An Interview with Matt Moss
I’m a history student at Liverpool University, UK so that takes up a lot of my time, I also teach people to play the guitar which is pretty satisfying, but not as satisfying as writing music.
I’m having to think really hard about this. It might have been an Oasis album? Or it could have been Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, I think it was Oasis, Dylan came later.
I’ve had so many different phases of influence, when ever I discover new music it seems to spark something new in me when I’m writing songs. I’d have to say the band that made me want to pick up the guitar was Led Zeppelin; Jimmy Page is a brilliant guitarist. Zeppelin’s acoustic stuff like Hats off to Roy Harper, Bron Yr Aur and Battle of Evermore led me to folk music. I found Bob Dylan, he’s probably one of my biggest influences his lyric’s ability to create imagery are incredible. Neil Young too he’s in the same league as Dylan for me.
sound?
I’d be lost without my guitar I’m rarely parted from it. Software wise Steinberg’s Cubase 5 is what lets me capture everything I make.
The biggest challenge is getting it to the people who want to hear it – I’m on most of the major social networking sites. For a long time even my friends didn’t know I wrote music. But I found MySpace a few years ago and that changed things. But I think lately MySpace has been in decline so I’m trying to find new ways of making my music available. It’s a matter of the people who are passionate about music, discovering you I have to make it as easy as possible for them.
The most memorable place I ever played was a festival in Liverpool, my band played a set in the pouring rain, in front of maybe a dozen people but that didn’t matter it was probably the first time I enjoyed playing live.
or does it need to go?
I think the music industry as a whole is suffering from a lot of problems. The copyright system we have at the moment does need some reform. I think the Creative Commons license concept is great though. Things have to be fair, fair to the consumer and the musicians making the music.
I used to like art in high school and I often thought about studying art at college. I like creative writing too, short stories that sort of thing. So maybe I’d try those.
Ideally I’d like to be making music, whether it’s paying my bills or not isn’t really important at the moment. I’m studying for a degree so that’s my fall back.
Hmm. I guess if you’ve read this you’re interested in my music and who I am so thank you very much.
This interview was originally published on Matthew Moss’ blog, The Harmless Musician Type, which consists of Matt’s ramblings about music in general, and the local scene in particular. You can find the blog at theharmlessmusician.blogspot.com