Q&A: Matty Embraces the Joys of Love and Lighthearted Pop With New Album ‘POPS’
IT’S AS HONEST AS IT GETS — As a founding member of the acclaimed jazz band BADBADNOTGOOD, sought-after producer and versatile solo artist Matty (aka Matthew Tavares) has undoubtedly left a significant mark across the music industry. Since launching his solo career in 2018, he has navigated a diverse sonic landscape, from the pop-infused energy of his debut record, Dejavu, to the experimental instrumental textures of Arkive.
Matty's upcoming album, POPS, dropping on Aug. 16, leads listeners on a sun-drenched journey through lighthearted indie-pop, brimming with catchy guitar melodies that evoke images of carefree beach days or tender slow dances. With a soundscape spanning from classic blues to vibrant ’80s influences, the record showcases Matty's versatility while weaving the red thread of joyfully honest love throughout.
The musician captivates with his emotive piano melodies, delivering both intimate, introspective moments and infectious, dance-worthy psychedelic pop tracks. POPS, marked by its straightforward yet deeply personal lyrics, weaves a tapestry of love’s lightheartedness and raw honesty.
"I try to do stuff as resistance-free as possible and just go with what feels good," Matty shares, emphasizing his dislike for hustle-culture and his belief in letting creativity flow naturally.
In this conversation with Luna, he reveals how inspiration strikes from unexpected places like the soundtrack of Grease, and discusses his easygoing approach to making music. Read the interview below.
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. Your upcoming record, POPS, sounds like the ultimate dreamy summer album to me. Was it a conscious decision to release the record during summertime?
MATTY: No, not really. I don't sit down and say, “Here's the master plan.” But the timing worked out that it came out in the summer. I don't feel in control of what comes through when I'm writing stuff. It just very much feels like following my intuition. There's no conscious effort to be like, “I'm going to make a summertime smash record.” I genuinely didn't expect it to be so poppy, but I was just following what sounded interesting to me, and then it happened. But yeah, it's worked out awesome, and I'm glad it's coming out in August!
LUNA: Many songs from the album, such as “Boyfriend” and “AROUND THE WORLD,” made their way onto my summer playlist after just one listen. Do you think there's a particular formula or secret to creating a “song of the summer”?
MATTY: To be honest, I wasn't really thinking about summer when making the record, I was more thinking about love. I don't know what makes a great summer song, you know? I don't think anyone does. Otherwise, everyone would be writing amazing summer songs (laughs).
I think you just get lucky, right? I mean, I'm sure there's a way to make something sound summery, but to make it truly like an inspired thing that's real, I don't know if you can force that just with some chords or lyrics.
LUNA: Given your widespread experience, working across various music genres, where did you draw your inspiration for this record specifically? Do you find that your inspiration typically comes from external sources, such as other artists and current trends, or your internal world?
MATTY: I feel like it's mostly personal at this point. I got into weird music really early, because I grew up with the internet. I was on forums listening to every weird record and every band, reading Wire Magazine and stuff. I loved music with so much of my identity and I listened to it constantly. But now in the past four or five years, I feel like I don't listen to music very much anymore, while still keeping my finger on the pulse, of course.
It used to be very much like, “Wow, what this other person’s doing sounds so inspiring, I want to try to do that in my own way,” and now I don't give a shit if what I make sounds like something else or myself or whatever. And what I make is not always going to be some crazy jazz music or something “difficult.” But making this record actually felt a lot more dangerous and harder for me to make than something weird or avant-garde sounding.
LUNA: Yeah, I can imagine. Love is such a common theme in pop music but love in itself is such a vulnerable and personal emotion.
MATTY: Yeah, absolutely. It’s so straightforward. To me, love is kind of like the hero myth of music. I feel like a love song is kind of the most classic thing of a popular song. It's like The Beatles songs – they don't have to have a story. It's just love, right? I really wanted to make a record like that.
LUNA: I appreciate how your listeners can follow your personal journey through your albums. Your previous record delved into mental health and other vulnerable emotions, while this one feels a lot lighter — honest, upbeat, and incredibly enjoyable. Can you describe the process of creating this record and the emotions you experienced throughout? Did it feel cathartic to you?
MATTY: Oh, for sure, yeah it really did! I started making a bunch of stuff that was really weird, kind of weird jazz. But it just felt boring and not real. It didn't feel like real art; it didn't feel enjoyable. And then my friend Kaan [Güneşberk], who I've previously done a lot of pop stuff with, came over and we were listening to that song “Freaks” by Surf Curse. And I was like, “This feels great — I love it!” Then we wrote the song “Boyfriend” just for fun in about an hour. I just wanted to make a song that's a blast to sing and play. And when I listened to it, I thought, “Oh, this is sick! I want to do this. I want to make a record like this.”
