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| Matthew E White: 'You hear the community I love in the music' | Matthew E White: 'You hear the community I love in the music' |
| (7 months later) | |
| Matthew E White is an assiduous self-searcher on Twitter. As we talk in an empty London pub, he tells me of finding himself called a "Godc**t" on the social networking site. A few days earlier – before he knew I would be interviewing him – I had wondered on Twitter, without including his @amattwhitejoint Twitter identity, if he had taken a sonic trick in one of his songs from Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody. The next day he tweeted back: "No, but I wish I did. Why don't we kinda change the story a bit so it appears that way?" | Matthew E White is an assiduous self-searcher on Twitter. As we talk in an empty London pub, he tells me of finding himself called a "Godc**t" on the social networking site. A few days earlier – before he knew I would be interviewing him – I had wondered on Twitter, without including his @amattwhitejoint Twitter identity, if he had taken a sonic trick in one of his songs from Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody. The next day he tweeted back: "No, but I wish I did. Why don't we kinda change the story a bit so it appears that way?" |
| Buy it from | Buy it from |
| If he really does trawl social media for references to him, White must be an extremely busy guy, because this hirsute, portly, softly spoken man has become one of 2013's unlikeliest success stories on the back of his first solo album, Big Inner. It crept out in the States last year, getting a bigger issue through Domino last month, and is the kind of record that causes people to swoon. It manages to sound effortlessly avant garde and comfortingly traditional at the same time, an effect of White's love of the Brazilian tropicália movement, which also sought to meld folk traditions with experimentation. Big Inner sees White steer his way through the wellsprings of American music – soul, jazz, country, pop – to create something unlike anything else being made at the moment: music that manages to have an air of mystery by seeming to have emerged from nowhere, fully formed. "People ask me what genre it is," White says. "Well, if there was a badass black dude singing, it would be soul music every day of the week. But it's not. It's a white dude who can't really sing that great." | If he really does trawl social media for references to him, White must be an extremely busy guy, because this hirsute, portly, softly spoken man has become one of 2013's unlikeliest success stories on the back of his first solo album, Big Inner. It crept out in the States last year, getting a bigger issue through Domino last month, and is the kind of record that causes people to swoon. It manages to sound effortlessly avant garde and comfortingly traditional at the same time, an effect of White's love of the Brazilian tropicália movement, which also sought to meld folk traditions with experimentation. Big Inner sees White steer his way through the wellsprings of American music – soul, jazz, country, pop – to create something unlike anything else being made at the moment: music that manages to have an air of mystery by seeming to have emerged from nowhere, fully formed. "People ask me what genre it is," White says. "Well, if there was a badass black dude singing, it would be soul music every day of the week. But it's not. It's a white dude who can't really sing that great." |
| But his tweet back also speaks to a surprisingly mischievous nature: White likes the mythology of music as much as the fact. "Bob Dylan? Read those old interviews – they're lying, lying, lying. But it's not lying. It's storytelling in the biographical narrative just like it is in the songs." He mentions Dylan telling Robert Shelton of the New York Times that he had run away to join the circus when he was 13. "I like to tell stories," he says. "I like to exaggerate. And that's the ultimate form of that." | But his tweet back also speaks to a surprisingly mischievous nature: White likes the mythology of music as much as the fact. "Bob Dylan? Read those old interviews – they're lying, lying, lying. But it's not lying. It's storytelling in the biographical narrative just like it is in the songs." He mentions Dylan telling Robert Shelton of the New York Times that he had run away to join the circus when he was 13. "I like to tell stories," he says. "I like to exaggerate. And that's the ultimate form of that." |
| White's already got one untruth in his backstory, one that's become part of his creation myth. It concerns his musical hero, Randy Newman, and White visiting Newman's home in LA to press his own music into the older man's hands. "I didn't meet Randy Newman and I never told anyone I did," White says. "But Pitchfork, for whatever reason, said in their version of the story that I walked up to this door, and there he was, and I met him. I did go to his house, and walk up to his door, but he wasn't there." Later, in front of a sold-out crowd in London, White will expand further, talking about the baffled housekeeper who answered the door, and how he must be the world's oddest stalker, to want to stalk Randy Newman. | White's already got one untruth in his backstory, one that's become part of his creation myth. It concerns his musical hero, Randy Newman, and White visiting Newman's home in LA to press his own music into the older man's hands. "I didn't meet Randy Newman and I never told anyone I did," White says. "But Pitchfork, for whatever reason, said in their version of the story that I walked up to this door, and there he was, and I met him. I did go to his house, and walk up to his door, but he wasn't there." Later, in front of a sold-out crowd in London, White will expand further, talking about the baffled housekeeper who answered the door, and how he must be the world's oddest stalker, to want to stalk Randy Newman. |
