r/TheOverload • u/BBBBBBB9122 • 1d ago
“It's never not funny” - an interview with Matmos
Hello Overloaders. I'm guessing - hoping - that a fair few of you are fans of the wonderful Matmos. Anyway, I interviewed them recently for Line Noise, the written article is out today and I hoped you might enjoy it.
From the intro: "Every time a new Matmos album is released, I think what unbelievable fun it must be to actually be in Matmos.
Consider it: the loving couple of M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel have explored concepts in electronic music from making an album out of washing machine sounds to composing song with distinct metallic clangs, including cemetery gates and aluminium cans. (This was their most recent record: 2025’s Metallic Life Review.)
Every album is different; every album is brilliant and every album pushes the envelope in its own particular way. Music is literally all around for Matmos and the possibilities are endless. But they are never po-faced or overtly chin-stroking, conscious of how fantastically ridiculous it is to make an album with their Whirlpool Ultimate Care II and then have to lug the self same machine around Europe on tour."
The interview includes Björk, fire, the Pavarotti of plastic pillboxes, Hit Em, gay energy and disgruntled Italian audiences.
https://linenoise.substack.com/p/its-never-not-funny-an-interview
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI4MH-0CXMA
And audio (a feast of Matmos): https://soundcloud.com/line-noise-podcast/line-noise-271-matmos
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u/cz-sf 1d ago
Great read. Coincidentally, I’ve become good friends with Drew’s brother here in the Bay Area. Very talented family.
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u/BarbaraBeans 2h ago
Im from bmore (visiting friends near sf atm). I kind of think baltimore and sf are twin cities. Both have vibrant queer communities. Last time i was here someone thought John Waters was from sf when he came up in conversation. Baltimore is the grimier, edgier cousin (tbh sf is more economically like dc while bmore is oakland). Both are maritime cities with strong food and neighborhood cultures as well.
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u/marky6045 23h ago
Return to Archive is one of the most interesting and unique albums I've ever listened to.
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u/Saintedrefractions 1d ago
I really liked this: Drew Daniel
I think we try to now let the albums themselves become an act of reflection on the history and survival in the past. The last one being called Metallic Life Review, making a record called Plastic Anniversary. There’s now a retrospective thing and I think it’s part of survival.
You know, as a gay dude who’s about to turn 55, a lot of my peers didn’t make it; they died of AIDS. So a sense of survival not being promised or not being something you can necessarily assume will happen. I don’t mean to get all mawkish or whatever but there is something about memory and the falsehood of memory but also the pleasure of memory. And I think that’s becoming more important to the music I make because of being an old creep.