If you’re a music fan, the kind that spends the rent money acquiring records, you live for those “crack the sky” moments, those times when you hear an artist that makes such an impression that your experience is instantly divided into before and after.
Such was my discovery of the MUSIC LOVERS‘ 2004 LP The Words We Say Before We Sleep. Its combination of sophisticated songwriting, skillful, imaginative arrangements and carefully managed emotional punch perfectly balances accessibility and art. Imagine a combination of DUSTY SPRINGFIELD, SERGE GAINSBOURG and the TRASHCAN SINATRAS and you’re nearly there. Led by singer/songwriter MATTHEW EDWARDS, the critically-acclaimed, San Francisco-based band’s work consistently hits new milestones in pop music, not only with Words, but also later LPs like The Music Lovers’ Guide For Young People or this year’s masterful Masculine Feminine.
I was thrilled to interview Edwards for The Big Takeover #65 (on sale now). Below is the original e-mail exchange, edited slightly for content, from which the piece is drawn.
*****
You’re originally from Birmingham, England, right? What led you to move to the States and San Francisco? Did you have bands in England?
MATTHEW EDWARDS: Yes, I am from Birmingham in England. I was born and brought up there and attended college in the city. I started out playing bass in a garage/punk band when I was still in high school. Then a little later, fresh out of University, I got signed as a songwriter to a major label in the UK which turned out disastrously. As a direct result of that debacle, I decided to leave England and travel around the world, which I did until I got to San Francisco. England had been suffocating me and everyone around me seemed to be heading off the rails, so leaving was an act of self-preservation. An old friend (and future Music Lovers drummer), PAUL COMASKEY, was in SF so it seemed a great destination. We had this vague idea of starting a band.
What was it about SF, besides having a friend in town, that made you decide to stay? Does it have a creative atmosphere for you?
ME: It was chance. I like the cinemas and restaurants, and I like that I can get to the desert from here – I love the desert. No, I really don’t think it has a particularly creative atmosphere – for one thing, it’s a really expensive city to reside in, prohibitive to artists unless they have a trust fund. I am not really a fan of the pop culture things the city is famous for either – I don’t like the Beats (it’s typing, not writing) and I loathe the GRATEFUL DEAD. On the plus side it did have DASHIEL HAMMET, WELDON KEES (for a while), and SLY STONE in Oakland.
You don’t strike me as the trust fund type, so I assume you have a day job? Is it something you’d be willing to give up to make a living at music, or do you like what you do for a living?
ME: Ha ha, no – no trust fund. I am an occupational therapist and work with people with Asperger’s and autism.
I give anything for music, however loved.
That’s an important job, I think, and one not too many people would be willing to take on. Do you get creative inspiration from your work?
ME: No, not really. However I do get invited into people’s houses, privy to the workings of their families, the dynamics. It is interesting.
I do the job because I am good at it. One of my only skills is patience. The job allows me to move about the city all day, ride trains and walk a lot. That is inspiring.
We’ll come back to the workings of your creative mind in a minute. I want to go back to the Secret Origin first. Paul Comaskey and [bassist] JON BROODER are both from England as well. Were you looking for other expatriate musicians in SF, or did you just come across them?
ME: I came to SF expressly to meet Paul Comaskey and met Jon Brooder about a year or so later at a cabaret evening I was running in the City. Jon came in and played some songs; we bonded and started working on my songs. We are not too Englishcentric – we have had an Irishman and a Japanese woman in the band, not to mention four or five Americans.
I’ve noticed it’s an ever-evolving ensemble, with you and Jon at the core. Is that what helps give Music Lovers songs their cosmopolitan feel? It doesn’t feel dilettantish, but there’s definitely a sense of awareness of other musics besides white pop in your tracks.
ME: I take that as a great compliment – thank you.
Well, I really do define the touchstones soundwise myself. However, the whole group comes from such different angles – Jon actually loves really savage punk, and drum-and-bass! KATE [WEEKS, viola] is from a classical background, PING [CHU, current drummer] is a 60’s/70’s Soul/R&B DJ, BRYAN [CAIN, guitarist] played trad-country, etc.
I love BREL, KURT WEILL, showtunes and musicals as well as pop stuff. My best friend growing up is a massive soul and reggae 45 collector so I heard that stuff constantly – it was also the prevalent sound in my childhood neighbourhood. Everything percolates, everything comes to bear on the sound. Nothing is out of bounds as long as it is gracefully done.
_ Grace is certainly a word that applies easily to your music. You don’t shy away from grit, or the seamier side of life in your songs, but you always seem to be in pursuit of grace, beauty and truth._
Your stuff always feels very carefully crafted to me, though not at the expense of emotion. Songwriting is obviously something you’ve been doing for a very long time. When did you start writing songs? When did you realize that this was your calling?
ME: I don’t actively pursue the “seamier side of life.” Nor do I seek to write about it particularly. However, a certain less than rosy hue has had a habit of following me around. It’s been a curse and a blessing – I’ve written (what I believe to be) some good songs from deep in the hole. But that same place has destroyed other parts of my life. Sometimes I honestly wonder if the cost was worth the songs? Then I come to my senses – ha!
