||||Mediocre Music Blog

Matthew and the Atlas are without question one of the most exciting up and coming folk bands coming out of the UK’s recent new-folk revival.  Arguably pioneered by the superb Mumford and Sons, the movement has birthed a significant rise in the melancholic and mellow sound of folk singers, accompanied by, moving self-written lyrics. We were ecstatic to learn that the group would be playing nearby in a local library (we were initially taken aback by the location, but a bit of research revealed that acts such as Florence and the Machine, Adele and Noah and the Whale have all performed there as part of the wonderful “Get it Loud in Libraries” series). To sweeten the deal further, tickets a mere £6. So Zoe and I baked a batch of cupcakes and head over to the library to catch up with the boys before their show. Read on for full impressions and an interview with the band.

Major thanks to the talented and wonderful Tony Park for all pictures.

 

Matthew and the Atlas are a five-piece outfit consisting of Matthew Hegarty, the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist, Harrison Cargill on the banjo, Dave Miller on the accordion, Lindsay West on piano and vocals and Tom Field on the drums. The songs and lyrics are beautiful and enchanting, with the combination of the sounds of the instruments transporting you to a magical and far away land..if you haven’t already had a listen we highly recommend you do yourself a favor and check them out asap.

On to the interview…

MMB: Firstly I just wanted to know what you think of the whole concept of get it loud in libraries? Do you think it’s a good idea? What made you go for it? Are you passionate about libraries?

MATA: Well I think we are meant to say it’s because we love books, we’re really intellectual and we read loads! But yea it’s just a really nice way to use the space.  I was talking to Stewart (get it loud in libraries organiser) about it and we were just talking about music and how passionate he is about it and how it wanted to get something up and running. You just have to look at the bands he’s had on before us and it would be stupid for us not to really, because it’s a great gig and also I believe it’s all ages today so it’s a great opportunity to play for all ages, because not many shows are like that and also in Lancaster.

MMB: So where did you guys meet? Were you friends before?

MATA: Me and Tom were friends quite a few years before, and Dave and Lindsey were playing a night and I was there and met Harry in London, I was doing an acoustic show there.

MMB: Do you prefer playing as a band or soloing?

MATA: Yea as soon as this contract runs out! No we’re quite lucky gelling as a band, it’s difficult sometimes, you know some musicians get on personally but not musically or vice-versa, people play really well musically but it’s not really gelling personally.  But we actually get on really well and it’s really worked for us.

MMB: So was it six months in November since you have been together?

MATA: Well yea, it was about March 2010 so it’s only been about a year, it’s unbelievable. But we’ve all slogged it out in various other bands but it’s amazing really. We’re really lucky and all paid our dues. It’s nice to get in there and for it to naturally happen.

MMB: Tell us a bit about touring with Mumford and Sons.

MATA: Yea well our first or second show was with Mumford and Sons and that was a one off show and then we went on touring. It was a nice introduction to big events for us as well. Touring with them was great, and Harry’s friends with Winston.  Winston taught him how to play the banjo.

MMB: Ha, really?

MATA: Yea we were at school together, we’ve got matching banjo tattoos! But they’re just really enthusiastic guys, they’re great and, to actually get us onto their shows all through their agent was great and we were very grateful/ thankful.

MMB: So have you got any festivals lined up for the summer?

MATA: Yea we’ve got the Larmer tree, The Deer Shed Festival and then bluegrass festival, that’s a great gig and then The Great Escape in Brighton.

MMB: Do you prefer doing festival to gigs or is it more just about live performing?

MATA: Festivals are really cool, it’s a different vibe . But we haven’t played that many.  This year was a bit of a learning curve when we played at the South by Southwest Festival, we actually forgot the stomp box so we stuck a microphone in Harry’s banjo case which was awesome!

MMB: So what kind of music inspires you and the music you play?

MATA: I think we all like different things. Some of the older styles like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, John Martyn. But we’ve kind of had different influences in our CD albums….Our new favourite band ever are a band from Nashville called the Kopecky family band. Yea we should give them a shout out because they’re amazing. But we do love the English as well – we love everyone!

MMB: So have you got any plans to go over to the states in the near future?

MATA: Were definitely planning on it…… We’re touring again with Mumford and Sons and The Low Anthem in June in the States, then we’ll have a few weeks off and go to some places around there..

MMB: So how have you got the American connections just because you’ve been over there?

MATA: Well know lots of road trips, you meet people along the way.

MMB: Do you have a favourite State?

Harry: Erm, New Mexico, its where a lot of my family live and I love it there

MATA: Lindsey’s family live in California

MMB: Any others countries or just America and the UK at the minute?

MATA: Netherlands, Holland. They’re going to freak when they read that, and they will read that!! Yea, they’re passionate people..they track you down! Basically the song Matt did a while ago ended up on a trailer in the Netherlands and everyone was trying to find out who it is, and they finally realized and we were like, we’re not allowed to release this song and people were writing on our facebook…

MMB: So who writes the songs, do you all kind of share that?

