Wake the Deaf interview with Matthew Shaw
Matthew Shaw - Lamorna Q&A
One of the biggest compliments we
get as a blog is the number of emails we receive on a daily basis from
labels, PR companies and artists asking us to listen to and promote
their stuff. Unfortunately we just don’t have the time to sift through
all of these emails and a lot of those sent to us get buried.
However, every now and then we receive a submission
that really jumps out and grabs our attention. This was the case with
an email we received from Fluid Audio over the weekend concerning the
latest release, Lamorna, from Matthew Shaw, a Dorset based ambient
artist.
Lamorna is a sweeping, ambient landscape of sound,
perfectly capturing the environments in which it was created, full of
blending harmonies that build and dissipate almost at will.
We were lucky enough to get the chance to speak to Matthew about his latest release:
1). You’ve spoken before about ‘relying on the sounds of the places themselves’.
How do you select these places? Do you actively head out in search of
places with the aim of finding and recording sounds, or is there more
luck to it than that?
Serendipity is a word I might use for how the
recordings come about but coincidence is probably more appropriate as
it’s me coinciding with the places at a certain time that makes it work.
It’s about me being in the right place mentally to pick the right spot
to record and the sounds. I’ve often gone to a place specifically to
record and it not work. It can’t really be rushed, if I don’t slow down
and tune in it just doesn’t work.
It’s true that each place has it’s own sonic
footprint, and it’s not in stasis, it’s constantly changing, evolving,
in the present tense. Though it’s often somewhere with an incredibly
interesting past that brought me there to record something to be
released in the future.
2). Music such as yours provokes a sense
of reminiscence. Would you agree that records such as yours convey a
sense of collective memory of a place? For example, the Boleigh Fogou,
one of your key inspirations for this release is believed to have been
the location for birth and death rituals in the Iron Age. Is it these
events, experiences and memories that you aim to capture when creating
your music?
Yes, that is definitely something that
interests me a great deal. I believe there is something to Jung’s theory
of collective unconscious, and I like theories such as that by T.C
Lethbridge. He states that images or emotions of something that happened
can be left at a place when heightened emotions or great repetition
took place at the same spot. Lethbridge talks about this as the events
being magnetically captured where an underground source or water exists,
or when humidity and moisture coincide at a certain time of year, the
conditions being just right. Yeats also talked about this at length as
something he used to aid his poetry in “A Vision”.
I think there is something there, the main
thing is taking time, slowing down and opening up to what the place
itself can tell you.
3). Could you describe the processes you go
through when composing a piece? How long does it take you to collate
your ideas into a coherent whole? Do you ever have trouble ‘letting go’
of a piece?
The actual recording happens quite quickly. All
the parts for “Lamorna” were recorded over five or six days, some on
location and others, such as the Moog, indoors. I then take quite a
while sculpting the sounds together to form a finished piece.
I do have problems with knowing when a piece is
completed. It’s about getting the right balance of spontaneity with the
overall intention for the music and then realising when it’s done. I
have exactly the same concern when painting.
4). You describe yourself as a musician,
artist, photographer and songwriter. Would you consider yourself
predominantly as one of these, or do they all represent an equal measure
of yourself? Do you find the content you produce as one aspect,
influencing the others?
Making music is my favourite thing. Music is a
hugely important part of my life and has been for many years. Painting
is something that takes me to a very similar place during the process.
At its best, it’s like meditation for me.
Song writing is something I’ve done much less
of in recent years. I had a ten-year period in my life when the song was
the beginning of all my music. The sound, instrumentation and texture
came afterwards. Over time all those other elements have come to the
fore, which is more exciting to me. I still write new songs, it just
takes me longer than before. The music I recorded and toured as tex la
homa is all song based.
Photography is newer to me as a creative
outlet. I’ve only recently bought a decent camera, primarily to capture
images of my children growing up. With this came an unexpected creative
side to things. When visiting places to record I would photograph the
process and places. Some of these captured the places almost as well as
the field recordings. I’ve worked at it and got to the point where I was
happy to publish some of the photos in my book Præ. Exeter’s Royal
Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery asked if they could use a
photograph I made of Lanyon Quoit in Devon as part of their permanent
collection, which made me feel quite validated as a photographer.
5). You take an incredible amount of care
in the way your music is presented in its physical form. This release is
accompanied by 6 large format double sided photographic prints, a
natural Larch wood slice, pressed Viola flower, a poem written by Ithell
Colquhoun and a scent. It’s refreshing to see an artist put so much
time and effort into the physical accompaniment to a release, especially
in an age where download codes and online streams have become the norm.
At what stage do you begin to consider the presentation of your record,
and how do you select what to include?
Art, music, the overall presentation, what to
show and how are all very important in giving the listener an idea of
what I’m aiming to communicate. On this occasion I have been very lucky
to work with Dan and Fluid Audio who put such care and love into their
releases, and attention to detail that is second to none from a label.
6). You’re clearly interested and
influenced by your environment and surroundings. Do you feel you’d be
creating different music had you grown up in a different environment?
That’s very difficult to answer. I suppose if
my life had been different in any way, the places I’ve lived and so on,
then what I’d be doing now would also be different. For a simple
question I think this opens up a huge philosophical question that is
much bigger. I think ultimately it’s about choice but where that impulse
comes from is where the question gets very interesting.
7). Other than your environment, what have
been your primary influences in the way you create your music? These
don’t have to be other artists, they could be experiences, books,
relationships…
Books have always been a huge inspiration. At
the moment I’ve been re-reading Yeats a lot. I also read a lot of books
on folklore, history, prehistory, Phsychogeography, The Occult, Esoteric
subjects, travel and occasionally the odd novel. Some of these areas
have taught me to experience things on a practical level, others are
more of an interest to read of.
Personal relationships have always been
something I’ve drawn on when creating, which might be more evident with
my songs but it’s still there through everything in some way.
8). Finally, what are you listening to right now?
I’ve been listening a lot recently to Valentin
Silverstrov, Gimell, Vaughan Williams, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Morton
Feldman, Coil, Kate Bush, Chris watson, Third Ear Band, The Incredible
String Band, Current 93, Richard Youngs, Julian Cope, early & mid
period Bowie.
In terms of new artists that might be less well
known I would heartily recommend my regular collaborators Brian
Lavelle, especially his “Just a Song at Twilight”. Andrew Paine,
anything he self released on Sonic Oyster. English Heretic are making
have been self publishing some fascinating journals and music well worth
investigating. Adam Baker and his micro-sound recordings under the name
Dead Wood are also very good indeed. On the wider free guitar/noise
side of things I can strongly suggest San Francisco’s White Pee. Michael
and the band have been making consistently thought provoking music on
the further reaches of guitar based psychedelia for some time now and
remain largely unsung.
Lamorna is available from Fluid Audio at the end of
the month, with a limited edition run of 100 hand made letter pressed
CD’s, resting inside hand typed, numbered and sealed Manilla envelopes.
It promises to be an all round beautiful experience. Order yours over
at Fluid Audio.
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