RFC Interview: Mat Kearney

Hailing from the misty wilds of Eugene, Oregon, Mat Kearney has been climbing the singer-songwriter circuit since the 2006 release of his sophomore album Nothing Left to Loose. Specializing in soulful lyrics and everything from power-pop to blues guitar to country ballads, Mat has toured with John Mayer and the Fray, as well as headlined their “You Oughta Know” tour in 2007. His songs have also been the background for the emotional indie music montages of 18 TV shows.

I got to grab Mat for a sit-down just after checking into his hotel, so instead of a shower and sleep, he got—

My brother lives in Eugene!

Oh, really? (laughs)

When I saw your bio proclaiming you were raised in Oregon by “hippie parents,” I cracked up.

Heh, that bio might be a little out of date.

Did you at some point stop being raised in Oregon?

Well. When I was 18. (laughs) No, no, I moved to California later for college, but, yes, my parents were hippy. Not full-on hippy, but, y’know, moderate hippy. Still hippy enough to be an earthy kind of family.

Has that had any influence on your music?

I’m sure it has. Just growing up in Eugene period. I mean, I’m told that in high school everyone was listening to N’Sync and Brittany—my high school it was Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, the Beatles. That’s what the “pop people” went for. I was so sick of everyone liking them it actually took me leaving to get me to even listen to them. Eugene’s a very artistic city; everyone’s exploring big ideas, and it isn’t about money or about those topics. People were really committed to something and I went to high school with their kids.

You came to music somewhat late, between junior and senior year of college. What prompted that?

Well, I don’t think there was a particular event… In high school, I was that kid with a terrible GPA, probably high most of the time. I didn’t really know where I was going or what I was good at. I started writing, and I knew I was good at it—I remember I wrote this poem and this teacher sat me down, and I was sure she was gonna lay into me about it. But she said, y’know, “You’re really good at this. You should do this.” And, you gotta know, no one had told me that about anything. So when I got into college—barely got into college—I went out for literature. But I would go to bed every night and spend hours listening to music, old jazz and blues records. My roommate had a guitar and I’d sit on the front porch trying to play other people’s songs, which I was so bad at I ended up just writing my own. (laughs) So that’s the literary influence, slipping into songs. That, and the front porch.

Front porches are responsible for a lot of creative epiphanies.

Oh, yeah. Me, and my front porch, and trains. I wrote “Won’t Back Down” sitting on my front porch, listening to the trains. And the other day I was on my new front porch, and I can still hear the trains. Not a pounding train, abrupt, but one of those half a mile away, echo-trains. It’s that reminder of “Wow. I really did start this journey!”

You’ve been all over the place—Eugene, Nashville, touring. Does location have an impact on your music?

Well, I’ll always have those Oregon roots at heart, but this journey to Nashville and the songwriting community there have been massively influential. There’s such a heritage of songwriters—Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson—the whole industry is about writing songs and it’s really good at it. That tradition of song boiled down to its most important essence is very important to me. I think you can start with a trend, something outside of that, and you feed a song into this image or idea or fashion statement or production—at the end of the day, I’m a singer songwriter. I love to explore sonic textures and musicality, and mess around with the sound, but at the core my heroes are people that sit down and write a song that really burns your heart.

You manage to produce songs that at the very least feel extremely personal—um, a lot of songs. Certain tracks I feel like I walked in on you naked—which is good! But slightly embarrassing. Are you actually putting yourself out there? Is this scary to do all the time? 

When you sit down and write a song, it’s an obligation. And it’s incredibly scary, but there are things that you most fear, that you tread lightly when you see them, and these are usually the most important subjects to explore. You have to find ways of maybe articulating them so people can understand… There could be a literal thing that’s a little too much, but you learn ways to use specific massively detailed moments and you give someone a picture they can use to access their own lives. Bringing people into very specific moments and hearing them say, “That totally happened to me. I know what you’re talking about” makes any vulnerability totally worth it.

Who do you write for? Yourself, a general audience, your friends…?

Sometimes both. I like to write for my friends—to sit down and write a song that’s radically intimate and I know when they hear it, they’ll tear up. If you download the iTunes version of City of Light and Dark, “Everyone I Know”—and I’m really starting to regret not putting it on the regular album—but anyway, I wrote that for my friends and there are lines in there that are 100% literal. That song happened; that’s real. I think the artistic response I’m supposed to say is “I write myself. If I was on a desert island, all I’d do is write and write and write!” But the communal aspect of music is a big part of my record. Shared experience— that’s why I do what I do. There are sing-along grandiose moments that are very intentional. I like being something bigger than me.

So we have five more days to wait til City of Black and White. Care to drop any hints? What should we be expecting? Or not, as the case may be.

I think that “Nothing Left to Lose” [the previous album], it was this journey out and away. It was getting in a truck and driving into the sunset. “City of Black and White” is very much the next chapter. I’ve landed in a community and invited in friends to join along. There’re songs about stuff you can only write about by sticking around, getting roots—heartbreak, loss, acceptance. It’s the opposite of my cowboy album. Then there’s the commitment to the live shows. I’ve done about 250 shows on the road, and that led to a quicker tempo. Where before I’d hold off at a 7, this go-round I wanted to push it to 8 or 9 and that really works for me. Decisive—it’s a very decisive album. It has this huge idea of tension. It’s a big record but very personal. It’s close to my heart.

"City of Black and White" comes out 5/19. Mat Kearney plays the Aragon Saturday night with Keane and Helio Sequence @ 6:30 PM, all ages.

Comments

[isis clothing]

I love to explore sonic textures and musicality, and mess around with the sound, but at the core my heroes are people that sit down and write a song that really burns your heart.

[Jaime Murray]

There are sing-along grandiose moments that are very intentional. I like being something bigger than me.GooD luck!

[ragazze ucraine]

Thanks for this post! The motivation to succeed comes from the burning desire to achieve a purpose.

[coach suitcase]

The motivation to succeed comes from the burning desire to achieve a purpose. Napoleon Hill wrote, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”