| Me: From Scotland to San Antonio? Seriously, there has to be a story behind that.
Matt: After University in Scotland I went traveling around Europe, hitchhiking for a while. In 1999 I had my guitar, getting people to put me up by playing for them in Thailand. I met my wife on the beach, serenaded her. We had this global romance; we had this beach affair for three weeks. I was due to go to India and instead went to Tokyo where she was living for the time and stayed with her for three weeks there before carrying on with my trip. We'd talk to one another on the phone, she came to visit me in Scotland and she ended up moving back to San Antonio. By this time I was working in Scotland at a pension investment company. It was all very suit and tie, 9 to 5, and I was playing music with a guy from Ghana around Edinburgh. One of my songs was being played on the university radio stations there in town. I was enjoying that and I wanted to do more of my own song writing. Coming to the states at that time, the way my Visa worked, I wasn't going to be able to hold a regular job so it was a kick in the ass to get started with my own music career, and be with my wife.
Me: A crowd pleaser that even had my Dad laughing when I drug him to one of your shows is 'Nuisance.' You mention it as being about an annoying co-worker of yours; how annoying was this guy really that he deserved his own song?
Matt: It is indeed about one person who worked with me in Scotland. A middle-aged guy that was very annoying, very arrogant without any justification. Kind of rude and quick to point out everyone's faults. I just really despised the guy. I'm usually pretty nice to people and pretty forgiving to somebody who's a dick, but he just seemed to provoke me in the wrong way and I decided to write about it. He also had a limp due to being hit by a car there in Edinburgh and actually it was a hit and run; he was left for dead and rushed to the hospital. I remember thinking to myself: if only that car had reversed backwards and gotten him for good! Thinking about it is pretty vicious but sticking to my guns after all this time is another thing. So I wrote this song about him. I guess I liked having it in a funny way cause it made me smirk. The song is an aggressive song but I gave it an upbeat feel, a happy feel to make me seem like I was having a laugh but really I wasn't.
Me: I mentioned to Yolanda how much I like 'The Greatest Song.' I took it as a love song but she explained to me it was about a child you two had lost to a miscarriage. So I guess in a way it is a love song of sorts. This song being so personal, what is its effect on you every time you perform it?
Matt: There are a few songs that when I sing them, it touches me while I sing them, but it makes it even stronger, the fact I'm doing it with such passion behind it. That song was written more on the thought of having a child while Yolanda was pregnant at the time. One of the things I like to do with my songs anyways is not to be vague but to stick with my story, to stick with how I perceive things to be - but not be extremely specific with the words that I choose in order for other people to listen and interpret in their own way. It is a love song, it is like here I'm guaranteeing you love before you even arrive, I'm thinking of a lot of things like 'I hold you in my arms' relates to the first time you hold a child, but it can easily relate to holding someone else, falling in love and stuff. I think as long as the idea of the song comes across, that is cool with me.
Me: If someone comes up to ask you what kind of music you play, what genre---I mean, every musician unfortunately gets placed in a category---what do you tell them?
Matt: I usually tell them I sound more mellow and laid back, like Jack Johnson, just because some of my songs sound similar to him, but not all of my music is like that. I'd also say Dave Mathew, some John Mayer, but I wouldn't say that those two influence my writing. Like, for instance, I walked out of a Dave Mathews concert; it isn't really my cup of tea. I'd go so far as to say Coldplay without the piano because from a song-writing perspective it has that feel.
Me: What is the Matt Barker goal? Is there a five-year plan on how far you would like to take your music career?
Matt: I guess what I really want to do is just have my songs get out there. I don't want to be the face on Rolling Stone magazine but I'd like my song to be 'Song of the Year'. Because I write so many different styles of music it is difficult to categorize my music. I think my goal is different than other artists in that manner. I'd like to get in a position to sell my songs to different outlets - TV, cinema, commercials.
Me: So selling out Wembley isn't what you're thinking?
