Matt Emery - Interview

Matt Emery, of Stagecoach fame, has released 2 solo albums under the artist name MRE, entitled Music is an Emotion (2003) and I am the Matreya Force (2005). As well as his MRE project he is currently writing and producing music for audio cd’s. He has a new album out TODAY, worldwide, titled Elysian Fields, which can be purchased and downloaded from his website www.mattemerymusic.com, and also from Itunes.Amazon mp3's.Rhapsody.Emusic.Lala.Shocksound.Groupie Tunes and Amie Street. It is a very worthy purchase and a wonderful addition to the music arena of today. Matt took some time out to let us know a little about himself… (My interjections in parenthesis) First of all could you introduce yourself for our viewers who are unfortunate not to have heard your name or music, be it as MRE or Stagecoach! Hello! My name is Matt Emery. I’m a musician from just outside of London, a small town called Dorking, and I write very ambient, atmospheric music with classical touches. Music is an Emotion’(2003) and I am the Matreya Force (2005) have both been out for a while now. How well were they received and what have you been doing since I am the Matreya Force? They were albums that I recorded when I was around 17, 18. They didn’t get a proper digital release, they were just albums that I had finished. There were a very limited amount of copies that I printed up but they unfortunately are not available anymore. Since then I have been working hard. I wrote a soundtrack for a book called The Sacred Quest, which is available to buy now, out on the Ether Media Group. I have also been writing for small companies and soundtracks to lots of different things. Apart from that I have been writing my Elysian Fields on the side, which is available on Monday 19th January '09.  [TODAY] The Sacred Quest, a book about spiritual awakening and intuition by Louise E Langley. This book reminds me of the Celestine Prophecy series by James Redfield. Do you feel life should be more about intuition and synchronicity and do you believe such esoteric wisdom and consciousness can unite the world? Do you follow such practices yourself? Definitely. Throughout my background I have always been taught to follow my intuition. It was the way I was always brought up. It is hard to always follow it, but that is what The Sacred Quest is all about, following your intuition and following your inner voice. You are a member of an awesome band called Stagecoach. How did the band start and what inspired you to create solo path away from the band? The band actually started with Luke and Nick. They had been going for two years before I joined. How I actually came to be in the band was that I did an acoustic gig with them, at Dorking Halls Rock Festival, and through that they asked me to come and perform with them at a local show in Surrey. They didn’t have a drummer at that point, so I just happened to mention that I played drums, and the rest is history really. Your music is enthused with concepts of ancient mythology, spiritualism and religious dogma, as such. From where has your interest developed concerning such knowledge and what earthly philosophies do you hold dear? I suppose it was through doing History at school when I was six or seven, learning about ancient Greek mythology, I’ve just loved it ever since. It is something that I have never properly studied but the stories and all of the different gods fascinate me. The stories are so picturesque that they are the kind of stories that inspire and that you can write music about. And so Elysian Fields was born. What are you hopes for the release of Elysian Fields? Just to get my name out there more. I’m not performing it live at the moment but, hopefully, I have got plans to turn it into a bit of a live show by the end of 2009, and I hope it will just start to pick up reviews then. You know, I think if people get to hear it, it is something different. In a bit of a genre all of its own I feel. What other influences have inspired you to write, and when did you begin to be involved in music? Well, the drums were the first instrument I learnt when I was six and from there I think my next step was vocals. My favourite thing to do is sing. And also piano, guitar and bass are other instruments I have learnt over the past couple of years, self-taught. Song writing is something that I just love doing and it has all just come together really. (Come to think of it, I heard you were in a choir?) Yeah! I was in a quire when I was six, how did you know that? *Laughs. Have you always wished to be a musician or was there one special moment along your life’s journey when you thought ‘I wish for that to be my tomorrow’? *Restraining from laughing* Yeah, ever since I can remember really. The only reason I joined the choir when I was six was that I like singing, it wasn’t really the Christianity aspect of it. But yeah, ever since I can remember I have always wanted to be a musician, it’s what I have always wanted to do. You state on your myspace page your music sounds like “The sweet lullaby your mum used to sing to get you to sleep”. Where did the inspiration for this quote derive? You just see those films like, for example, Mary Poppins, not saying that Mary Poppins is the inspiration, but musicals like it. You see these beautiful women singing these beautiful songs sending their children to sleep, and