I'm excited to announce that my next single will be coming out in just a few weeks, on 10/29. The song is called "Funnel Cake". It's another nostalgia trip but this time it's about a sun-soaked romance rather than a benign carnival visit.

 

You can hear a live version of this song over on my "Videos" page (or you can just click here). More details to be announced soon!

Here is a list, in no particular order, of some of my favorite bassists. I've included selected works of theirs for you to listen to.

 

○  James Jamerson - Played for the "Funk Brothers", the session musicians from Motown Studios. Listen to "For Once In My Life" (YouTube link).

○  Paul McCartney - The bassist from a British pop/rock band called The Beatles. Listen to "Something" (YouTube link).

○  Joe Osborn - One of LA's famous "Wrecking Crew" session musicians in the 60s and 70s. Listen to "The Only Living Boy in New York" (YouTube link).

○  Mike Dirnt - He played bass for Green Day. Listen to "Sassafras Roots" (YouTube link).

○  Eric Wilson - He played bass for Sublime. Listen to "STP" (YouTube link).

○  Joe Dart - The bassist for Vulfpeck. Listen to "Wait for the Moment" (YouTube link).

○  Jimmy Bond - Jazz bassist who played with Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Chet Baker, and many more. Listen to "Mood Indigo" (YouTube link).

○  Ronnie Baker - Bassist from the "MSFB" house band of Sigma Sound Studios. Listen to "She's A Winner" (YouTube link).

One of my favorite parts of the music production process is arranging, or part writing. One of the most important things I’ve learned about part writing is leaving space in the arrangement. I love when a song has a bunch of parts that each serve the song in their own way. I used to approach part writing almost as if I were writing a solo arrangement for each instrument in the song. In other words, I would play a lot of notes or a lot of chords on each instrument throughout the entirety of the song. The result of this was that mixing it was a challenge, because each part was fighting...  

 

I am excited to leave messages here for you all! You can expect to see news related to my music, as well as musings, lists, root beer reviews, and other ramblings. I hope you'll excuse the appearance of my website. It's under a bit of construction. I hope you'll still have a look around, and make yourself at home. I'll explain my thought process behind the aesthetic of my website later -- that's another post for another day. For now, I just wanted to say hello and go check out my newest single, "Goldfish". Click here if you want to hear it!

I spent some time designing my website today!

 

I remember when I used to browse the web all the time as a kid. I went on the websites for bands, TV channels, and movie franchises that I liked. I remember how much fun I would have navigating the web pages and reading the content that was available there. Then, as we entered into the 2010s, websites started getting more maximalist and more complicated, before the pendulum swung back the other way...

 

TSOP is a regular song review segment I'll be writing for this blog. It stands for "The Sound of Philadelphia", which refers to a specific Philly soul music scene in the 1970s and 80s surrounding Sigma Sound Studios and the production team of Gamble & Huff. The funky, proto-disco soul music that came out of that scene featured soulful pop influenced by gospel, funk, and R&B, often with soaring string arrangements. It's like a Motown-meets-disco kind of sound. The perfect illustration of this comparison is the Jackson 5 leaving Motown and recording their first album as "The Jacksons"...

 

Yesterday, the Beatles (what’s left of them, or whoever it is who owns the publishing rights to their music) re-released their iconic compilation albums 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, also known affectionately as 'The Red Album' and 'The Blue Album,' respectively. On these reissues, they’ve included all the updated mixes that Giles Martin has been doing for their individual album reissues. For songs that have previously slipped through the cracks of their recent album reissue projects, they have gone in and done new mixes this year. This amounts to most of their early material that makes up...

 

Congratulations to all you brainiacs who solved the "Funnel Cake Riddle" and were able to hear the song ahead of time.

 

For the rest of the world, "Funnel Cake" is now available everywhere to stream!! You can find it on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and much more.

 

Lyric video coming soon to YouTube!

Authenticity is something we always want to feel from the art we consume. How do we know if we're getting it or not? People used to talk about artists "selling out" for various reasons. Back when there were more defined "scenes" in music, a band might be accused of selling out if they grew in popularity beyond their scene and into the mainstream. Some examples of bands who have been accused as such were Metallica, Green Day, Nirvana...

 

I’m producing a new version of a song that I recorded four years ago. I’m using some of the tracks that I previously recorded along with newly recorded instrument overdubs and lead vocals. Since I am keeping the song in the same key and am keeping the overall song structure the same, I’m able to use most of these tracks without any problems.  We recorded the basic tracks in early 2019, myself on digital piano and Stefano Giacomarra on drums, live in a room. With the keys bleeding into the drum mics, it would have been impossible...

 

My two biggest challenges as an artist are related to my voice. There’s my singing voice—my vocal performance—but there’s also my artistic voice that comes through in the things I put out. This blog post will focus on the latter, that elusive self-image that, if you’re successful, gives individuality to your writing and reveals your humanity, or at least some sliver of it. I’ve never been able to write in just one style or genre. For this reason, my journey towards discovering my artistic voice has been long and confusing. I can’t say that I’ve found it or describe to you what it is, but over time...

 

I’m releasing a new song next week, which is actually an old song, but a new version. I almost wanted to call it “Train Song (Holiday Version) (Matt’s Version)”. But “Holiday Train Song” is what it’s called. So here’s the story. I wrote a song called “Train Song” 5 years ago. I recorded and produced it for a project called Philly Spice. My sister Julia sang lead vocals on it. It had different lyrics then, but it had a similar vibe. It was a story about a train ride...

 

I have enjoyed listening to my Spotify Wrapped this year along with the playlist Your Top Songs 2023. I see that I've been listening to a lot of soul, folk rock, jazz, and pop, as well as some classic Broadway and Nigerian pop. I've pasted below my top 25 songs of the year, each with a short comment and a hyperlink to listen on YouTube.

 

1. “When Will I See You Again” - The Three Degrees...