Matt: Don't get me wrong, that would be excellent. Music is my goal, though having my song sold without having my face sold. I love performing. I'd love to get to the point where I can tour around the nation, get in some good 300-400 seat venues, more chilled out places. Like Jazz Alley in Seattle, or Luna here in San Antonio. Where people are there to listen to the songs and not just dance around and drink to it. There is a certain hollowness to that.
Me: Every musician has to have some dirty laundry in their past, I'm not saying yours is DogmenPoets but they are a very widely known band in this area and in other college circuits throughout Texas who enjoy fair-sized crowds. So why exactly did you choose to leave the band what you did?
Matt: Because of what I was getting at, music being appreciated, the songs being taken in the way I had intended. I think when we started I was enjoying it more because people were hearing the songs for the first time. Then it started becoming more of the three minute and thirty second type radio spots, where we were gonna wear certain outfits, we were going for that all out record deal to make money. It was all becoming about the chorus and the hook. There was basically an artistic difference. I wanted to make sure the music I was writing was coming across the same way with the idea I had in mind. I felt like we did that for a time but I wasn't comfortable there at the end with how my songs were being developed. I think with the lessons I've learned, some times you have to change, and there was only so much I was willing to do in regards to selling out my artistic integrity.
Me: What are your thoughts on making it in the dismal San Antonio music scene, and your thoughts on the future of the San Antonio music scene in general?
Matt: Well I like Laura Marie. I think Groove Movement needs to be in another city as well. I think San Antonio is real rock. If you play cover music, rock music, and upbeat party music the people appreciate that more, it goes across best here. You've gotta be kind of rambunctious. A good thing about that is you can say things in this town that you can't get away with in other towns. That is how a band like Skunkweed succeeds in San Antonio. The front man will say some of the most prejudiced stuff, but it is hilarious prejudice stuff, and all their songs are loud so they are very well received. Blowing Trees is another one that sort of exceeds San Antonio when it comes to music. There is another friend of mine, Manny Sierra, he plays eclectic, sort of instrumental type music. He does real well in Denver, in Hawaii, but in San Antonio he can't get a gig past Border's bookshop. There isn't really a good venue that is open to new music that is different. This makes it hard for an original songwriter that doesn't fit into a particular genre to get booked. However, I think that the people here do appreciate music; you just have to catch them at the right place. I think Luna is a good place for artists like me and Laura to get heard. But if you know that and don't get your ego bruised so much, then it makes you a better artist.
Me: Growing up, who are some of your main influences?
Matt: My first tape I actually remember buying was Dire Straights, “Brothers in Arms.” I listened to a lot of Stones, Dylan, The Beatles that was my mom's influence. She used to play classical as well. My dad used to listen to Queen a lot. I used to go see Curve in concert, a British shoe gaze band of sorts. I remember going to a NOFX concert in Glasgow and. We all had chain wallets that had to be handed in at the door. I remember looking at coat check there were a few jackets and a hundred chain wallets with tags on them! That was one of the first shows I enjoyed just for the moshing. The Beastie Boys are of course my favorite band. They influenced me in their humor and believe it or not, their intelligence that they bring to songs. I have liked watching their growth, it inspires me. Coming from wee punks that say what they want to, actually thinking about what they say. As a youth of course I was listening to rap, N.W.A. and Public Enemy. That being said, I don't like to cuss in any of my songs. I want to use my words intelligently. I think that a few words if you choose them well, can take the place of a hundred.
Me: What are your plans for this year?
Matt: I'd like to do a so-o tour to promote Wanderlust, and continue to work on a follow-up self-produced album. I've had a problem getting a set-backing band; that has slowed me down a bit so I have some work to do with promoting. It has been a different band the last four shows I've done so that makes it difficult to have the same conviction while you are dealing with the anxiety of new people playing the songs for the first time. Just getting back out there and playing more, basically.
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