Matter [Interview]

From his home in Melbourne, Matty Doyle's success under his Matter soubriquet has seen an exponential rise over a career that spans more than a decade and some 400 production credits. Now returning to his spiritual home and the label he curates with his fellow countryman and production partner, Matter delivers 'We Are Here'. An artist with no inconsiderable talent and a wealth of high-profile releases on Anjunadeep, Balance Music, BeatFreak and Proton Music, Matter's output on Meanwhile has also been prolific with such glittering solo gems as 'Amanita', 'Banksia' and a quartet of collaborative releases with GMJ since 2020 including: 'Lost on Origin', 'Eldarin' and December 2023's 'Stellaris / Idtritah'. Now, after the success of November 2021's 'Starchild' on Meanwhile Horizons – achieving over 1 million Spotify streams – Matter returns to the flagship label with another magnificent magnum opus.

Progressive Astronaut caught up with Matty to learn more about the release of 'We Are Here', 2024 highlights, growing up in Australia, DJing, and much more. Enjoy.

Hi Matty, thanks for talking to us today. Now that we’ve reached the end of the year, how has 2024 been for you?

Hey Mitch! Thanks so much for having me. 2024’s been a wild ride, honestly. It’s been a year of huge growth, change, challenges, but also triumphs! There have been some massive gigs, but also a lot of time spent behind the scenes working on new music and taking stock of where I’m at creatively and inspirationally.

Let’s look back on the year, what gig of yours has stood out the most and why?

There were so many gigs this year, but a few really stand out ones - At the start of the year, GMJ and I played in Sri Lanka for a crew named ‘Tell Her You Love Her’. Mike Rish, Olga Misty and Juan Ibanez also came over for this one and we had such a brilliant time playing for a very energetic crowd and hanging in paradise and swimming with giant Turtles in the ocean. Other standouts were our multiple trips to Europe with gigs in Amsterdam, both in and out of ADE including showcases with both Solis and Vapour Recordings, New Zealand and Scotland at the infamous Skyline for the Sudbeat showcase. These were all top notch and the crowd all brought their best vibes! Local gigs saw us supporting some big names such as Guy J, Ezequiel Arias and Hernan Cattaneo.

Now let’s look at tracks, what is a track or tracks which have come out this year that has impressed you the most and why?

Oh this is such a hard question to answer, truly. There’s a few tracks that kept coming up in our sets and always really worked on the dancefloor: Sam Scheme - Fest, Tonaco - Holosteric, Mike Griego - Placebo… these are of course shameless plugs as tracks that came out on Meanwhile earlier this year.

Artists that keep impressing me time and time again are Guy J, Mike Rish, Gai Barone, Alex O’Rion, GMJ, Navar (the list goes on and on) all of these guys bring that emotional depth to music, and have that perfect blend of dreamy, atmospheric, and yet still have enough drive for the dancefloor.

What is a song/track you’ve never stopped listening to since childhood? And why has it stuck with you this long?

Can I be super cheesy here and say anything by Tears for Fears? I absolutely LOVE this 80s nostalgia sound that has been on rotation for me for my whole life. I guess that sense of nostalgia and carefree emotion, reflecting a much simpler time, is why it’s stuck with me all these years.

Moving beyond the cheese into something more electronic and something that still inspires me today, I think it’s hard to go past Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy. I remember hearing this on Video hits (Australia’s MTV equivalent) as a young lad and going “yep, this is what music should be” - It’s still shockingly good.

Progressive music is well known for being hugely popular in Australia and it has been for around 2 decades at this point. You’ve lived through the majority of it, so how has the sound and scene there changed over the years?

When I started clubbing in my early 20s I was living in London so I really cut my teeth at venues like Turnmills, The Cross, The End and Ministry of Sound. These were my weekly pilgrimage - a lot of trance and house gigs, but also plenty of progressive sound in between, although the BPMs were a fair bit faster back then. When I returned home to Australia, I caught up with the thriving progressive scene here with amazing parties like Sunny and then later on Rainbow Serpent. Over the years progressive has really found its place in more festivals and events locally and it has been amazing to see the huge following of artists such as Nick, Hernan and Guy, as well as the long list of local Australian exports!

How did growing up there shape you as a producer and DJ? And who from Australia did you gain inspiration from early in your career and why?

Growing up in Melbourne, I was surrounded by a lot of incredible music culture. There was a lot of exposure to underground dance music, but also a rich live music scene, which definitely shaped my approach to both writing and performing my music. As for early inspirations, guys like Danny Bonnici, Kasey Taylor, Phil K and even Jaytech had an impact on me. As I started to write more music, without a doubt my biggest inspiration was Funkform. I recall listening to his music repeatedly wondering how I could also one day produce that deep but atmospheric and chunky sound that was always so translatable to a dance floor. Fast forward to today and we’re great friends that often get in the studio together!

You’ve been a producer and DJ dating back close to 15 years I believe, when you look back on those earlier years can you pinpoint pivotal moments to the success you’ve achieved today? Maybe a gig or two, or a release which really helped your propel career?

Absolutely. I think the moment when my music career really started to take off was around 2015. I recall fondly Nick Warren and Hernan Cattaneo playing some of my early tunes, playing them to large crowds with great reactions. Also, around that time, I landed my first festival slot at Rainbow Serpent. It was opening night on the Market stage, arguably one of the best dance floors in the world. I had the honour of playing the first 4 to the floor beats for the festival at sunset to an absolutely stacked crowd of thousands. Playing my own music to so many people and seeing them go so wild was a drug that I needed to have more of, and subsequently chased since then! That was the first moment I felt like I was making a proper impact with my music.

