverse to have a wake up theme song by choice, or that I usually just forget. I need to create a side project called 100000 Aaaaaardvaaarks and make it the best music to wake up to ever. Take that, spreadsheet music organizational systems!

7. Explain your song writing process.

Usually, I’ll take myself to an isolate place, be it an empty room, the shower, or the country. Then if words or melodies start coming to me, I’ll try to repeat the melody/lyrics until it sticks with me. If I’m able to get to a pad of paper within the next couple of minutes after letting the “song ingredients” I try to capture what I originally came up with as quick as I can. Then I’ll grab an instrument, usually guitar, and sketch out some chords for the song. After that, it’s a matter of practicing it enough times to remember the words so I can play it solo at an open mike or a gig, and if wee get past that point, it has a good enough chance of being recorded if it’s memorable enough, and within the right timeframe for making it to an album.

8. What is your favorite color m&m?

Blue. I demand a brandy glass full of only blue M&Ms in my tour rider. They’re the newest color, so they must be the freshest!

9. What’s one random fact that not many people know about you?

My first instrument is the trombone. I played it in elementary school through high school even though it wasn’t my first choice. I wanted to play the drums, but my mom said no, so I asked about my second choice, which was the saxophone. It was right when the Simpsons were reigning through elementary school, so everyone wanted to be Bleeding Gums Murphy (or Lisa Simpson). So since there were too many sax players, the teacher gave me the trombone, since I had long arms. When I brought home my trombone, my mom said, Orangutans have long arms but you don’t see them playing the trombone. I stuck with it, and I’ve been playing instruments ever since.

10. Do you have any rituals you do before you perform?

I don’t think I have any specific rituals, other than putting together a set list and making sure I’m in tune right before going on. I usually try to get a decent sound check, and get a bottle of water, as well as mingle in the crowd a bit before the set. As a solo act, I’m usually working the merch table, meeting new people, or working with the venue’s staff (soundman, doorman, etc) prior to my set. Also, I sip from my brandy glass of blue M&Ms.

11. Any last thoughts before we wrap this interview up?

If you like my sense of humor, witty banter or embarrassing stories from my childhood, feel free to support my musical pursuits by purchasing a copy of Bored Games through www.mattjasper.com, iTunes, Amazon, or any other digital retailer. You can also find me on Myspace (/jasper) or Facebook (/mattjaspermusic). Also Jen, I like this interview, so there!

http://welikeitsothere.blogspot.com/2010/08/matt-jasper.html

The next night, I headed from my apartment in Queens to Local 269 in the Lower East Side, but hit into a bit of a snafu. While Friday night was a constant heavy drizzle, Saturday night was full blown monsoon. I thought I was prepared to take my acoustic, merch bag and knapsack of clothes on the train along with my best oversized umbrella. Carrying all of that, I went to transfer to the F train, and stood with Amanda, and hundreds of other passengers on the platform for about a half hour, until we decided that the best (and realistically only plan) was to get back on the same train line that we came from, go downtown, end up by West Houston and then walk crosstown on Houston until we got to Katz’s on Ludlow for our dinner plans, which were originally set for 5:30. The rain flipped the umbrella a number of times, until we needed to give up on it completely. We got there at 6, with our clothes soaking us to the bone, but a few bites of Pastrami got us feeling a bit better. At 6:30 we made our way to Local 269, where TTW and Chris Moschetti arrived. Chris kicked off the night with Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Were Made For Walking” and while it made me realize that even though I hadn’t worn rain boots, it was going to be a good night. Chris played a rousing Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” and a number of crowd pleasing originals, including his “most sarcastic love song,” which he dedicated to me. Talking To Walls were up next, and it was the first time I’d seen them in a full band setting. The rocked Local 269, kicking the energy into high gear. They had a Gun and Roses teaser of Paradise City into their first single off of their new album, “Came To You”. After taking a couple of videos of Talking To Walls performing including “We Were Not So Tall” which was featured in an NBC commercial, I took the stage and played a number of fan favorites for the largest crowd of the tour. After the show was over, I helped pack TTW’s van with all of their gear, and my acoustic. We then headed down to Katz’s for the afterparty. (Katz’s is the deli Where Harry Met Sally, and where Michael Rappaport and Al Roker met the owner.) That’s right, I went to Katz’s twice in one evening! Who’s the lucky dog?

