Your New Favourite Band: Mat Riviere Interview

As you're hopefully well aware by now, all this week we're busy counting down to the Dublin leg of the Brainlove Records Tour, which we have the pleasure of hosting this coming Saturday night at the city's Twisted Pepper venue. Yesterday, Pagan Wanderer Lu told us (quite appropriately) all about the joys of life on the road, and today we speak to another of the four acts on the bill, Norwich-based D.I.Y. maverick Mat Riviere:

Hey, Mat. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We're on the eve of the Brainlove Tour now (or perhaps in the midst of it by the time these questions reach you). What do you think it is that ties the acts on the label - and specifically the four of you that are about to hit the road - together?

Well, I'm currently at the venue in Cardiff, so it's not quite begun just yet. The most obvious thing that links us four who are doing the tour is that we all function primarily as one-man bands, using a mixture of electronics and live instruments. Also, I believe we all suffer from male pattern baldness.

As a relative newcomer to the label – having signed some eighteen months or so ago – will this be the first opportunity you'll have had to spend a prolonged period of time with your labelmates? Were you a fan of theirs before you joined Brainlove?

I've already spent a fair amount of time with everyone on the label actually: I went to the Airwaves Festival in Iceland last year with James (Mabbett, aka Napoleon IIIrd) and Will (Vaughan, aka Stairs To Korea), and I've played quite a few gigs with Andy (Regan, aka Pagan Wanderer Lu). Before I met them all I was most aware of James' stuff, as he'd played in Norwich a bit. I think I actually supported him once with a band I used to play in.

How exactly did you get involved with Brainlove in the first place?

Me and my friend Steve, who makes music as Jam On Bread, organised a little tour for ourselves in early 2009, just through friends and emailing people we vaguely knew (actually Steve did most of this!). We played at a birthday bash for a friend of Steve's in London, and John (Rogers, Brainlove Records boss) was there. I was mega-ill, had taken too many flu tablets and thought I had played really badly, but he ended up emailing me a couple of weeks later to see if I wanted to release something.

Words like 'bleak', 'stark' and 'haunting' get used a lot when describing your material. Do you think they offer a fair reflection of your songs? (I should add of course that 'pop' and 'melody' also get mentioned frequently!) Or is that kind of tone more a result of how you make music?

Yeah, I guess bleak is probably quite accurate… I'd like to be haunting, but I'm just not sure that I am. I like to think some of the songs are hopeful in some way.

You've mentioned elsewhere that Sleeping States and Casiotone For The Painfully Alone are two fellow solo artists that you admire. They're two that we certainly like around these parts as well. What is it about their approach that you find particularly inspiring?

What’s inspiring to me about those two artists are the limitations they place on themselves, particularly in their early work. I think it can actually be quite liberating and productive to set boundaries.

Another band that you get mentioned alongside is Why?, and I know hip-hop is a definite influence on your work - you can certainly hear it in the flow with which you deliver your vocals. Which hip-hop acts in particular have informed your music?

Cannibal Ox, Gravediggaz, Wu-Tang Clan... cLOUDDEAD and a lot of early anticon. stuff too. 

More often than not I tend to find that artists who record in their own bedrooms, kitchens etc, when asked, wouldn't actually swap their set-up for a couple of weeks in a studio. Making a big assumption that you do in fact work/record at home or by yourself, do you feel the same way?

Yes, I do record everything at home! I'm happy operating like that – if I was to go into a studio at some point, it would be to work on something quite different. Maybe an orchestral pop album or something.

What’s Norwich like as a place to make music? We're big fans here of two of your fellow Norwich artists: Luke Abbott and Nathan Fake. Are there any others we should be looking out for?

Yeah, Luke Abbott's stuff is great. There's loads of good stuff though… I play drums in a band called Tawny Owl (sorry for the self-promotion!); The Gore Vidals, Octagon Court and The Middle Ones (though not strictly from Norwich anymore) are all quality local bands.

You've a new 7" track entitled 'Gardens' due out in early 2011: how does it compare to your current Follow Your Heart album? Are there any immediate plans for future releases beyond that?

It's a song I've been playing live for quite a while; it's not a million miles away from the stuff on the album. There might be another album coming out in the future, although at the moment I’d imagine it might take quite a long time!

And finally, who are some of your new favourite bands?

Octagon Court
Trash Kit
Bastardgeist

The Brainlove Records Tour stops off tonight @ The CAMP, London. Tickets are available for £6.00 + booking fee here, and we're told there might be a limited number available on the door. Check back here tomorrow for more Brainlove goodness. In the meantime, go here for a full list of upcoming Brainlove tour dates and buy tickets (€10.00 + booking fee) for Saturday's Dublin show here. Oh, and there's a Facebook event page here with loads of Brainlove mp3s, links and colourful pictures (if you're into that sort of thing).