Matt Elliott - Folk mutations of a sound manipulator

I meet Matt Elliott after his intensely powerful gig at the Cube in Bristol, during the spectacular three days of the Venn Festival, which features, among others, Oneida, Super Furry Animals, A Hawk And A Hacksaw , DJ Rupture, Mark Stewart, Micah P. Hinson and Vetiver with Devendra Banhart . Matt sits in the garden, still wearing the furrowed expression he kept throughout the show. This grave air, I find myself thinking, wouldn't surprise anyone, given the deeply melancholic aura of his music. But the Bristol show marks a kind of homecoming for Matt, a seminal figure of the Bristol scene with Third Eye Foundation, and a collaborator, among others, on excellent projects like Flying Saucer Attack and Hood. So perhaps a little cheer wouldn't hurt.

Matt, have there been changes in the way you write music now that you live in France, compared to when you were based in Bristol?

I can never say precisely what influences my work. Of course my life has changed a great deal, so isolating a single factor to establish exactly how it has changed my music is difficult. In fact, though, there are some concrete differences in my lifestyle that by now have an undeniable influence... like not having any neighbours...

Does your choice of the French label "Ici d'Ailleurs" have a direct link to Yann Tiersen (for whom Matt did a remix in the past, ed.)?

In fact my first contact with Ici d'Ailleurs did come about through that remix, but I don't think that's what led us to work together, it's simply how things unfolded. Today it makes sense for me to work with a French label because I've decided to live there, but there are many other factors involved in that choice.

Are you still in touch with the Bristol scene?

Not much, the only people from Bristol I'm still in contact with are Chris (Cole, the cellist, ed.) and Nick from Gravenhurst.

The comparisons usually used to describe your music range from Black Heart Procession to Tiersen, from Richard Youngs to Brel to Piano Magic . Sometimes I think I can hear an echo of some of early Eyeless In Gaza's instrumental tracks, especially in the way you dissect the melancholy of the short, driving melodic phrases in your songs. If you had to name the music that mattered most to your recent work, which names would you mention?

I don't think I've ever heard Eyeless In Gaza, or maybe I just don't remember. All kinds of music inspire me in some way, but for this latest record, listening to Balkan and Romanian folk music was essential. Among the artists who inspire me most is definitely Tom Waits, and I think Directorsound are exceptional. Still, I try not to let myself be influenced too much, and I'm happy not to be exposed to an excess of musical stimuli right now. I'm isolating myself... partly by chance and partly by choice. Either way, I'd rather not be too easily compared to other artists, because if that were the case my work would just be a surplus on top of what someone else has already done.

Have you ever been offered the chance to work on a soundtrack, or do you have plans to do so? Even though your music has cinematic qualities, it seems to want to offer its own personal atmosphere/vision rather than support another medium...

Actually, I used to think producing soundtracks would be my ideal job, but then I was asked to do a soundtrack for a short film and it turned out to be... one of the worst experiences of my life! If I don't have full artistic control I can't work at my best, and I think that when you work for a director you're expected to try to realize what they have in mind. It really was a negative experience, but maybe if the director had had more trust, it would have gone differently.

I once happened to describe your first solo album as "a meticulous study of melancholy," as if it were a genuine essay on that particular feeling. Now the second album confirms your interest in the subject, but broadens the horizon. What are the differences between the two records?

Some people say the two albums are so similar that it doesn't make sense to look for differences. It's true, they're very similar in some respects, they were made by the same person, but I think " The Mess We Made" was recorded under greater constraints, due to the quality of the studio, whereas with " Drinking Songs" I had more freedom simply because I had a better studio available. Of course, constraints can be a stimulus, and there's something on "The Mess..." that isn't on "Drinking...", but likewise there are plenty of things on the second one that wouldn't have been possible on the first.

In the lyrics of "The Guilty Party" you swap the position of the "ghost" with the "You" of the song, whereas in "Also Ran" you were the ghost. This interplay of refractions and subtle shifts seems to carry a lot of weight in your music.

Well, it's like things in life, sometimes you're the one doing the haunting and sometimes you're the one being haunted. The ghosts that interest me are mental ones, ghosts of memory, of thought, of dreams.

"Drinking..." sounds more humanistic than the first record, not just because of the reduced presence of electronics, but also in its themes and music...

I think that effect mostly comes down to the instrumentation I used: for "The Mess..." it was mainly sampler, while "Drinking" was made on the computer, so I had hours and hours of recordings, more room for improvisation and for any other idea that came along. I also had more time for the lyrics, which in this case are more thought-through. I think the best lyric I've ever written is "The Sinking Ship Song", which is actually pretty depressing. I've been studying a lot of Eastern European music, but I listen to everything, especially in the folk realm, because there's always something to learn. The great thing about music is precisely that there's always something to learn, and I'm discovering that for me every album is simply a step along my own personal musical path... Sorry if that sounds a bit self-indulgent... But then again, talking about music always sounds self-indulgent...

Hmm... who knows what you'll make of the next question then... Both records pay particular attention to conflict, impermanence, to what is irreparable/inevitable, especially to the pain that arises from ending/death or from a personal or collective battlefield. How do you relate to these themes?

Actually, I think "The Mess..." was more centered on these themes, while "Drinking..." has more to do with the effect of past actions you can't escape and with the effect of guilt. But it's also about those parts of human nature that seem unchangeable, like greed, which locks us into this amoral system we live in, into willful ignorance and apathy, while our leaders lecture us about smoking, drugs, speed, and whatever we like to do with our lives, while they bomb children, sell weapons to despots and plan mass larceny, and even manage to get away with it. We don't have many chances to decide our own lives, we're happy to leave the decision to the system without asking questions. A system that, instead of protecting and helping us, seems instead to force us to fight against ourselves. Today the UK is too distracted, more worried about the smoking issue than about the fact that a liar and a killer of children is running the country. I don't accept his moral values, I'd rather follow my own.

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