Caught in the Carousel

Mathieu Santos

Massachusetts 2010
Barsuk

Mathieu Santos

The pieces on Mathieu Santos' Massachusetts 2010 are brief and accurate, like musical versions of Imagist poems, and each of Santos' songs explore a single emotion or musical theme with beautiful precision. The lyrics are sparse and often repeated, and while there are intricate sonic layers built up around the melodic or rhythmic core of each song, the tracks are concise musical statements. They don't wander or mumble or trail off; they make their point, end with a period, and leave you wanting more.

The opener, "I Can Hear The Train Coming," begins with a patient bounce and builds into a driving rocker over the dated tones of a dial-up modem. The energy of track one makes way for the recorded whisper of gulls and buoys, which serve as a background canvas for the falsetto harmonies and syncopated bass line of "Massachusetts." This second piece is an energetic update of a Ra Ra Riot track off of The Orchard; Santos successfully replaces strings with driving horns and a more prominent, distorted guitar line.

Santos lets every instrument on the album have its own sonic space, and it's a rare moment when you can't pick out each individual part with clarity. In the case of some songs one part seems to drive the piece—the lead-in hand claps on "Silly Thoughts," the clean, low-end melody of "I'd Go," the Police-inspired bass line on "Wait to Get Up"—providing a base for the other sounds to layer over and augment. The clarity of the mix also highlights the musicianship featured on the album, which ranges from precise to ecstatic, all with sincerity.

It's hard to pick standouts on Massachusetts 2010 and one of the big reasons that the album is successful is because it works so well as a concise whole. But for me, "(I Just) Need to Know" and "The Bay/ Where to Find Her" both deserve a special mention. On "Need to Know," the low-bit synth drops away to feature some of the tastiest guitar playing on the album—short, reverb-heavy rhythm chords, and an addictive lead—and "The Bay" opens with a solo guitar piece that uses dynamics and natural distortion to excellent effect and closes by turning the bounce and energy of earlier songs into a melancholy goodbye. It's great work, and I hope to hear more of it in the future.

Mathieu is busy touring (and soon, recording) with his band Ra Ra Riot, but he was gracious enough to answer a few questions to compliment this review, so read on, and then go pick up Massachusetts 2010.

—Mick Sherer

Caught In The Carousel: How important is the fine state of Massachusetts to the album? Did it inspire, inform, or is it working in some other mysterious way?

Mathieu Santos: Every song on the album, in one way or another, is informed by my having grown up there. I wrote the album when I was home last winter, and I was thinking about how the characteristics of the place have influenced the way I've come to feel and think about things, which, to me, is an endlessly interesting idea.

CITC: Is there a local scene, city, state, or other locale that has influenced you and your music? How does that influence come out in your work?

MS: Well, in the context of this album, being back in my hometown in Massachusetts was definitely the biggest influence. A lot of the things I was thinking about at the time seemed to have some sort of relationship with the ocean, and my having lived by it for so long. The ocean is such a great metaphor for so many different things, but I also feel like it exerts a force on my life that is undeniably real, which is what most of the album is about. There's a lot of meditation and repetition.

CITC: What's your songwriting process like? Do you start with a bass line, a phrase, a specific rhythm, and how do you create an arrangement once you get going?

MS: I think most of the songs began with a bass line, or a general feel or groove. Once I had something that I felt could go somewhere, I'd write it out in this real rudimentary tablature/MIDI program I have, which could loop things and play things back. So then I'd flesh out a general structure and start playing over it, trying to think of melodies and things like that, trying to listen for what it needed.

CITC: On musicians and artists, past and present: Who do you love? Who have you learned from?

MS: I suppose in terms of this project, I was particularly interested in music that was idiosyncratic, and operated more or less within an individual's singular vision, and also music that was more concerned with moods and textures and grooves. So I was listening to all kinds of stuff, like Paul McCartney's solo albums (McCartney and McCartney II), Stewart Copeland's Klark Kent recordings, a lot of The Fall and The Police, Brian Wilson's more experimental work, some of Miles Davis' longer-form recordings, some of Robert Palmer's more adventurous work, all kinds of stuff. There's so much to learn from! The list could go on. And I've been very lucky to have learned a ton from my peers; touring so much and meeting and working with so many different skilled musicians and songwriters has been a dream. Wes (Ra Ra Riot's singer) and John (Ra Ra Riot's original drummer) were both particularly supportive of me and my interest in songwriting.

CITC: Is there anything else people should know about the album, something hard to pick up or that you're particularly proud of?

MS: I had a blast making it, and I'm just happy that it's out there in the world. We recorded the whole thing in just a few days, and I just hope that people have as much fun listening to it as I had making it!

CITC: What do you do when you're not playing music?

MS: I'm probably in my apartment, wearing slippers, watching hockey or reading about hockey. That, or listening to music or trying to paint during the hard times when there aren't any hockey games on.

CITC: And finally, what are you working on next?

MS: Well, Ra Ra Riot is going to be touring for basically the rest of the year, and then we're going to be recording our next album this winter, so I'm going to be pretty busy for a while! After that's done with, I'd love to work on another album myself, or maybe even get another band/project together. Who knows? There's so much to do!

Further Resources:
www.twitter.com/mathieusantos
www.myspace.com/rarariot
www.rarariot.com