We have just received the sad news of Matthew Jay’s untimely death. It saddens us greatly and our sincere condolences go to his family, friends and associates.

We were alerted to Matthew’s talent on receiving his debut album back in 2001. DRAW proved to be a beautiful album by a young man at the beginning of his commercial musical journey. It was on the strength of this album that we asked for and secured an interview during a support performance with The Divine Comedy in Liverpool. It was a delightful and open interview with a young, modest, and serious musician, with substantial songwriting talent. We then watched him perform which confirmed that Matthew was indeed an artist with a bright future.

As a tribute to Matthew and his family (who played such an important part in his early musical development) we present that interview from March 2001. The UK, in the midst of such musical mediocrity, has lost a major and indivudual talent, and a humble, lovely young man.

MATTHEW JAY INTERVIEW

LIVERPOOL

MARCH 2001

As a start-point Matthew, what were you’re early musical influences just prior to secondary school?

Quite a weird mix because mum and dad were musicians; mum sang, my dad played guitar and they used to do the clubs; and it was quite an influence with my mother singing around the house all the time. I wouldn’t know what songs she was singing but I know I liked some of them and I found out later that it was people like Dusty Springfield, Joni Mitchell and they were into the Beatles, Dylan and the Rolling Stones. So quite a good upbringing in terms of their musical tastes and when I got a bit older my I’d pick up an instrument and play with them - we had a sort of family band that got a bit folky. So that was part of my influences, and then of course being a young lad you get into the usual music like things from New Kids On The Block to Queen. My dad was into Queen and had SHEER HEART ATTACK and played it in the car and I got well into that. Then the first scene I felt I was part of was Grunge in the early 90’s when I was 14 - 15 years old. Then it was Britpop.

So those were the two scenes I can really remember. I also played violin when I was younger so I’ve had the classical side that I kind of rejected after a while and, after a while, decided I wanted to play the guitar. I still like some classical like Tchaikovsky. So there’s classical, folk, and all the stuff I listened to - Bowie, Stones, Clash, Beatles, bit of U2. In the 90’s it’s been Radiohead, Oasis, Manics a little bit (came to them a bit later). So the influences have been very wide and since moving to Nottingham it’s been much more dance orientated - it’s a good club town. Quite break-beat, psychedelic house, a lot of West Coast psychedelic house. Since I’ve been living in Nottingham some of the demos I did to try and get a deal and a bit of money. The studios I worked in, one in particular belonged to a DJ called Tony Bill so everything I did in the studio was geared to dance music. I managed to strum the guitar a bit but it was sample based and it was the way I started because I didn’t have a band together, it was just me on my own. So After getting the deal, I got a band together and that’s kind of where I am right now.

So at what point during your formative years did you feel that this was what you wanted to do with your life?

It was when I did my ankle in playing football, and I was obsessed with football but realised I couldn’t be a footballer any more (that’s what I really wanted to be) and so I got into all sorts of other sports (but I didn’t really take to them as much as football). I always loved pop music and when I was about 15 years old, I just wrote a song. I remember the first song I wrote (I think I can still remember the tune of it) and I always thought I could write melodies while lyrics take a while to mature - you have to make mistakes and build on that. It was something that was quite easy, I guess because of the music in the family and my mum singing tunes around the house without any backing. I just responded to words and melody and wrote a song that I recorded on a little tape player. I remember thinking that I couldn’t recognise the stuff, I didn’t recognise myself.

Anyway I thought that it wasn’t bad and so I had another go at it and my dad managed to get an 8 track reel-to-reel later on. He would record school plays and amateur local brass bands as souvenirs for people basically. It was a cool way of meeting different musicians. One day I thought I’d record one of the songs I’d written because I play bass, I play guitar (both of which I’d played for a while). I managed to programme the drum machine and together with vocals and harmonies, you kind of got your band there really. Because most of my mates were into football and not so many had my family musical upbringing. I couldn’t get a band together so I thought I would do it on my own. I stuck some demo tapes together and after a while I thought I had enough good songs together to send out. I stuck a pin in the Yellow Pages and then managed to get a bit of response. A lot of people said they liked the songs and asked where they could see me play - but I didn’t have a band! But there was this one guy called Martyn Watson (he’s my manager now) working for a record company and he got a tape and was more enthusiastic and didn’t seem too worried about not having a band and thought we could get round that. So I ended up playing in people’s offices and stuff like that - a bit weird.

So when was that?

It was August 98 when I met my manager and from then on it took about a year after that to get a deal. Then the band came after I got the deal and got to perform live. I’ve been performing live since when I was about 8 or 9 but in a totally different context. So it’s not totally unnatural to me. I’m just learning more and more about it. The band I got from going to Nottingham - I think it was a better move going to Nottingham than going to London straight away - I couldn’t develop as a musician living where I was. I know a lot of people in Nottingham and immersed myself in the dance scene. Best of all I got a band that weren’t hired hands or sessions guys. My bass player Garth and the drummer have been in a band together for four years and so there’s a good relationship between them. Sam, my guitarist, left Six By Seven in the summer and approached me and he’s a guitarist I really admire - he’s not too fussy, really solid and an explosive player.

I imagine that with a voice like yours that has some fragility about it, you have to be wary of the band swamping your vocal?

