Familiar face
Aug 5, 2009 |
Tue
Aug
17
If you haven’t heard of singer-songwriter Matt Costa yet, you’re about to. Well, technically, you just did. But trust us when we say that this skinny indie rocker is well on his way to becoming a household name. As Costa was prepping for a mini-tour of the Islands–he’s opening for No Doubt in Honolulu next week, then has a string of solo shows planned on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island–he took time to lie down under a desk in the studio where he’s working to have a phone chat with the Weekly about pizza, philosophy and, of course, music.
What’s your first musical memory?
Oh man, I think it was probably hearing my uncle singing some Allman Brothers song or something like that. He was always playing that kind of stuff around us when I was a kid, so, yeah, it was probably him playing some sort of ’70s long-haired rock.
Is your family quite musical?
No. Well, actually, my father and my mother are not musical but my grandfather was and he played in a country band and his wife, my grandma, had a radio show that she did for a short time, so they always had musicians over at their house.
What instruments do you play now?
I play the kazoo and I play the wine glass, you know, you put your finger on there–
That’s a good party trick.
Yeah, it’s good because it creates a kind of eerie sound and if you’re making eerie sounds, you want to turn off the lights and create some, you know, atmosphere.
But scary atmosphere?
Right. Some scary atmosphere. So what you do is you pour your date some wine and then turn off the lights and start making the glass squeal and if she, or in your case he, if he or she stays around then you, um, well then you guys should start a band.
That’s good [laughter]. And of course you play the guitar, too.
Yes. Basically guitar, piano, harmonica. Oh, and the autoharp.
Funny. I was just talking to someone about the autoharp last week.
It’s from the Appalachain Mountains. Those guys who play it there are really good. I just kind of fake it.
Any instruments you’d like to pick up that you haven’t yet dabbled with?
Yeah, let’s see, the other day I was messing around with a theremin.
I don’t think I know what that is.
It was the first electronic instrument. It consists of two rods–it’s one rod that’s like a horseshoe and the other one is like an antenna for your car and then there’s the distance of your hand between each of the metal objects (one is tone and the other is volume). It was used in a lot of ’50s sci-fi, you know, like [makes whistling UFO noise]. So it kind of sounds like that. The Beach Boys made it famous.
That was pretty good. It seems that you’re into spooky sounds at this particular moment.
Yeah! [Laughter] Maybe I could start there, you know, get a job making the sounds for haunted houses.
Always looking for opportunities. Like how you became more serious about music after a skateboarding accident?
Yeah, a lot of times things like that are catalysts for other things. I’ve been involved in music my whole life and I always wanted to make sounds. And it just gave me the chance to organize it a bit. Slow down and be able to, you know, focus on it. Since I couldn’t move my legs, I had to move my arms and voice. So that’s what I did, kind of like Frida Kahlo, only not as cool.
Tell me about the process you go through with songwriting.
Basically it depends on what I’m writing. It’s mostly based on, well–you can only judge your perspective on life through your past experience and so I think the goal in art or music or writing or painting or anything like that is that, when someone looks at it, they see these symbols that mean something to them. Those symbols could then mean something else to the person who created the thing and I think those symbols are what inspire me. I guess it’s an existentialist path.
You’re drawn to these symbols and you follow them and you don’t know where they’re going to lead you, but every time you discover one it triggers some sort of whatever in your brain to take you back to someplace, or maybe just a combination of ideas. It’s crazy, you know, your brain automatically does this. You don’t even think about it, how you associate symbols with feelings and ideas. It’s as simple as driving down the street and you see a crosswalk sign and it’s just a picture of a man who’s walking–and it’s not even a man, you’re just taught that it’s supposed to look like a man–so you could write a song about the stick man who crosses the street and he’s on the white bridge, and you think about the white bridge and what’s under the bridge and the steep crevice that might lead down from it and you keep thinking, you know, just little every day things. I’m sorry, that was retarded. [laughs] And food too. Food is inspiring.
So what’s your favorite food?
Let’s see. Umm. Favorite food.
That’s kind of a ridiculously general and random question, isn’t it?
No, no. I’ll tell you. The first time I answered that question when I was a little kid, I said pizza and ice cream. But I would say now that my palate has expanded, probably just ice cream.
I notice that in the main photo of you on your Web site, it’s a series of photos of you eating.
Ah, yes. That was an omelette. If you notice, my favorite part about that is that there are two mysterious shadows in the background. Two people and one of them is sitting down and then stands up and they embrace.
What are you listening to these days?
On the car ride here, I was listening to Mazzy Star.
Haven’t heard that name in a while.
I know. They’re cool. I was listening to them this morning. I was listening to the Electric Prunes last night. They’re a ’60s psychedelic garage band. Or have you ever heard of the 13th Floor Elevators? They’re cool. Like if you did acid and you had four guys together with a bunch of instruments [laughs], that’s probably what you would come up with.
What advice might you have for aspiring musicians?
Oh yeah. I would say, hang on to your ego. That’s a Beach Boys line.
Another Beach Boys reference.
I was listening to them earlier, I don’t know why. Since I’m in the studio right now, actually, I am trying to figure out how some of their guitar sounds and vocal sounds work, so I’ve been listening to them.
Anything you’d like to add?
Yes, there is. I would like to say that I look forward to seeing whoever can make it out to shows in Hawaii.