After Katz’s I packed into the backseat with Nat and Matt Nth (TTW bassist) where we promptly got stuck in traffic. We videoblogged, took a trip through Harlem, missed the exit to stay on the Bruckner, had some awesome turns to get back on, and after an hour or two in the pouring rain, ended up at Nat’s house, which was blacked out due to the storm. We then dropped off Matt Nth an hour or two later. Finally at 1:50 at night, we ended up at Brian’s house, where I got the couch. However, it turned out that due to daylight savings time, it was actually 2:50 in the morning. After getting comfy, I passed out for a good nights sleep.

The next morning I awoke, and played the do not disturb game, where I waited for everyone else to wake up. Once we all woke up, we popped on the TV and caught a little bit of Spaceballs before going out for some breakfast. When we got back, it was finishing up, and we then caught an A Team Marathon on the channel Centric. They had a number of outrageous commercials for Colon Blow, and something called the Brazilian Secret. It made me jones to play Infomercial Blues that night. After the rest of TTW assembled at Brian’s house, we packed into the van and headed to Boston. On the way up we played various Bored Games like Classic Rock Ice Cream Flavors (Randy Rocky Rhoads…) Lord of the Rings Diner Food (The Oneion Ring…) and other similar timewasters. Still the weather was raining steadily, which added to our time. We got to Boston with about an hour to spare, and set up at Hennessy’s Hooley House in Boston proper. On the way up, I convinced Krupa (TTW’s drummer) to play for my set. He spent the first 30 minutes at the venue (after unloading the van) listening to the album for the first time. Then, we took some time to hear the first act of the night. They played jammy covers of Sublime and Hendrix worked in with their own originals. Then it was Talking To Walls’ turn to rock. I worked the room with their mailing list and merch table, and they had a surprise for the audience as well. For their final song of the night, they invited me up on stage to sing along to their “Song For Megan”, an Irish punk song. What better venue for singing an Irish punk song, than a Boston pub the weekend before St. Paddy’s day? Members of the crowd broke out into a spontaneous jig, while I sang along and air guitared.

Right after that, it was my turn on stage. Krupa stayed on, and we went into Someone, which sounded pretty solid for the first time playing together. While there was a few missteps, we had a lot of fun, and played a rousing version of Patient Waltz before closing out the set with Brian and Nat coming on stage to harmonize to All The Possibilities. After that, we packed the van, after watching a tractor trailer block the road for about a half hour before the double parked police car helped escort him off of the side street the truck was on. Then we booked it out of Boston, only to find that every road the GPS wanted us to take had roadblocks due to flooding. While we considered slamming through the barriers A Team style, we decided to consult the map hidden below the passenger seat, and went the best way we could to get outta Boston. This involved going South, and then North, and then West, to go back down South again, instead of just going West and then South. We made a pit stop at around midnight at a strange rest stop, where the only thing open was a McDonalds that served only Chicken Nuggets, Angus burgers, or Double Cheeseburgers. The whole way home, we played 6 degrees of band separation (for example, get to Jack White to Jack Black). That culminated in us getting from William Shatner to Leonard Nimoy using music instead of Star Trek. Finally at around 3:30 in the morning, we arrived at Brian’s house, after dropping Krupa off, and Nat and Matt Nth split for their respective homes. Brian and I got files ready for exchanging, as we had recorded the sets on video, pictures and mp3s, and then went to bed.

The next morning Brian woke me with a knock on the door. I quickly got ready to go, and ate some Rice Krispies, while we found out that overnight, Brian’s fishtank had leaked. This was after many of our fans couldn’t make it to some of the shows due to the storm, flooding in their homes, flooding in mass transit (in Boston and NYC) and other rain related reasons. Brian’s house didn’t have any problems from the storm, but apparently his fish tank did. We left and Brian dropped me off at the train, right as the train pulled away from the station. After a 20 minute wait in the rain, I caught the next train out, transferred in Grand Central, and made my way home, where I was effectively exhausted for the next half day.

So that’s the story of the tour. What do you think? Can you figure out how too get from Leonard Nimoy to William Shatner through music?

Bored Games is already starting to have a couple of landing pages prior to the release on sites such as Last.fm, and will be available on sites such as iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby, to name a few. The first single, All The Possibilities, is available for streaming currently on Myspace and Facebook, and available as a free download for special fans like yourself here. Feel free to spread the word about both the new album and the free downloads/streams of All The Possibilities.

This past Sunday I was featured in Newsday, which you can find on Newsday site here (if you currently have a Newsday subscription or are a part of Optonline). If you’re not a Newsday subscriber, you can find the content of the article here. The article was also picked up by some other news outlets, including Fuse.tv, which you can find here. If you are a paper or a blog looking to cover the album, definitely get in touch!