That’s true and it has happened in the early days. But you know had I been singing in pubs for several years, I would have had a different voice but sometimes I wonder because I’ve got a bit of an asthma problem and my lung capacity is not what it could be. So my voice has changed all the time especially when I’ve played live. You listen to Roger Daltry over the years or Paul McCartney - their voices have changed and adapted. John Lennon listened to Bob Dylan and started singing differently. I’ve noticed I can get a lot more power now. It’s just competing with the rest of the band volume-wise.

What about artists that have influenced your style of play - Jeff Buckley for example?

I like him but have not really got into him. There are people I’ve been compared to because if you’re writing about music it’s hard to describe with just adjectives, you’ve got to use names. For example, I’ve been compared to Nick Drake. The truth is I’ never heard of him before recording my first demos. People say melodic, quiet…Nick Drake….I don’t mind being compared to people like that. But I have been influenced by people like Bob Dylan and while I’m not a huge fan of most of his work, BLOOD ON THE TRACKS is definitely my favourite album of all time. The Beatles have been a huge influence. The Who and The Clash more and more and that sounds really weird because there are huge differences between them but I like certain elements of The Clash vibe - certain lyrics, a certain way of approaching music which doesn’t come out in terms of volume but in terms of attitude. Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, The Happy Mondays… But some of this is more recent because in my earlier youth I was busy playing football and my parents didn’t play this type of music. So I’ve been going back to Stone Roses and Happy Mondays and the whole acid house thing. Nottingham’s been a big influence and you can hear it in a lot of the songs on the album. They’re not over-dance but a lot of them are sampled and loop-based - there’s a lot of electronic principles involved.

There are differences in songs and vocals in your earlier EP and your latest album…

Definitely. A lot of people ask what I’m going to do for the next album and what it’s going to sound like. I just say it depends on everything I listen to from then and every life experience that happens. You just can’t say. I’m writing for the second album already because I just managed to get a home studio from stuff I got from my dad and for the first time for a while can work on my own again. I can hear the difference already in what I’m currently doing. It’s like acoustic guitar and rather like Elliott Smith, I may put a foot through that…

I suppose there’s a ‘danger’ of being lumped into the ‘new acoustic movement’ but while the album starts off acoustically it tend to build up into something larger and more diverse. Has the record company influenced what you have recorded for sale?

The record company have been really cool. The people I’m working with in the studio are my manager Martyn Watson who has been in a band, has produced and looked at it from every angle. He was producing and Rick Peek was engineering who worked with Six By Seven and has just worked with Muse, and he’s obsessed with sound and they’ve made dance records - quiet ambient, quite far out, quite weird - great stuff that I’m really into. There’s a lot of The Who influence in that it has pop sensibilities and gets left of centre. My favourite music at the moment is Dr Dre - especially the production

You must have been quite excited when you did finally get a record contract. Did it happen suddenly or were they all rushing to you like they did with Badly Drawn Boy?

I didn’t do any showcases and I didn’t want it to turn into a sort of circus. The first thing I wanted to do was write a decent song and then be able to record, then a record company response. Then I wanted to get a deal. Then make a decent album and then I want people to think it’s a decent album. Do you know what I mean? There’s always the next thing to do

What would you like people to think about this album?

That it’s honest. It’s got a bit of a sense of humour. It’s something different

Does it say anything about you?

Yes. It’s all about personal experience. I’m not really a storyteller; making up characters and stuff like that. That’s never been something I’ve responded to in other people’s lyrics. My favourite type of lyrics are from people like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Pete Townsend… You always believe them if it’s not like a story and you can connect; there’s no rubbish…

What do you think about the current music scene?

There’s a lot of good music coming out at the moment. There’s always that cycle of two or three years where the scene ends and then the record companies decide they have to make some money and chuck the likes of Westlife at the wall and make some money, and then pay for the likes of someone like me which is a lottery isn’t it? There’s no way that you can say I’m going to sell enough records to make another or whatever. So there’s this underground swelling at the moment and Badly Drawn Boy has to take some credit for that.

Any radio airplay in the offing?

Well, Mark & Lard (my favourite DJs) have given me record of the week and so there’s always that support. Whether the big controller thinks that the audience is ready or I’m ready for the audience then that’s out of my hands. It’s always good to hear yourself on the radio but you’re in the lap of the gods and the god is the audience. And I can’t really spend too much time in wandering what other people think. I get my kicks from writing songs and performing and it’s got to stop there. I can’t get kicks out of people telling me I’m good then people might say I’m rubbish with no right to be on the airwaves. Then some people say that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s all rubbish…

What’s it like being on tour?

It’s been great. The Divine Comedy audience has been fantastic. You look out there and it is a certain type of person. It’s quite young and studenty almost… With support acts, there’s less pressure because they haven’t come to see me. The audience reaction has been fantastic. We’ve played a few venues this size over the last year when I supported Shelby Lynne and Tracy Chapman and so the number of people we’re used to, but it’s more to the audience we’re trying to reach.

You seem not to have been pigeon-holed, it’s quite an eclectic mix of lead acts…

When I first heard about the support slot with Divine Comedy, I though, wow! That’s so different from what I’m doing and then you realise that music fans crossover as well as bands. Some people may have my CD with The Divine Comedy’s next to it…

Thanks Matthew and the best of luck.