| The myths doubtless add allure to Big Inner. The truth adds even more – the tale of White setting up a label, Spacebomb, in Richmond, Virginia, with the intention of having a Motown-style house band. It was the story of American popular music writ small, for a DIY age. | The myths doubtless add allure to Big Inner. The truth adds even more – the tale of White setting up a label, Spacebomb, in Richmond, Virginia, with the intention of having a Motown-style house band. It was the story of American popular music writ small, for a DIY age. |
| And then there's the faith. One of the themes of Big Inner is White's relationship with Christianity, notably on its closing track, Brazos, which tells of two fleeing slaves and how they turn to the religion of their former owners for protection, and concludes with a gospel mantra: "Jesus Christ is our lord/ Jesus Christ, he is your friend." White is one of a number of songwriters to have emerged in America in recent years whose relationship with religion is central to their work – one thinks of Sufjan Stevens, Craig Finn of the Hold Steady, Damien Jurado – rather than used as a way of linking the artist back to the hellfire preachers of early rock'n'roll. | And then there's the faith. One of the themes of Big Inner is White's relationship with Christianity, notably on its closing track, Brazos, which tells of two fleeing slaves and how they turn to the religion of their former owners for protection, and concludes with a gospel mantra: "Jesus Christ is our lord/ Jesus Christ, he is your friend." White is one of a number of songwriters to have emerged in America in recent years whose relationship with religion is central to their work – one thinks of Sufjan Stevens, Craig Finn of the Hold Steady, Damien Jurado – rather than used as a way of linking the artist back to the hellfire preachers of early rock'n'roll. |
| White thinks this attention to faith is down to the spread of the evangelical movement in the 1980s and the sheer number of musicians whose early lives were dominated by Christianity. "There's a whole generation of kids who grew up in an evangelical culture and are now dealing with it – just parsing out which bits they're OK with and which bits they don't like." | White thinks this attention to faith is down to the spread of the evangelical movement in the 1980s and the sheer number of musicians whose early lives were dominated by Christianity. "There's a whole generation of kids who grew up in an evangelical culture and are now dealing with it – just parsing out which bits they're OK with and which bits they don't like." |
| White was thrown right into the evangelical revolution, though not in Virginia. His parents were missionaries, and from the age of three to eight he was abroad, the first four years in Manila in the Philippines, the final year in Japan. It gave him an odd perspective on being American: his own culture was condensed to a series of greatest hits – the Chuck Berry and Beach Boys tapes he played constantly, the other cultural outliers and brand names that reach every corner of the world. And then it was back to "the straight-up suburbs", to Limp Bizkit on MTV and fast food and strip malls. | White was thrown right into the evangelical revolution, though not in Virginia. His parents were missionaries, and from the age of three to eight he was abroad, the first four years in Manila in the Philippines, the final year in Japan. It gave him an odd perspective on being American: his own culture was condensed to a series of greatest hits – the Chuck Berry and Beach Boys tapes he played constantly, the other cultural outliers and brand names that reach every corner of the world. And then it was back to "the straight-up suburbs", to Limp Bizkit on MTV and fast food and strip malls. |
| "When you grow up in that environment and then come back to the States, what makes it the United States is so much clearer. We didn't have air conditioning in the Philippines and it was 110F all the time. We came back to Richmond and there were ACs in every car and every home and every store. My mom likes to tell a story about me [worrying about] leaving a piece of toast with jam on it on the counter. In the Phillippines you can't do that because of the ants and cockroaches. There are so many parts of your life that are immediately transformed in quite a pragmatic way." | "When you grow up in that environment and then come back to the States, what makes it the United States is so much clearer. We didn't have air conditioning in the Philippines and it was 110F all the time. We came back to Richmond and there were ACs in every car and every home and every store. My mom likes to tell a story about me [worrying about] leaving a piece of toast with jam on it on the counter. In the Phillippines you can't do that because of the ants and cockroaches. There are so many parts of your life that are immediately transformed in quite a pragmatic way." |
| And in a musical way too. White spent his teens around the punk scene in Virginia Beach, going to shows, joining high-school bands and seeing how a community could organise itself, even though he didn't care for the music. He went on to study music at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. "I thought it was as simple as: I go to college for music, I get really good at music, and then I get a job making music," he says, laughing. | And in a musical way too. White spent his teens around the punk scene in Virginia Beach, going to shows, joining high-school bands and seeing how a community could organise itself, even though he didn't care for the music. He went on to study music at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. "I thought it was as simple as: I go to college for music, I get really good at music, and then I get a job making music," he says, laughing. |
