Matthew P has enjoyed success on the live circuit in recent years and he is about to release his debut album Long Straight Lines.
I caught up with the singer-songwriter to talk about the new album, recording most of it himself and what lies ahead.
- You are about to release your debut album Long Straight Lines so what can we expect from the record?
Well it’s a summery record I think, I like to think anyway. There is a lot of depth in the lyrics but the kind of vibe of it is pretty easy going.
I think people can choose to read into it and get more out of it or just sit back and enjoy it as a cruising record.
- There is a very eclectic mix of sounds of the album so track are quite folky while others are more acoustic based but so would you describe the sound of the album? And is this the kind of music that you enjoy listening to?
Yeah. I think it has got loads of influences on it; I recorded most of it in my bedroom. It has got really folky roots to it as I grew up in the country and I have played a lot of folk as I was growing up.
But I love bands like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Reef and Beck and stuff that has got all of those beachy and summery sounds.
But there is also a darker side to it as well because I don’t think everything can be totally totally positive (laughs), you need both sides of the coin.
- While you have bee on the live circuit for a while this is your debut so for anyone who is coming to your music for the first time with this record what does this album say about you as an artist?
I think I am a troubadour in the true sense of the word as I travel around and experience things and go through stuff and I write songs about it. I also write songs about people I see going through stuff or experiences.
Long Straight Line is the title tracks about when I use to put up fences for a living and that satisfaction of having a long straight line at the end of the day and my belief in the therapy of work.
There are also songs about being depressed and having dark times, End of the World was about a dark time in my life. Hey Lady is about messing around with girls while Little You Little Me is about being in love with a girl half way across the world.
So there are stories from everywhere, I am just a normal person really who likes to experience lots of things.
- You have mentioned that some of the songs are quite personal to yourself so how comfortable do you feel bearing you soul?
I am fine about it, it’s therapy for me. I don’t really care about what people think when I write a song as I am the one who has to perform if for two years.
I think it comes to the heart then people are always going to connect with it - we live in a world were people write songs to get famous and that is getting a little boring in my book. I am a skint musician who is just trying to have a good time making music.
- Well you mentioned that you recorded some of the album in your bedroom so have you recorded the entire album yourself?
Yeah most of it, well all of it. I also recorded some of it in a beach house in Walberswick next to Southwold on the East coast, which is near where I live.
Then I recorded some of it in a little studio with a producer called Jason Perry who did some executive production and helped me really lift the record.
- And how difficult has it been recording and album virtually by yourself?
Well I have been recording since I was eleven years old. So I was writing songs and at fourteen I got a four track and then I got an eight track when I was sixteen and then I got a computer.
So it’s been years of developing and you don’t really think about it because it is engrained in you so it’s years of preparation.
But recording an album has been a process that has lasted over two years; you write between eighty to a hundred songs and then you whittle it down to eleven or twelve that you think are good enough to go it so it’s a long process.
- A lot of musicians say that they find the recording an album process very difficult while others don’t like the studio so how much did you enjoy making the record?
I am pretty casual about it because I do it at home and I pick it up and put it down as and when I could so I wasn’t spending loads of money on hiring studios.
I also didn’t have a record deal when I started recording it so I was doing it for myself and so I didn’t have any vested interest in goals I wasn’t going ‘I want to sell a hundred thousand copies’.
Recording at home is brilliant but like anything it’s hard work but there are some days when it is really easy.
- As I said earlier there is a very eclectic and varied sound to the album so who are your major musical influences?
Everyone I have grown up with it’s like everything that I have listened to since I had ears. The songwriters that I love are the classics Bob Dylan, James Taylor and John Lennon.
I use to play a lot of Beatles as a kid - when I was learning to write song I use to just sit with a Beatles songbook and play all of their songs.
Nowadays I like what Frank Turner does because he really seems to be saying something. But I am into anything that is good quality.
- You have mentioned producer Jason already so how did that collaboration come about?
I had just moved back to Suffolk and I had written this song and it was the simplest song that I have ever written; it had likes four chords.
My friend asked for a recording of it because he liked it and they played it in a practice room when they were working with a producer and the producer overheard it.
He phoned me up after listening to it for a month and asked me if I wanted to come and sign to his little label and work with him, and I was up for that.
Then I signed to a major label just after that because they heard some of the songs and that is how the record came into being really.
- So what did Jason’s experience bring to the record?
Jason Perry is commercially really well known as he has made a couple of McFly albums and he was a singer in a band called ‘A’ - his brother has also started managing me and he was the drummer in Bloodhound Gang.
So they have both been in the industry for twenty years working on loads of stuff and they have lots of experience. You can always learn off anyone I think.
But they helped me wrap the record up as I had done most of the work I had myself but they gave me a lot of confidence, which is something that I am not great with (laughs).
- Have you started performing the new material live and if so what has been the reaction from the fans?
Yeah I have been playing these tracks live for a while and the reaction has always been really good definitely. People seem to really connect with the songs because they are stories from real life.
The more they hear the songs the more they understand what they are about and the more they enjoy them.
- Finally what’s coming up for you and where are we going to be able to see you perform this summer?
The tour is a big thing and that kicks off on 1st May and I will be going round with copies of the album. We are starting in Norwich and then we are going to London, Oxford, Bournemouth and then two dates in Cornwall.
I will then be playing a couple of smaller festival this summer. So that is what I have planned at the moment.
Matthew P’s debut album Long Straight Lines is released 30th April.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw