Thank you very much for your time! Before we introduce your new release to our readers – what kind of drink would you recommend to zip on while they listen to your new music?
Red wine definitely
Please give us an update about – new single, new album, tour dates, new videos?!
My latest single “Close Your Eyes”, an uptempo synth-pop track, was released last month with a music video that we filmed at a historic Victorian mansion in Vancouver. I have an EP as well coming out next month which will have two new songs on it as well as a new music video released alongside it. I will have a full-length album some time after that. Lots of music coming soon!
We live in times of many conspiracy theories. Which, harmless, theory would you wish were true? (For example Dinos living inside Earth or E.T. living in a home in California)
That aliens exist but they’re totally friendly and we’re just not ready to join them yet as an intergalactic civilization.
What fashion style or brand would best describe your music?
I would say fashionable smart casual is my style. I like clothing with some structure to it, collared shirts, neat pockets, straight lines, but that is also fashion-forward and bold, and I think that is reflected in my music—it’s very angular melodically, with a clear pop structure, I count the syllables in each line to make sure the next one is perfectly mirrored.
Tell us more about your songs! Topics! Message!?
My songs are all extremely personal and each one tells a part of what makes me me. I rarely set out to write a ‘type’ of song; rather I get inspired by a melody or chord progression and something naturally comes out. I find that most of them deal with coming to terms with something tragic or heartbreaking in my life, there’s an underlying melancholy but also a glimmer of hope.
Beside music, do you have any special talents?
I can walk on a giant ball like they do in circuses! I learned how to do it as a child when I went to a circus summer camp thing.
Name 5 things we all should know about you as an artist?!
1) I make melancholic, alternative-leaning synth-pop that combines disparate influences from Tears for Fears to Pet Shop Boys to The Killers
2) I’m tri-national: British, Peruvian, and based in Canada for the last 10+ years
3) My lyrics are deeply personal and autobiographical
4) I’m proudly openly gay and part of my mission statement as an artist is to positively represent that community
5) I want my music and shows to be a safe space where people can fully express themselves and their individuality
How did you learn to sing/ to write/ to play??
I started singing when I was six years old in my school’s choir and also learnt to play piano, but I would not consider myself a classically trained musician, instead I operate by instinct and have learnt how to write songs and produce by DIY trial and error over the years.
A question you’d like to answer, but never been asked in an interview before?! + Answer pls
“If you could write a soundtrack song for an upcoming movie, which one would it be?” ‘Paddington in Peru’ because Paddington Bear is as far as I know the only British-Peruvian ‘thing’ in pop culture, and I’m British-Peruvian! It’s a very rare combo, there’s got to be only a few thousand of us at most. It would make total sense. And I think I could write a killer song about feeling like you belong to two worlds and rediscovering your origins. So, StudioCanal, call me!
Instagram: @matiasroden