Your new album ‘We are Here’ was just released via yours and GMJ’s Meanwhile imprint, this would have to be considered a highlight across your 2024 schedule, so please tell us how the album began to take shape and how long the recordings process was, and why slotting it in during the final month of year was a good spot to unveil it.

I’m so pleased to present my second full length feature album. It’s really a natural evolution from my first album ‘Starchild’. The collection of music really is a reflection of me at different times over the last few years. When I hear the tracks they take me to an emotional time and place of when I wrote them. Scheduling this as our final release on Meanwhile is an honour for me as we always save something special for this time of year. :)

Was there an initial goal of writing an album or did this happen organically in a way?

It definitely happened organically. I didn’t go into the studio thinking, “I’m going to write an album.” Often, as I sit down to write dancefloor tracks, my creative mood that day sends me down a more melodic or chilled path. I love those outcomes, and still want to release these songs that would never really suit an EP or a single release on our label or other labels. It started with a few tracks here and there, and before I knew it, I had a cohesive body of work that I felt was worth putting out as a full album. Sometimes that’s the best way, I think - let the collection of music come naturally, instead of forcing it.

It’s quite an expansive listen, with 11 tracks that cover a spectrum of moods and genres, from home listening to dancefloor minded material. Please tell us about the album from your point of view and what the end goal was during the recording process.

The album itself is a journey through different emotional spaces. Some tracks are designed to be more reflective and meditative, while others are straight up and more for the dance floor. The idea was to create a varied collection that you could listen to at different times and in different moods, maybe relaxing at home, partying with friends or on a long drive. I wanted to make something that reflected the full spectrum of my creative range, and I think I achieved that with this one. I’m also feeling very lucky to have the opportunity to feature my two very good friends and musical legends GMJ and Alex O’rion on two of the tracks. We have a special connection so having them on the album felt like the right energetic thing to do.

We’re curious which tracks from the album have been getting play at your gigs? And how do they fit in your style and programming?

So far, “Elsewhere” and “The Passage” have been making their way into my sets regularly. They have that perfect balance of energy and emotion that I love to play out. They fit really well in my sets because they have that driving rhythm but also that dreaminess I love - so they work for those peak-time moments as well as those more introspective parts of the set. “Afterburn” has also been played a few times by Alex in his sets overseas to some great reactions.

As previously mentioned, it is a quite varied collection of music in that it is not a straightforward club album. Tell us why it was important for you to express your thoughts, ideas and feelings in this style of a long player.

The album wasn’t just about crafting tracks for the dancefloor, but about expressing myself in different ways. There’s a lot of vulnerability in some of the tracks, and I think that emotional depth is what others will connect with (at least I hope!). Music should be a reflection of where you’re at, and I didn’t want to limit myself to just one type of track or sound. It’s about taking people on a journey, and that journey isn’t always just high energy dancefloor tracks, although there are no shortage of those here too!

‘We are Here’ was recorded over the course of the last two years, so I’m curious what inspired such a swell of tracks like you’ve managed to achieve here? Were there any specific inspirations for the album, and what are your thoughts now looking back on it that’s done and released.

A lot of it came from just living life over the past year or so - feeling all the highs and lows that come with life, the natural ebb and flow of things, personal experiences, job changes, my life with my two sons and incredible wife (hi Bec!). I spend a lot of time reflecting on how music has the ability to heal and provide a space for people to escape. Looking back now, I’m super proud of the album, and I think the tracks reflect where I’ve been creatively and emotionally. It’s one of those projects I’ll always hold close to my heart and I look forward to listening back to this in 20 years as an older and wiser man knowing that I was really being true to myself and the sound I want to present as an artist.

Was there ever a consideration to release the album via an imprint other than Meanwhile? Perhaps Balance or Sudbeat with whom you’ve worked with in the past.

Definitely, that thought crossed my mind. The first one that crossed my mind was actually Balance, as we know they are one of the best in the business when it comes to curation and presentation of music in an LP style. However, GMJ and I were really committed to the vision of our very own Meanwhile for this one. It’s our imprint, and we’ve been building it up over the years and have started to showcase more music in LP form, such as Navar’s album Bloom earlier in the year which was released to critical acclaim. There’s just nothing like releasing your own music, on your own label. We’re in full control of the artistic direction, style, release, timings, promo etc., so it felt right to put the album out there.

How did you end up with the final track selection? And how difficult was it deciding on the flow from a listener’s perspective?

It was tricky! There were a few tracks that didn’t make it because the flow of things (energy, key) didn’t quite work. I like to approach the flow of an album almost like a DJ set. I want there to be a gentle introduction, some cheeky beats (breaks) followed by some soft 4 to the floor tunes and melodic numbers before reaching a blissed out middle followed by some stronger and more emotional tracks to close out. I went through a number of versions of track ordering and flow before landing on this final layout. I wanted to make sure that every track added something to the story that I was trying to tell - a story of connection and grounding. ‘We are here,’ after all, so let’s make the most of it! I really hope you enjoy this one.

'We Are Here' is available now via Meanwhile: https://tinyurl.com/bd7j8hwv