it is just taking it from that because my music is kind of chilled. When you listen back at your songs, how do you feel and are they as good as you hoped that they would be in regard to how you held the thought of them in your mind. Or do you just write and feel how the next interlude should fall? When I write, like with Elysian Fields, I don’t pre-write anything, I literally wrote it on the spot. There was no structure or even ideas. I would jam or write a riff on the piano and I would just write from there. A lot of it I didn’t even write to a click. (It is more from the heart, I feel, writing that way) Yeah! Exactly. What is your all time favourite song? Ooohhhh! I would have to say it is either, this is quite different to my music but, Be Quiet And Drive by the Deftones (click me) (be sure to check out Matt’s cover of this song - click me), or something that is similar to the things that I write, On The Nature Of Daylight by Max Richter (click me). It is really good, a little classical piece. What was the most incredible gig you have ever played, and what made it so? The most incredible gig by far, by an absolute yard mile, was the first time I played in Paris, with Stagecoach, and we played at the place called the Fleche D'or. I don’t know how many people were there, probably only about four or five hundred, but it was just an electric gig. All of us were on fire and, just playing to four or five hundred people you don’t know and them going crazy over it is the nicest feeling. Being in another country and for them to do that was incredible. Are there any bad gig experiences you wish to share or do you blot them out to save yourself the pain, or embarrassment? Yeah, I can remember when I had my first gig, just myself and a friend called Kev, we gig together quite a lot and this gig was at the Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdom, this is going back quite a few years. We had some A&R people down but I lost my voice that morning. We decided to go through with the gig and we got on stage but there were parts of the songs that I just couldn’t get the notes out for, and I was there, petrified on stage basically, that I couldn’t hit any notes. As the fourohfive is also a film and art review site, what genre of film do you enjoy to view and what is your favourite film, director or actor? I love a good comedy, but I’d say my favourite film is The Last Samurai directed by Edward Zwick. I love films with ‘the honour’ sort of theme. Are there any particular artists, from painters to photographers, that you hold a keen interest in? There is no one who sticks out in my mind. Actually, I’ll tell you who. An artist I really love is a girl called Rosie Apps. She is a local girl, but her artwork is amazing. Everyone should check out her art. It is really unique. (Check her art out here) Many of us are privy to random events in our lives, what is the most random or incredible thing that has happened to you? The most random thing was when I met a guy called Sir Vernon Handley. I met him twice. The first time I met him I was on the train, and he asked me “what’s the deal” and I told him I was on my way to Music College and he told me he was a musician as well, “I conduct”. And he started showing me all the scores and we had this big conversation about music. I went home and google’d him and I didn’t realise just who he was at the time, and he was this absolutely massive figure in the classical world. He gave me his home address and his phone numbers and said, “Just get in contact”. The nicest guy I think I have ever met. The following year he actually won the classical lifetime achievement award. He’d phone me up and I would send him my stuff, all of that just from meeting someone on a train. And yeah, it was quite random. Unfortunately he has sadly passed away now. If you could be any place on this planet, doing anything you wish to do, what would be happening at this very moment? I’d probably be back in France eating Moules and frites In a time of global recession, conflict and destruction (just to bring the mood down a little), do you think that the ‘people of the world’s’ love will overcome the power struggle our governments have bestowed upon us, bringing us into a more libertarian, free and peaceful world? Ahhhh. That is a hard question. I would love to think so. I think a big change is obviously Barack Obama taking over in the USA. I won’t go into it too much but I think that it is a very good thing and I think everyone is feeling so positive about it not only in the USA but in other countries, and that can only be a good thing and lift peoples spirits. (Lets hope he can deliver, and not be pulled apart by the CFR and their agenda) Yeah! Fingers crossed. Finally! If there was one thought that you could leave to linger upon the periphery of our minds, what might that one thought be? I would say… Walking through a cornfield with your hands sweeping through the corn, like in The Gladiator movie when he is going off to heaven. That’s a lovely picture… (A walk through Elysian Fields) Hhah, yeah, exactly. Elysian Fields (OUT TODAY)… We thank Matt so very kindly for his insight and thoughts on life, good luck with the new album. The Fourohfive… You can find out more about Matt on his website and Myspace www.mattemerymusic.com/ www.myspace.com/mattemerymusic And Stagecoach www.myspace.com/stagecoachuk