I wrote my first song at 13. It was kind of MARC BOLAN sings the BUZZCOCKS as a Gregorian dirge. It was certainly better than some songs that followed! Being on the stage was my calling first, as I just wanted to perform. I’d tasted it and it felt more natural than anywhere else I’d ever been. Still does. I have things I want to say, to release, and I love melody so songwriting seemed utterly natural.
I did not write a song I was really proud of for a while. Then when I did my confidence rose commensurate with my quality control. I was less prolific but I had gotten to the place I’d strived for.
_ Now that you’re at a place where you feel comfortable with writing, do you find the songs flowing easily? Or is it something you have to meticulously work on?_
ME: Hmm, “comfortable” is not a word I’d really use in regards to my songwriting process. Although it is undeniably a release.
My deal is that I never force anything. I might go months and not write anything, then write four or five songs in a couple of weeks. Often, melodies and words appear while I’m out walking. I never sit down and say “I’m going to write a song.” Once that initial idea – chords, melody, title – is in place, I work on the words endlessly. I summarise, re-write and refine right up until recording. Words are important – I cannot just string together pretty sounding phrases. Others can and it works, but I’d get bored singing nonsense. It’d be meaningless to me. Why bother opening my mouth if it’s simply froth? I was a teenage DYLAN-obsessive and that’s the legacy of it, I suppose! Oh, I was an English major, too.
Dylan doesn’t surprise me – any writer that pays close attention to words has the specter of Dylan in there somewhere. What other songwriters have inspired you over the years?
ME: I have been inspired by LAURA NYRO, JIMMY WEBB, early TIM HARDIN, GOFFIN and KING (Brill Building in general), HOLLAND-DOZIER-HOLLAND, RAY DAVIES, Dylan, RICHARD BUCKNER, DAVID JOHANSON‘s lyrics with the NEW YORK DOLLS, SMOKEY ROBINSON…endless, really.
_ I’ve always assumed that film and literature are inspirations to you as well. Do you have any favorite films or authors that have affected your writing?_
M*: Yes, I’ve been very inspired by writers…different ones at different times. When at college I sucked in all the classics of English (and French and Russian) lit, so by the time I left I was hungry for other vistas. Immediately after leaving college, Black Lizard Press started reprinting a lot of American “pulp” authors – CHARLES WILLEFORD, DAVID GOODIS, JOEL TOWNSLEY ROGERS, etc. I read the whole catalogue voraciously. I especially love David Goodis – he essentially wrote the same book five or six times, but what a book! Always the same themes – gang as family, relative goodness corrupted by a single mistake, talent lost, men dominated by fearsome women. Excellent stuff. Burnt Orange Heresy by Willeford is a great book too. The best book about art I’ve ever read. I think this genre has affected my writing. I read a lot of military history, too. That hasn’t – ha!
I liked NICK TOSCHES and found him inspiring, but he seems to have lost it of late.
I have always regularly read poetry, often keep a volume in my bag – always DONNE (from my college years). I love ANNE SEXTON – she seems to be considered an outmoded writer these days and that’s a shame. Charisma and magic pour from her words. I also like Weldon Kees…Oh, and STEVIE SMITH. I love Stevie, so blackly funny – or actually funnily black might be more apt.
Films: in my teens I lived at Birmingham Arts Lab Cinema where I’d bunk off school and see three or more movies a week. The Arts Lab was the biggest influence on my tastes and my aesthetic. They’d have massive directors’ seasons – KENNETH ANGER to RENOIR, WILDER to WATERS. Japanese seasons, Russian seasons, a week of CASSAVETES. I couldn’t get enough. (I always went alone – still prefer to.)
Certain films I saw then that definitely affected my songwriting later were:
The Mother and the Whore by JEAN EUSTACHE. Cynical, horrifying, sensual, immoral, fascinating – yet I found it romantic?
Husbands by John Cassavetes. Men – ha!
The Lacemaker by CLAUDE GORETTA. I fell madly in love with the young ISABEL HUPPERT. I became a Francophile overnight.
I Know Where I’m Going – POWELL and PRESSBURGER. Made me see that there is mysticism on England/Britain, an ancient oddness.
There are many films I love but that didn’t really influence my songwriting. These did.
I’m a big fan of Goodis’ _Shoot the Piano Player. The Black Lizard stuff was a big revelation to me as well – that was a genre with which I was pretty unfamiliar. It certainly wasn’t covered in my English classes (I was an English major as well)._
You mentioned earlier that you were also inspired by your travels around SF. Can you give me an example?
ME: Whenever possible (which is a lot), I walk in the city, sometimes all day, eight or so hours. I can think, then – I’m not static. I do the same in NYC when I’m there (my ex-wife is a New Yorker), and also Joshua Tree and the Mojave. I’ll walk constantly.
In the city I like to overhear conversations, watch faces. My job takes me to some pretty downtrodden areas – most of my time is spent away from the bohemian coffee bar milieu of SF. I don’t live in the Mission.
_ I think this highlights an important aspect of creativity that a lot of people don’t focus on – that you’re not just inspired by others’ work, but by going out into the world and experiencing it for yourself, thinking about it, working it over. As important as art is in another artist’s inspiration, it’s not the only well from which to draw._
Tune in tomorrow for Part 2.