MATA: Yea, well Matt writes most of them but Lindsey writes as well. We all write but Matt is the song writer and we like that and we work with that.

MMB: Do you find it quite hard writing songs or does it come quite naturally? I always imagined it would be really difficult?

Matt: No, I mean I love doing it and you either get something straight away or you do it for a bit and come back to it..and writing with the band in mind as well is different from solo writing..but it’s something I love doing.

MMB: How did you come up with the name, Matthew and the Atlas… Apart from obviously Matthew!

MATA: Well, it was the first name I came up with, I just kinda liked it.  I liked the vastness of it and the thickness of it that the word atlas, and the idea of travelling. I came up with loads of others but ended up going for that one.

Harry: What were the others?

Matthew: Erm Matthew and the Wooden Maps.

Harry: But that doesn’t really make sense though..there’s no such thing as a wooden map, why would a map be made out of wood?

MMB: So do you like travelling then? Is that kind of the theme for the band?

MATA: Well I do. I think our music is quite worldly, that’s why it’s got such a wide appeal

MMB: So favourite place or country in the world?

MATA: I really like India…Scotland…Wales!

MMB: So what about any album plans?

MATA: Yea, we’re writing one at the minute, but we’re not sure when it’s going to be released.

MMB: Will you have some of the songs on there from your EP’s?

MATA: I think we’re trying not to, that might not happen but hopefully we get all new stuff on there…. I think it depends when we write and  how we write and how it works as a body of work and if there any songs which fit in there nicely and the album flows then they’ll be in there and if not then we’ll just kind of work on it rather than consciously put anything on there…. But we kind of want to play the songs as we write and we want a bit of time to do that in between songs…because it really helps and you kind of work out stuff that you might not always work out like when your at home instead of playing in front of audience..sometimes your playing one bit and your like that bits shit!…but we’re quite spontaneous on stage… Yea and we’ve sort of done a bit of touring but we want to do some proper touring…

MMB: Have you got a tour planned?

MATA: Well we’ve got the Mumford thing in June, but then we sort of want to extend it and do stuff beforehand and then come back…Yea there’s this really cool thing you can do where you tour all round the islands and highlands of Scotland playing in village halls and all these little towns..yea so we’re definitely going to do that.

MMB: So you’re more interested in the smaller venues.

MATA: Definitely, I mean like we said we’ve never done a proper tour before and we want to be as regular as we can be with gigs and the smaller venues are definitely on our list.

MMB: So. onto the more serious stuff…do any of you have any weird phobias?

Harry: I’m scared of not having a beard!

Lindsay: I don’t like really loud bangs… like fireworks.

Tom: I don’t really like rusty metal… that’s it really… spiders but that’s normal really.

Lindsay: Do you guys have any cool phobias?

MMB: Clowns a bit, but that’s quite a common phobia though…there’s something sinister about their make up!

Harry: I’m not that into bumble bees anymore… they’re just pissing me off…I had a really bad experience with a bumble bee the other day that I’m not going to go into.

MMB: But its the wasps which are bad, bumble bees die once they sting.

Harry: Well why the fuck do they sting you then!?…I just don’t like them

MMB: And the populations are really low so we have to be nice to the bumble bee….

Harry: Well, you don’t want to know what I did the other day… it involved a deodorant can and a lighter!

MMB: Well, we got that on tape!

MMB: Instrument wise, you have the banjo, accordion, guitar, drums and piano…any others?

MATA: Well sometimes we have our mate Paul who plays the trumpet, we want to give a big shout out to him, we love having Paul with us when we can and Hugh who plays the French horn.

MMB: Ok so some final questions…if you were on a desert island and you could only take three things…what would they be?

Tom: OOhhh.. ok well two CD’s and a CD player…headphones, CD player and CD…Damn I need batteries.

MMB: Ok three CD’s you would take..

Tom: Ok my three CD’s would be Neil Young’s harvest, Johnny Cash’s silver and …oh no….I’d probably take Leonard Cohen’s a song from a room…..

Harry: I’d take a hot tub… and an unlimited supply of margaritas, and a bumble bee exterminator.  I’d be in heaven. Don’t need a banjo..or music!

MMB: Lastly if you could invite anyone to dinner who would it be?

Tom: I’d take Johnny Cash easily

Lindsay: I might have Freddie Mercury…. Yea he’d be pretty wild.

MMB: Good calls, well thank you so much and good luck with everything. Hope to see you again very soon!

After meeting Matthew and the Atlas, their chilled, easy going and friendly vibe made me fall just that little bit more in love with them.  Their show was brilliant and they sound even better live if this is possible. It seems they are set for stardom and if the EPs are anything to go by the album looks to be superb!