Of course, I can't control whether 10 other songs like that could come out, but thankfully it worked out that way. And it was very smooth and easy. I did the whole record in, like, three weeks. I wanted to make something that truly anyone could put on. And I did it pretty much all by myself, minus “Boyfriend.”
LUNA: Throughout the album, I noticed a strong sense of nostalgia, like The Beach Boys–inspired vibes in the track “COOL.” What inspired you to explore this direction?
MATTY: With “COOL,” specifically, that to me is almost like ’50s music, even before The Beach Boys, maybe really early Beach Boys. When making it, I was just thinking, “When was the last time someone made a blues [song]?” There’s got to be, like, a billion songs written over a blues sound form and all of them are max ’80s and before, right? It just feels like it's been so long, and the blues is such an amazing form.
I was listening to the Grease soundtrack for some reason, and I thought there's something so fresh about it in this funny way because it feels so not like the nostalgia that people are tapping into now. I think now the ’90s, almost the 2000s, are the kind of vibe of the “mainstream nostalgia.” So I just thought, “When was the last time somebody did early ’50s music?”
So I just started trying to write a blues song. Of course while still making it fit on the record production-wise, but it has all the tropes of the most classic elements of popular American music.
LUNA: “COOL” is such a fun track, and one of my favorites! Do you have a favorite one, or one you’re especially excited to share?
MATTY: Probably “Boyfriend.” I think just because it was the first track I wrote for the album. It’s just what it is — just a love song with a catchy melody. I just like that song a lot, and the music video for it's going to be really good.
LUNA: Can’t wait to watch it! Two of the released songs already have accompanying music videos, including “FOOL 4 U,” which was filmed by your wife, Amanda. Can you tell us more about the inspiration and story behind this music video?
MATTY: Honestly, I feel like with everything, I try to do stuff as resistance-free as possible and just go with what feels good. For the video for “FOOL 4 U” my wife, Amanda was like, “Let's fucking film it on iPhone with a gimbal.” So we just filmed it in two hours, she edited it, and I think it looks awesome. We were just trying to capture something with some personality. We went to the place where we walk our dog and filmed for a couple of hours — just keeping things as effortless as possible.
At the time, I was kind of getting bored of music videos that had budgets and looked a certain way. I wanted it to be me, just singing. And if that's boring or lame or cringy to someone, then that's fine. And of course, it's just so nice doing stuff with my wife, because we just hang out all the time, obviously.
LUNA: It seems like you carried over the easygoing and effortless approach you mentioned earlier into your music video production as well.
MATTY: Yeah, absolutely, I just like that vibe for everything in life. It doesn't have to be so complicated all the time.
LUNA: Yeah, I totally agree. It’s very refreshing to hear about your creative approach to making music. We've already touched on it a few times during this interview, but I'd love to dive deeper. I came across a post on your Instagram where you advised other creatives to avoid making things just for the sake of productivity, and mentioned that forcing inspiration is impossible. This approach really resonated with me, and I’m wondering if your view on this has changed in any way since then.
MATTY: I would say it's even more lax now than ever. It just feels a bit like grandiosity to think you can control the creative process to produce something good. No one has that power. Inspiration is spiritual. It’s totally out of your hands and the best view is to relax and not force it. When you force things, often the energy returns in a negative way.
LUNA: That was already a lot of good advice, but I was wondering if aside from this, you have one more piece of advice for the creatives reading Luna.
MATTY: I think the thing I've really been thinking about recently is being in touch with my humanity. Because people are often putting unrealistic expectations and ideals on themselves, you know? Like having perfect motivation and perfect productivity and for their output to be amazing every time. But in the end, we’re all just human beings. And the gift of being human is that you're going to make mistakes, and you're going to falter, and things are going to go right, and things are going to go wrong. I’ve really been tapping into that idea of realizing It's not so serious.
LUNA: Thank you! As we wrap up the interview, I'd love to hear about what's next for you, both in your life and career.
MATTY: I mean, my wife's pregnant, which is really exciting. It’s also probably the reason why I named the album POPS. So yeah, that's the next era. Other than that, there isn’t much of a plan. I’ll just try to follow what feels right and what inspires me — we’ll see what happens!
