Mat Sweet, aka Boduf Songs, has just released a new collection of morbid tunes via the Kranky label called ‘How Shadows Chase The Balance’- a fascinating un-light journey into a nightmarish world of dread, death and despair. Needless to say that Mat is no party animal!
The record is great for reasons I explain in my review over at Whisperin’ & Hollerin’.
I talked briefly Mat in February 2007 after a gig in Ravenna, Italy where he played support to the lovely Josephine Foster (reviewed at last f.m) .
The interview is part of a now longstanding personal project to write a book about the strange mutations of what is loosely branded as ‘Folk Music’ yet dwells in a kingdom apart from the homely traditions normally associated with that genre term.
Until such time as my magnum opus sees the light of day, it seems timely to publish Mat’s illuminating replies to my queries:
You have said that Boduf Songs is not folk music. What don’t you like about the ‘folk music’ label?
It’s not that I don’t like it particularly, it’s just that I don’t think that it’s massively appropriate – at the moment I think it’s in vogue to lump things into the genre of x-folk, freak or free or whatever and that’s fair enough – it’s a way for people to say that if you like this, you’ll like this and I recognise that but I don’t really see what I do and what other people do who get tarnished with that brush as folk – I think of folk as something specific and in my mind it’s to do with people like Bert Jansch or Pentangle and that kind of really traditional sound and bands that do traditional songs
Do you like those artists?
Yes, I do, I’ve got lots of time for that kind of stuff although I don’t listen to it a lot.
You mentioned the labels of freak & free folk – do you feel part of any movement of that type?
Not particularly. There’s plenty of people in that kind of thing that I like but it’s not that I feel a personal affinity with them.
What do you think of the label New Weird America?
I haven’t got a problem with it, I think it’s a little bit lazy but that’s the nature of music journalism.
I can see the links that are drawn between these bands but it doesn’t mean a lot to me personally. But I would say that the Tower Recordings were very influential on my first record and I couldn’t understand why they weren’t more popular. I still think that Furniture Music and some of those early records beat the shit out of so much stuff that’s going on now.
Absolutely, Matt Valentine is such a neglected artist in general.
Since Matt Valentine went his way and PG Six went his way – PG Six is the part of Tower – I saw him live and he was incredible. Matt Valentine seems a lot more wayward.
I’d be interested to know your comments on this quote from Jonathan Dean of ‘Brainwashed ‘ in July 2005 : “While The Wire’s David Keenan and his Volcanic Tongue distribution company wanks all over the newest CD-R of pointless, boring drone from some untalented, unshaven free-folk-noise outfit from the bowels of a nameless American suburb, a label like Blue Baby Recordings, right in his backyard, is completely ignored”
I thought he was very kind and I like the fact that it sounds angry too.
In the UK am I right in saying that Boduf Songs have never played in your home town of Southampton?
That’s right – with Boduf Songs never – just the Heavy Metal Blue Baby stuff.
From Heavy Metal to your songs – there’s such a massive difference – what happened?
I don’t think there’s such a big difference. In an interview I did recently, I said we were supposed to be a Heavy Metal band and I don’t know what went wrong. Both are very oppressive even though metal is louder – but it has got similarities with the stupid side of Metal. We’re trying to get across the same level of intensity and also there’s the ‘dark side’.
H.P Lovecraft seems to one of the key figures for you.
Yes – a big influence – it’s not as overt as a lot of horror literature is, it’s much more subtle and creates a mood and leaves you in it – gives a lot of insights into a strange things happening.
Would it too much to say that Boduf Songs are trying to recreate that literature in music, almost as if literature is a bigger influence than music? .
In some ways, yes. Because I tend to work on projects and I work on an album at a time – I don’t work on songs and then think, ok, I’ll put these together – so it a kind of literary way of doing it – the track list is very important to me – I don’t like the idea of the shuffle button – I still like the idea of concept albums.
So, H.P Lovecraft – has he got a lot of stuff about disease; because I’ve noticed that a lot of your songs refer to this?
Not so much – a lot of Lovecraft stuff is left very open- it simply that a lot of his details are vile and beyond description – everything is beyond words – he’ll be describing something like a bottle of water and say it’s the most incredibly unpleasant thing – and you’re thinking, it’s just a bottle of water! And also as a figure, he was very alienated and a lot his stories are about this alienation and misanthropy.
Do you regard yourself as a spiritual or religious person or do you go with the Lovecraft idea that life and death has no real meaning?
I pretty much go along with Lovecraft, although I totally acknowledge there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know about and I think there’s a bizarre way that things work. I have a lot more time with something like Buddhism than organised religion.
Do you ever write protest songs?
I’m sure I’m protesting against something – it depends how you define ‘protest’ – protesting against ……. fun, possibly? There have been a lot of tour jokes saying that to be with Boduf Songs you have to hate fun and love .
That’s a good quote to end on .
Thank you and goodnight.