| As he grew older there were parts of the evangelical movement White came to dislike – its tentacles reaching into every part of culture, from art to politics – but others he appreciated. "I don't go to church actively now," he says. "I'll go with my parents when I go home, and the sense of community that I feel is not like any secular institution I am aware of. If someone needs a car or someone needs money or someone needs a place to stay or a job, there's this community that really cares about one another over a long period of time and sacrifices for one another. It's special and I think about that a lot. Missionary communities are like that, too. I was only on the mission field – that's what they call it – for five years when I was a kid, but I could tour the entire United States and stay with contacts through missionary friends every night, in any city in the States, because the community is so close and so open armed." | As he grew older there were parts of the evangelical movement White came to dislike – its tentacles reaching into every part of culture, from art to politics – but others he appreciated. "I don't go to church actively now," he says. "I'll go with my parents when I go home, and the sense of community that I feel is not like any secular institution I am aware of. If someone needs a car or someone needs money or someone needs a place to stay or a job, there's this community that really cares about one another over a long period of time and sacrifices for one another. It's special and I think about that a lot. Missionary communities are like that, too. I was only on the mission field – that's what they call it – for five years when I was a kid, but I could tour the entire United States and stay with contacts through missionary friends every night, in any city in the States, because the community is so close and so open armed." |
| Was founding Spacebomb, and rooting it in Richmond, an attempt to replicate that sense of community? "Oh yeah, definitely. Playing music isn't like hanging out together. It's a different experience. You're doing something together. The fun part is having 10 horn players and making the music with 10 people. I don't want one person to play 10 parts, even though it's faster and cheaper. Forget it, man. You hear the community that I love in the music. You hear it in the early rock'n'roll records. You hear it in the big LA records and Stax and Motown. You hear it on orchestral records. You are hearing a group of people, in a community together, doing something you cannot do any other way. You cannot copy it." | Was founding Spacebomb, and rooting it in Richmond, an attempt to replicate that sense of community? "Oh yeah, definitely. Playing music isn't like hanging out together. It's a different experience. You're doing something together. The fun part is having 10 horn players and making the music with 10 people. I don't want one person to play 10 parts, even though it's faster and cheaper. Forget it, man. You hear the community that I love in the music. You hear it in the early rock'n'roll records. You hear it in the big LA records and Stax and Motown. You hear it on orchestral records. You are hearing a group of people, in a community together, doing something you cannot do any other way. You cannot copy it." |
| Having assembled the community and founded Spacebomb, White found he was short of something: an album to record. And so he decided to make one himself. He'd never been a singer, and he'd always been as much of an arranger as a writer. But suddenly, with studio time booked, he had to find an album from somewhere: "It was backward: I'm gonna start a label, so I'm gonna make an album, so I'm gonna write songs, so I gotta sing. As opposed to: I have a nice voice, so I'm gonna write songs, so I should make a record, so I should find a record label." | Having assembled the community and founded Spacebomb, White found he was short of something: an album to record. And so he decided to make one himself. He'd never been a singer, and he'd always been as much of an arranger as a writer. But suddenly, with studio time booked, he had to find an album from somewhere: "It was backward: I'm gonna start a label, so I'm gonna make an album, so I'm gonna write songs, so I gotta sing. As opposed to: I have a nice voice, so I'm gonna write songs, so I should make a record, so I should find a record label." |
| Big Inner's not going to top charts and White won't find himself playing the Super Bowl half-time show anytime soon, but he has found a rapt audience and worldwide critical acclaim. And when he takes to the stage, to a sold-out room, the air hangs heavy with expectation. For White, a man still new enough to all of this that he finds it remarkable that Britain, like the deep south, has chicken casserole, it's all a bit of a dream. "Actually, I think it worked out kinda nicely," he says. Kinda nicely. That's about right. | Big Inner's not going to top charts and White won't find himself playing the Super Bowl half-time show anytime soon, but he has found a rapt audience and worldwide critical acclaim. And when he takes to the stage, to a sold-out room, the air hangs heavy with expectation. For White, a man still new enough to all of this that he finds it remarkable that Britain, like the deep south, has chicken casserole, it's all a bit of a dream. "Actually, I think it worked out kinda nicely," he says. Kinda nicely. That's about right. |
| The single Big Love is released on 18 Feb on Spacebomb/Domino. Matthew E White tours the UK in April; matthewewhite.com | The single Big Love is released on 18 Feb on Spacebomb/Domino. Matthew E White tours the UK in April; matthewewhite.com |
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