The Matinée won’t let health pandemic hijack next album
With people looking for connection in any way possible, this might not seem like the best time to release a song about the ills of social media.
Fortunately, The Matinée’s new song Trouble Is has an uplifting, gospel-tinged feel and warm, reassuring vocal hooks — thanks in part to backup vocals from Colleen Rennison and Dawn Pemberton — that make it applicable to the moment we find ourselves in, regardless of the specifics of subject matter.
We talked to the band’s lyricist/singer Matt Layzell.
Q Are you being more productive or less? Is having all this free time inspiring?
A I’ve had a lot of time to just pick up instruments and play.
I’m not used to having that kind of free time. But being in a 400-square-foot apartment, you can’t do that all day. Your housemates or partner soon get sick of it.
For me personally, as the lyricist, I typically get lost in the woods somewhere.
My parents live in Desolation Sound, so they’re well off-grid. I’ll set up somewhere like that. I do find it hard in day-to-day life to pick an hour — I generally like to immerse myself in it for a bit longer. When it gets down to finishing these songs, I’ve got to find that creative space.
As much as I think that some great art is going to come out of this in general, I don’t want the current situation to dictate the outcome of this record.
We started it before all this and there will be an after. And I think that’s important to remember.
Q You’ve said that the lyrics to Trouble Is were inspired by a documentary — Selfless by Mission-based Fresh Independence — about social media and youth. How does that message jibe with the current climate, when social media can be a lifeline for some people?
A Now more than ever we need these devices to keep us connected, to spread some positivity, and to keep us sane. At the same time, it’s pretty cool to see that people are using these phones and computers in constructive ways.
But you still see so many people unaware of the reality that we’re in right now.
It’s like people are still oblivious to what’s going on and what they need to do to help win this global war that we’re facing.
Q Do you have any plans to do live Instagram shows or anything like that?
A We were supposed to be starting tour dates this month. We still have festival dates on the books for the summer. I don’t know how likely those are going to be.
I think we have to get creative in how we stay engaged with our fans. We’ve done a couple of Instagram performances already.
In one, we opened it up to a conversation, and that got a really good response. People need connection right now. I’m sure we’ll do more of that.