Hope you are all well and enjoying the summer. Time to grab a coffee/tea/drink, get into good position and enjoy latest interview. I proudly present Matt Hart!
Hi Matt and thank you for this interview!
What would be your early inspirations?
Genre wise my early inspirations fall within the towers of early industrial music, industrial metal and EBM – think of the industrial scene around the early 2000s. That’s probably the closest to what inspired me when I first started writing music but it’s certainly evolved a lot since then.
What made you become a musician and why this style?
I’ve actually been a musician since I was about six years old! I grew up playing a violin and viola plus the trumpet (so guess that’s my parents doing!), and then I got into playing guitar and bass guitar in my late teens (all me). The guitar interest really feed into my discovery and love of industrial metal, with the likes of Fear Factory and similar bands. Over the course of time, I moved away from the idea of heavy-metal and gravitated towards sounds that were more electronic / dance floor orientated and found that I wanted to write something within that style. Being a DJ (since 2013) that focuses on new music as well, means that I constantly have cutting edge sounds filling my ears, and it’s definitely added inspiration to the sound I create in my own writing. I’m the last person to say the scene is dead, quite the opposite actually, it’s a really exciting and creative time for music and there is a hell of a lot of new and awesome stuff out there!
Where do you get inspiration for your songs?
I get a lot of inspiration from sci-fi movies (yep, I’m a geek that way) – have always been fascinated with a machine world and that 100% comes across in my music. Of course, everyone is a product of their environment as well and that includes music I listen to, so I’m sure that filters into what I do as well in some fashion. I also find I’m influenced by current affairs and I tend to loosely link it into the fictional world I created as the narrative of my music, the future year of 3808.
How would you describe your sound to new listeners?
My current sound is very dark and electronically heavy, its draws inspiration from metal and dark electro and even new genres like industrial bass so if you like stompy, heavy kickdrums, layered synthesises, guitars, heavy gritty vocals then we’ll get on well. My tracks fit well to a dance floor too, so get ready with your boots!
What did you listen to when growing up?
In my early teens I was listening to a lot of new metal / dnb / happy hardcore / heavy techno and then a friend of mine lent me Remanufacture by Fear Factory and I instantaneously fell in love with it. It was that kind of moment where you think, everything else I had been listening to was just a holding place, till I found the sound that resonated with me. I remember asking him what the original record sounded like, and if I could borrow that too. Needless to say, mind blown! Those teenage years of dipping into lots of different genres was exciting, growing up in a small village town meant it was readily accessible – just out there to listen too. All roads though ultimately lead me to what I’m into now, so I still get a little bit of a heart-string tug when I hear Limp Bizkit J
These tracks I heard sound fresh to me and well done. There are some echoes of psy trance sound in Decimate.
Thank you, I’d never thought of there being psy-trance elements to my music, but that’s the awesome thing about sound – it can be subjective, it is art afterall. I think the way one person hears something can be different to another, because our experiences influence our interpretations. Might have to go and listen to some psy-trance now to see if I can pick up what you hear!
Your songs are pretty diverse and I like it.
Cheers, music is a progression. There’s often a common thread that links songs on an album together, an artist sound if you will – but ya, I don’t feel the need to necessarily stick with a certain sound. If I feel a track would benefit from something a bit different then I’ll take it there. Stay tuned, cowbell coming soon – LOL, nope (well maybe).
As an artist what would be your ultimate goal?
Wow, that’s a big one! I guess my ultimate goal, and oddly was just thinking about this topic the other day, would be to headline a big German and/or USA international festival… WGT being the holy grail of festivals. It’s good to dream big, while still managing your personal goals that you don’t feel discouraged. Even where I am today, I feel I’ve made a mark on the scene and while that’s not a driving force to create, it comes with some good feelings of accomplishment. Inspiring others to create and put themselves out there is also great reward. It’s amazing how just a few words of encouragement can make such a difference – that’s how I started, with a “kick” from Joss of Grendel, basically saying “just put it out there, let it become what it will be” – best advise ever.
Goth scene is so different from rest of electronic scene. In other scenes djs are big players, but in goth scene it is the bands. Why do you think djs never took over in a sense?
I’d say that’s a pretty fair assessment before Covid, that certainly the bands were the biggest thing and that the DJs were just the people that were tucked away in a booth in a dark club. I think under the goth/alternative banner, maybe that’s because goths like the shadows? The other scenes are maybe more rooted in social presence, popularity? Whereas goth culture is very unique and conformable without being in a spotlight? It’s a good topic to debate! Though DJs are the ones who get the music out there to the public, so it really is a cooperative relationship. During Covid however, with platforms like Twitch and YouTube, DJs really stepped up and into the spotlight and become players in their own right. Putting shows out, getting artist’s music heard. I too took to Twitch to DJ and being a band as well, it offered me a two-fold benefit, as I got to spin my music and talk to viewers about new things I was releasing. It definitely provided an audience that I wouldn’t have otherwise had. So many bands/artists just had to sit and wait it all out. Because of Twitch there are some mega huge dark DJs now and the networking and teamwork that has come out of it, is wow – I’m pleased to be a part of it.
How is the scene in UK? Did Brexit affect it?
The UK scene is actually pretty good and obviously, like the rest of the world, we had a slowdown of everything with no gigs/festivals because of the pandemic, but I think we’re moving forward pretty strongly. Historically the UK saw band tours coming through, definitely to London, and often to the other major towns: Glasgow, Manchester etc. There are also 2 long standing internationally attended festivals: Resistanz and Infest (both of which I’ve performed and DJ’d at). Even outside the primary cities, it seems every smaller town has some sort of alternative scene – there’s always a rock bar or a once a month club night to cater for the interest. So I think it’s alive and well in the UK. As for Brexit, it undoubtedly has made things more difficult for ease of travel for international artists, but maybe that also creates opportunity for home-grown talent too. Hopefully promotors here, don’t encounter too much red-tape to bring bands/artists/DJs to the UK – as I don’t want to miss out on going to great gigs! Certainly since restrictions eased, there have already been a number of international artists/bands here, so maybe that indicates that Brexit won’t hinder as we thought… we can at least hope!
What are you future plans?
Future plans… well, after the release of my sophomore album BELOW THE TERRA PT.1 on 15th March, 2022, the 1st delivery of remixes will be coming: ABSOLUTE ZERO (Rotersand classic ride rework) out 26th July, 2022. It will just be digital for now, but as more remixes come out, I’m thinking to compile them all onto a physical CD – we’ll see.
I also released some music videos and have ideas floating around for another! So give my YouTube channel a follow.
In addition to working on my own new music, I’ve been kept busy with doing remixes for other artists too and there are some big ones coming out soon, can’t say more on that though! There’s a page on my Bandcamp where I list all the remixes I’ve done, it’s quite the accomplishment of artist names and proud to have worked with them. Definitely excited about what’s to come as well! There’s no such thing as a slow down here for me it’s so it’s all guns blazing and keeping that momentum flowing. Live show wise, have had a number of big gigs in the last months: Electro Vox festival Resistanz festival, opening for Leaether Strip and the last one…. Road 2 Ruin post-apocalypse festival (totally fitting for me!). At the moment no summer gigs planned, I really want to take a little break and re-focus on writing new material for the next album (aim is early ish 2023)…. Stay tuned!
Go check MATT out!
https://matthart.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/djmatthartuk/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1VrlDE2gaDJJJfMjGqo4UQ/videos