The weekend after the album is release, I’ll be going out on the road with the band Talking To Walls. Here’s the dates that are solidified, as well as the dates that are still tentative:

March 2nd – House Party and Webstream – New York, NY

March 7th – Hennessy’s Hooley House – Boston, MA

March 12th – Vibe Lounge – Rockville Centre, NY

March 13th – Local 269 – New York, NY

March 19th – Venue TBA – New Jersey

March 20th – Venue TBA – Baltimore, MD

March 21st – Venue TBA – Philadelphia, PA

March 25th – Venue TBA – New Paltz, NY

March 26th – Venue TBA – Albany, NY

March 27th – Venue TBA – Binghamton, NY

April 1st – Acoustic Cafe – Bridgeport, CT

That’s all for now, I’ll see you all via webstream on Tuesday!

-Matt

Do you know of a cool blog that reviews music like mine? Do you know a newspaperman or newspaperwoman who reports on pop-rock singer-songwriter music? Do you know someone who knows someone who works at a radio station? If so, let me know! Shoot me an email or leave a comment so we can work on this together.

Do you know nobody? Would you still want to help? Are you in the NYC area and have some free time on your hands, on weekday nights or on weekends? Do you want to know how to do a DIY marketing campaign? Shoot me an email or comment!

Do you want to help book a show for the tour and know of the perfect venue in your town? Let me know!

Thus concludes the infomercial portion of this blog post. Still, as one of the tracks is called Infomercial Blues, I might as well get into the spirit of the album, as should you!

Speaking of album preparation, right now I’m in the limbo stage where my album is at the duplicator waiting to be pressed. First there was minor artwork issues (the blues and yellows bled to make green, who knew?) and then there was master recording issues (who knew the burnt CD with some schmootz on the bottom was going to be corrupted?) but now all that has been (hopefully) straightened out.

So I’m hoping to have the albums in hand by the new year, and ready to send them out to local radio, press, podcasts and blogs. If you are a radio station, newspaper or zine, podcast or blog, or write/play music for one, definitely let me know if you’d want to get a review copy. What this means for you the general public/fans is that the countdown for the album release has started. As of now, we’re shooting for a 3/2/10 release date. Thus, the countdown has begun!

For example, I received “blue, snow, flipper, aorta, cinderella, earlobe, run, jump, hide, thrive” from Emily S. and “feather, skipper, marzipan, couch, shimmer, brush, lament, assumption, bristle, aligned” from Michael R. From that I wrote this song:

Blue skies give way to the clouds of snow
There’s flake drifting down past her earlobe
Cinderella’s late, so she starts to run
Her aorta starts to ache, the ball has just begun

Out of the carraige, up the steps
Cannot hide form the consequence

Flipper waitsto swim in another pool
The skipper wants him to jump through another hoop
While you sit on your couch, their instincts are aligned
As the dolphin makes his jump, the heroes thrive

Out the water, into the air
Flippers turn to feathers while you stand there

Late at night you lament the past
You made a wrong assumption, you know it won’t last
Picking up a brush, you comb your hair
The bristles make it shimmer and you stop to care

Out of the dream, into real life
Out of movie marzipan, into human strife

Then I received these words from Sara N.: “octopus, purr, salt, velvet, thwart, violet, scissors, chihuahua, gargoyle, lily” and these from Kim S.: “love, lace, heart, dolphin, snuggle, bunny, turkey, merry, jolly, happy”

From those words came the second song about a dolphin of the day:

I’ve never heard of a love quite like this
Between Merry the Dolphin and Lily the Octopus
Lily’s skin was violet, Merry’s heart was a size three
Together they found love in the salt water sea

Oh the secret lives of beasts
When humans are out of reach

I’ve haven’t found a rivalry so funny
Between a stone cold gargoyle and a snuggle bunny
The bunny’s velvet skin was twarted once again
And the gargoyle was smirking at him sitting by the fountain

Oh the secret lives of beasts
While humans are out of reach

You should have seen this chihuahua’s face
When a turkey cut him a heart of lace
Strapping scissors to it’s feet
To make the dog purr so jolly

Oh the secret lives of beasts
When humans are out of reach

*This idea comes from this blog by Carrie Brownstein (of NPR and Sleater-Kinney fame), modified for this weekend.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. This morning is my birthday, and I can’t think of a better way to spend it than going to work, having a surprise party thrown sometime in the day, then going out for a night on the town. After that, I heard a rumor that there’s ice cream cake waiting in the fridge. Feel free to wish me the best on my birthday!

Never fear, dear follower of my recording process! I have studio time this upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday, where the bass and guitars will be recorded.