Hi, everyone! After a while of waiting, I finally heard my responses back from Jonathan and Jared Mattson of the Los Angeles-based jazz/funk duo the Mattson 2. The band is known for making some very impressive musical ventures over the years. They were not only making a name for themselves by playing the entirety of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (which, by the way, is a very impressive album to play) live in concert, but they've also made a collaborative effort with Chaz Bundick (known by many as Toro y Moi) called Paradise. In addition to this, the group has actively toured across the country and abroad, and continue releasing amazing jazz and funk material to this day. Hearing about their impressive music background made me interested in learning more about them, and I'm grateful that they gave me their time for an interview!
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums inspired you guys to start a music career in the first place?
Jonathan Mattson: It all started with John Coltrane’s classic, “Giant Steps.” In so many ways, that album is one of the reasons we’ve become who we are today.
Jared Mattson: I’d say Tortoise really inspired us to breakdown barriers between genres, and that instrumental music is a viable art form to pursue... if done carefully.
br: I know The Mattson 2 is made up of you and your twin brother, Jared- what’s it like being in a band with your sibling?
Jonathan: We love it. we are best friends but we are also so close that we get heated cause there’s literally nothing we won’t tell each other or chew each other out on.
Jared: What Jonathan said is true, but working with a sibling is also an advantage in the writing process. To be able to finish each other’s thoughts musically either compositionally or even in the improvisations is really remarkable.
br: One of your most famous collaborations was with Chaz Bundick, aka Toro y Moi. How did you guys first come into contact with him?
Jared: We met Chaz through a mutual friend. We were oblivious as to who he was, but we were in need of a drum stool so our friend thought of Chaz. We borrowed a drum stool from him and when we left his apartment with it, we checked out his music and loved it. Turns out he did the same and dug ours as well! After jamming one time, both Jonathan, Chaz and I felt we could all contribute something unique to our respective catalogue.
br: What was it like making an album with such a respected musician like Chaz?
Jared: We worked really easily together because we complimented each other with technical things and most of all, perception and intuition. Chaz is super into jazz, and he crafts some incredibly designed pieces that go well with our unique approach to jazz and funk. We brought more improv to the table while he brought more order and composition. Everything we learned during Star Stuff informed our latest record Paradise.
br: I heard you guys are also known for covering John Coltrane’s famous jazz album, A Love Supreme live and in full- only with the instruments you guys regularly use. What was that experience like?
Jared: Hell yeah, playing ALS is trance-inducing. If done right, by studying transcription or whatever it may be, you can literally get into the headspace and possibly feel the same feelings those musicians might have felt. The piece almost feels like Coltrane created “raw ingredients” to play with. There are distinct melodies or bass lines but that’s about it. It translated to what Mattson 2 is all about-- Riffs, melodies, and platforms for improv. ALS is a finely crafted formula for improv, but we also thought improvisational elements made for great compositional elements, too. So, we transcribed and recreated some of the soloistic parts for a show and it went really well.
br: While we’re on that note of live shows, I understand you guys have had some pretty awesome live shows before. Would you say that your prefer performing live over working in the studio?
Jared: Definitely. While the studio is the laboratory where we fine tune and document ideas for live performance, the music is all about the moment and the experience. Having an audience there to listen to your music and watch you play live creates the full experience. We’ve thought about making an album with an audience in the room because fan energy fuels different ideas and approaches.
br: Can you describe your processes for making a song?
Jared: We honestly have no universal process. Lately, we’ve been jamming with just bass and drums to get a solid, simple architecture to lay chords and a melody over. We are more interested in making ear worms and capturing attention than ever before. That’s why we want to make a solid groove, so we can get those emotions going. Personally, we think of music as having 3 key ingredients: physicality, intelligence, and emotion. Physicality is the groove that gets you moving, while the emotion soothes the soul, warms the heart, or makes you cry or think about our innermost, deepest and darkest thoughts. Intelligence is just the intent and technique behind the notes. While I think all need to coexist, but some music is less interesting if it’s too heavy in one direction. I learned this perspective from a guitarist named Vini Reilly. His music in Durutti Column follows this philosophy amazingly.
br: When you’re making a song, do you like to nail down certain parts, or prefer improvising and coming up with new ideas on the fly?
Jared: We like carefully crafted tunes with spaces for exploration and improv. If I had to provide an example for you, I’d say Jimi Hendrix does that maybe the best of anyone. He created an environment for the listener where they look forward to hearing certain melodies, but seek something deeper and more mysterious at the same time. That’s where the improv comes in and adds more depth to a song.
br: Do you have any fun recording stories from over the years?
Jared: We have so many, it’s hard to name them all. A few that stand out to me is when we recorded “Peaks of Yew” with lap steel player Farmer Dave in Venice Beach. It’s a simple tune with a distinct melody, but there’s lots of room to stretch. I thinks it’s one song in our catalog that sounds the most like the Grateful Dead. It was pretty much done in one take! Midway through one of our solos, I looked in the control room to where I saw the engineer, John X head-banging with his super long grey wizard hair! We were all so stoked and joyful during that sesh. I also really like the song “Son Moi” that we tracked with Chaz. It was the first musical conversation we ever had, it was a complete improvisation. I’m glad that our co-engineer, Pat Jones, pressed the record button as we were “warming up”!
br: Do you guys have any projects in the work right now? If so, can you tell me a little bit more about what it’s going to have in store?
Jared: Yeah, we do have some new material coming soon. We recorded about 3 - 4 hours worth of jams, snippets, and improvisations with Chaz and it went to a very Can-ish place. At the moment, we are trimming, splicing and making sense of the music, and it’s sounding pretty gnarly right now. We haven’t heard anything quite like it, and we are hoping to get some guest vocalists that we have been really inspired by lately. Not only that, but we also have about 2 albums worth of carefully crafted M2 material that we are sitting on. Stay tuned for more info.
br: What music goals do you have for the future?
Jared: Our number of fans is building to a place where we can imagine doing this forever. Music life is incredibly fragile, but if we make music that moves us and people want to hear and support, it will be sustainable. Our goal is to make music til eternity, and the only real way to do that is to make a living doing it. In order to survive in this business, the artists needs to focus on making music that motivates oneself and people in the world. Once the fans realize that we are offering something valid to the world, the audience will grow and so will our ability to expand as artists. We want more people to hear the music and know that we are here for them!
LIGHTNING ROUND:
What is one album you find as overrated and one you find as underrated?
Overrated- None
Underrated- Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd . It’s incredibly popular and it’s a mega hit because of the incredible talent and the major labels horsepower and incredible ability to market it to the right people. I think it’s very avant garde, and technical side is the aspect that is underrated. I hear people say all the time “I don’t like jazz” then I’ll ask them if they like this record and they say yes. It’s such a luscious record with some many elements of jazz in it. Also the Musique Concrete element is so cool. I love how the album almost feels like a mix tape and that it explores odd meters.
If you could collaborate with any musician- living or dead- who would it be?
Mac Demarco or Ryuchi Sakamoto
Which artists and songs have you been listening to recently?
Toro Y Moi’s Soul Trash, Can, The Cure, Pat Metheny, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra - especially their Spotify instrumentals
Where is one place in the world you would love to play a live show?
Manchester, UK
I'd like to thank both Jonathan and Jared for giving me their time for an interview, and I wish them well on their current tour. I hope everyone reading this will give them a listen, and keep tuning in for more bazzreviews content coming your way soon!
To check out the Mattsons' musical endeavors, go to https://themattson2.bandcamp.com/
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