LET'S BE LEONARD SINGER DOES A SOLO TURN
Matt Griffin gets chill on cassetteonly release
If you keep up on the local music scene, you’re likely familiar with Let’s Be Leonard. The jazz-rock-jam band was a regular live presence at 518 venues in the PRE-COVID days, playing over 100 shows a year for a couple years at its peak activity.
Obviously, that activity ground to a halt just over a year ago. But Let’s Be Leonard guitarist and vocalist Matt Griffin has used the opportunity to unveil a solo project.
In February, he released an album under the name Griff called “Everyday, a Little Something.” Produced with the help of some friends, it offers a different side of Griffin’s personality.
“So, I guess I’ve always written songs my whole life,” Griffin said. “Some are too chilled out to be in the repertoire of Let’s Be Leonard, that big rock band kind of thing. This is more like what I listen to.”
“Everyday, a Little Something” mixes introspective singer-songwriter material with spacey, indie rock. To bring its sound to life, Griffin recruited his close friends, most notably Josh Marre of Blue Ranger and Evan Marre of Russel the Leaf, and recorded live to tape in his living room.
“We got together and started making up songs and trying to record them; I came up with lyrics later,” he explained. “One of the only ways I can write good songs is by writing them in practice. I don’t have the patience to be a dedicated, Nashville-style writer.
“We went to tape the entire session, four tracks,” Griffin added. “I got lucky years ago and got these huge tape machines before they cost too much money. They sound amazing, it feels like a real studio.”
In addition to recording to tape, Griffin decided to make the physical release “Everyday, a Little Something” cassetteonly. The format has made a resurgence in the DIY and indie scene during the past few years, and high-profile acts have also recently started to issue new projects on tape.
For Griffin, a cassette was something he’d been wanting to do for a while and it was fun to finally have the opportunity to immerse himself in the world of tape.
“I love cassette obviously, if you make an album on cassette you’ve got to be nutty about it,” Griffin said. “I bought 1,000 blank tapes on auction and have a tape machine, duplicators.
“I helped (local band) Joan Kelsey’s
Sliver Lining (in 2020, with tape) to see what I could do with the format,” he continued. “It’s a good medium, cheap to make a lot of them and easy to bring from show to show. It takes some time learning the mixer and the tape machine because you want to hit the tape hard.”
Griffin’s been sitting on “Everyday, a Little Something” since 2019. With Let’s Be Leonard sidelined from its normal activities, he decided that now was as good a time as any to present it to listeners. He released it with little fanfare on Bandcamp, letting people learn of it via word of mouth.
Griffin is hoping for a busy, fruitful 2021. He estimates that Let’s Be Leonard is sitting on roughly 10 hours of recorded material that could be released. And much like his friends contributed to his solo release, he’s played on both Marre brothers’ upcoming material. In the meantime, he’s appreciating the positive
reception he’s received for “Everyday, a Little Something.” Considering its lowkey unveiling, to have received encouragement locally has been meaningful for him.
“I think that’s, like, the best part,” Griffin said, “I just kind of put it out. No band, just Matt.
“I’ve had people reach out to me personally about it,” he continued. “I thought I would release this thing, then it would be gone. It’s really nice to have these emails and texts from people.”