Q&A: MT. LOW
FINDING A SPARK IN A LONE CHURCH IN THE MOJAVE DESERT - Brothers Matt and Will Ritson have a unique start to their project MT. LOW. Their trip to the church inspired the duo to pursue a series of creative elements, including a photo series of their journey (published via Ignant) as well as their latest mixtape Lost of Love . Their upcoming project was created with the brothers apart, never working in the studio together. Their individualized creative process forms a personal foundation for MT. LOW and Lost of Love. Check out their new mixtape and read below to learn more about the project, their upcoming plans and more.
LUNA: How different do you think the mixtape would be had you guys been together in the studio rather than apart?
WILL: I think we would have been more precious about the choices we were making. Maybe its easier to be openly critical with time and space between each other too.
MATT: I think there would have been a greater attempt at making the quality of each track more hi-fi, replacing some of the found sounds with higher quality recordings. It's easier to be less precious about those things when we're apart.
LUNA: Are there any common themes or narratives explored in Lost of Love?
WILL: A lot of the themes are based on genuine experiences we had while in the desert. Events, people and landscapes that we discovered.
MATT: I think Will writes a lot of lyrics about the experiences of being lost, physically and emotionally. Musically I was going off of really simple ideas and not making things very complicated.
LUNA: Can you share a lesson you learned during the creative process for this project?
WILL: Be patient with yourself.
MATT: You can use anything around you to make music, don't overlook whats right in front of you
LUNA: What do you want people to take away from the your music?
WILL: I hope that people listen and enjoy it, maybe they will hear a bit of our journey in there too.
MATT: I want people to hear the music and understand it as the result of a unique way of working. How two disparate practices and methods can make a final song.
LUNA: You’ve got a really unique visual side - can you talk a bit more about your influences and references?
WILL: Like with everything we've done so far we've just used what we had available around us to be creative, thats been our biggest influence.
MATT: A lot of the visuals are cut up with phone footage so I think the biggest influence is the technology that I'm carrying around with me everyday.
LUNA: What can we expect in some upcoming visuals?
WILL: Guitar solos.
MATT: Floating basketballs and slow panning camerawork.
LUNA: How have your other creative interests and pursuits shaped your music sonically?
WILL: I really enjoy writing and I think that has fed a lot into how I structure the lyrics of our songs.
MATT: I've always been interested in choral and orchestral music, so I definitely took the time to explore that. Strings and noise sound great together.
LUNA: Are there any other mediums you’d like to further tap into through MT. LOW?
WILL: Probably more photography, definitely more design and potentially some kind of live experience.
MATT: I think at some point we'd like to create a live performance that would be centered around lighting.
LUNA: Big question so take it however you like - what intentions do you have for the rest of 2020? What do you hope it’ll bring you?
WILL: More music, more good vibes.
MATT: I want to put as much music out there as we can. It seems like a good year to be experimenting.
