turing In A Time
Matthew Good Opens Up About Chaotic Neutral
By Kevin Young
That last statement is one Good himself might have made during the process that ultimately led to writing Chaotic Neutral , a set of songs that came together as an “ afterthought ” to a record that he ’ d already written , but ditched in summer 2014 . That included a 21-minute song , he says , “ but I went at it musically without doing the melody . I think the shortest thing I had was eight minutes , but I ran into problems – things I couldn ’ t figure out how to finish , and when I started going back to work on melodies , things weren ’ t working . The only song I kept was the only song I ’ d finished , ‘ Tiger By The Tail .’”
The remaining tracks are entirely new songs that range from album closer “ Los
Alamos ,” “ a love story from the point of view of a nuclear scientist in New Mexico during the Manhattan Project ,” and Good ’ s homage to Nina Simone , “ Harridan ,” to a cover of Kate Bush ’ s “ Cloudbusting .”
“ You ’ re never going to get anything perfect . That just spurred me on to keep going .” It ’ s not about capturing perfection , necessarily ; it ’ s about capturing something in a time . Good ’ s last few records , he says , “ were schizophrenic as hell . You go from something like Lights of Endangered Species to Arrows of Desire to this – it could be three different bands if it wasn ’ t for the same voice . It ’ s evolved , but it has more to do with the fact that I just didn ’ t get it right , so it ’ s a good place and time for that album to represent something and then I ’ ll go on .”
That said , Chaotic Neutral doesn ’ t rep resent a major sonic departure ; how ever , compositionally and in terms of instrumentation , there are differences . “ If you look at ‘ Girls In Black ,’ there ’ s no rhythm guitar in the whole song . I ’ ve never done that before . Even then , I chose not to play the parts I wrote . I had Sam Goldberg Jr . come in and play them and add his own flavour , which was awesome . There are [ other ] songs on the record , ‘ Army of Lions ,’ where there are no rhythm guitars and for me , from a songwriter ’ s standpoint , there ’ s kind of a Joy Divi sion aspect of coming at things , that late ‘ 70s , early ‘ 80s sonic empti ness . But it runs the gamut . I tried a lot of things I wouldn ’ t have normally done , I think , from a writing standpoint , psycho logically .” Still , he adds , someone would have to be fairly well versed in his work , and music in general , to see the differences as being as significant as they are .
You learn something from every writing and recording process – no matter how many times you ’ ve done it , or how long you ’ ve been doing it – that you bring forward into the next one , he says . “ I don ’ t think you make a record and don ’ t learn something that you either throw out the window or take with you , and I think one of the main things that I explored [ on Chaotic Neutral ] was emptiness . In my favourite music , there ’ s this emptiness that ’ s almost like air floating through it .” That air is something he ’ s tried to capture previously , though it “ didn ’ t always fit just right . It didn ’ t connect the gaps . On this , on songs like ‘ Tiger By The Tail ’ and ‘ Cold Water ’ and ‘ Harridan ,’ they connect .”
The ‘ 90s , when the Matthew Good Band was at its height , were very much a “ fill it up ” time . “ And when that ’ s the bedrock of what you do , musically , you have to deconstruct things from there . It ’ s a challenge , but it ’ s interesting .”
Ultimately , Good knows that what ’ s not there is equally as important as what is . That applies lyrically as well , particularly for Good , who seems to be able to communicate raw emotions in relatively few words that , were there more context , more words , would be diminished . In fact , it ’ s a hallmark of his music and MGB ’ s work from the very beginning . “ Lyrics ,” he says , laughing , “ You start out complicated and then it all ends up being pre-chorus .”
The other thing Good has come to realize is that he ’ s a survivor . Fair enough . Since forming the multiple JUNO Awardwinning MGB in the early ‘ 90s , then disbanding in 2002 , Good has not only survived , but thrived . As for the key to doing so , facing a constantly changing industry – one that looks nothing like the business he started out in – “ Your guess is as good as mine ,” he jokes before concluding that it ’ s about hard work and a willingness to evolve . “ I was holed up in a hotel room in Whistler by myself and I was writing The Audio Of Being , and I started to say , ‘ Okay , some kind of sea change will have to occur here , because if we just keep making the same stuff , then we ’ re getting trapped .’”
When MGB disbanded , Good saw opportunity . “ I thought to myself , ‘ You ’ re going to have the fair-weather people who are just going to want ‘ Hello Time Bomb .’ And , if that ’ s going to define you , you ’ re going to have a problem . So , from Avalanche on , I made a concerted effort to go , ‘ Well , if I have to shed that part of my audience , play to less people , less sales , less of everything , then so be it .’ That was really my guiding principle with regards to how I went about it and that freed me up to try a bunch of different things .” n
Kevin Young is a Toronto-based musician and freelance writer .
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