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You go from something like Lights of Endangered Species to Arrows of Desire to [ Chaotic Neutral ] – it could be three different bands if it wasn ’ t for the same voice .
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Matthew Good
It ’ s a stock question , but I have to ask where the title of Matthew Good ’ s seventh solo record , Chaotic Neutral , actually came from . “ It ’ s a alignment from Dungeons and Dragons ,” Good says , laughing . “ Chaotic neutrals are people who are unpredictable and usually personal freedom is their big thing .” That ’ s fitting , given that , over his career , Good has garnered a reputation as an outspoken artist , blogger , and public speaker about personal freedom , politics , and human rights in general .
This time out , he says he found a certain amount of freedom in the process of making the album , saying that he found it liberating to just “ be the artist on this thing .”
In other words , he laid back a bit , trusting the performers working on the record – among them Holly McNarland , Bones Hillman of Midnight Oil , Blake Manning , Anthony Wright , Stu Cameron and Sam Goldberg Jr . of Broken Social Scene , and longtime producer Warne Livesey – to create the recordings he wanted . “ We ’ d be doing beds and Blake and Bones are in there doing their thing and Warne is doing his thing , and instead of being right next to Warne , at the desk , I was on the fucking couch . Warne would turn around and say , ‘ What did you think of that ?’ and I ’ d raise a thumb in the air .
“ Everyone involved was , pretty much , over 40 . It ’ s not like there was drama going on ,” he says . Good and the people he works with have grown older and gained experience in the studio , sticking together through good times and bad , and that ’ s deepened their dialogue in the studio and on stage . “ When it comes to Blake , for example , if I turn around and look at him a certain way , he knows we ’ re going to go another three bars . It ’ s like we can all read each other ’ s minds in a way .” Bottom line , the players he worked with are people he trusts to do what is best for the music , and even more so with Livesey . “ We have so many internal frames of references of work we ’ ve liked and he ’ s got 18 years of performances of my vocals that he can draw upon to go , ‘ We ’ re not going to do it like that ,’ or ‘ We ’ re going to do it like this .’”
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