Matteah Baim Interview
Matteah Baim Interview For Wicked Spins Radio
Based in New York Matteah Baim is not only an amazing musician she is also a visual artist. She recently performed in the UK as part of the events for the 2012 Olympic Games. Wicked Spins Radio got chance to catch up with Matteah and here is how it went.
WSR – You performed at Meltdown Festival in 2012, did you do anything special to your normal performance due to Meltdown being part of the events for the Olympic Games in London?
Matteah – Tried not to sneak onto the nearest Olympic team! Ha Ha. No, but it was really an amazing time to be in London.
WSR – How would you say the music of Metallic Falcons is different from that of your solo work?
Matteah – I think I try to approach every project first with an over all concept, idea or feeling and then build it around that. I look at it more in these terms then band vs. solo project.. more as developing new ideas and committing to that process.
WSR – You recently did an article about the top 5 films that you have seen at a cinema, you quoted one film that is indeed one of my own favourite films that you missed at the cinema in truth. The film was A Matter Of Life And Death, what is it about this film that you like so much?
Matteah – That was a sad day. The day I missed seeing that film in a beautiful theater. I am not sure where to start with that film.. The film is split between the after life and the earthly one and both worlds are each remarkably well done and also, somehow, linked seamlessly. If you haven’t seen a Powell & Pressburger film, you have to! They are true masters of making the abstract seem tangible and reality feel imagined. It is just wonderful! I think that is the right word?!
WSR – To you when was the hey day of cinema and film?
Matteah – That is hard to say! Ha ha. I think my favorite films span a pretty wide range of time.. from the Lubitsch film, To Be or Not to Be, to Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose to any Cassevettes film to Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break.
WSR – Where did you draw inspiration from for Falling Theatre?
Matteah – I was inspired by the 1,000s of decaying pre-war theaters that criss-cross America. The album was meant to reflect both the times of luxury and decay of these structures.
WSR – What do you feel has been your main evolution in your music in your solo work?
Matteah – I hope it has been to make the music lighter and clearer… so it can, one day, float right into peoples’ ears like a cloud or mist or puff of air.
WSR – You are also a visual artists as well as a musician, of which of the two ways of expression gives you most freedom to let your talents truly flow?
Matteah – I love drawing but but in the (slightly abbreviated) words of John Fahey, music is the thing that ruined my life.
WSR – After you received you Bachelor Of Fine Arts you moved from San Francisco to New York, why did you move to New York?
Matteah – I never thought I could make it to NY so when I got an invitation to come and stay there I jumped at it. I didn’t know anything about living here or what that could mean. I just knew I had to take the chance to experience it, for better or worse.
WSR – Have there been any times when you get to combine both your visual and musical talents?
Matteah – I think the visual part of my brain is always informing the music. It is how I put things together, ie. I am a pretty visual thinker. I picture things as 3d structures or images that layer when working on/ out a problem. It is how I put a song together or just figure out what note or space goes next to another. That and if it feels right! ha ha. (The feeling usually beats the brain every time whether it is a visual or musical thought).
WSR – On Falling Theatre you worked with composer Maxim Moston, what do you feel Maxim bought to your music and did you learn anything musically from your collaboration with him?
Matteah – He brought so much to it! He is so generous with his skills and knowledge of music and also has a real intuitive touch with arranging. Just watching how he got from point A to point B was amazingly instructive! I mostly just felt so lucky he said yes.
WSR – What was the most memorable moment to you when recording Falling Theatre?
Matteah – We had been struggling for months to get the mix to All Night right. And for whatever reason we couldn’t get it. We knew we were close but we just couldn’t get to it! Then one day we accidentally played the mix back at the wrong speed and it was suddenly a song! We could not believe it!
WSR – How much does the environment you live in influence your art or your music?
Matteah – I think New York has taught me you have to make your environment work, ie. work with what you have and use every bit of resource you have available to you. That might be as much as the world has to offer or only a tiny glimmer of a resource, either way, you take it and run with it!
WSR – Thank you so much for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, is there anything you would like to add?
Matteah – Thank you for having me!!
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