Features
Track By Track: Matt Bailey
Contributions by MATT BAILEY
Original page credit: Mess+Noise
‘Death to Nature’, the third solo album by former Paradise Motel bassist and current Adalita bandmate MATT BAILEY, has its origins in Canada, England, America and even mid-flight above the Pacific.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
‘How Many Times’
This song is a bad dream, where all the characters are actually you. Or, in this instance, they’re all me. I begged producer Brent ‘Sloth’ Punshon to come back for a third record. He had a vision of how it should sound. He said, “I have a vision.” I thought the reverb on everything was too much. I was wrong, he was right. Working with Brent at Head Gap is the most satisfying creative relationship I’ve had so far.
Adam Simmons provides the brilliantly understated ‘No Wave-style’ saxophone – I’m fortunate again to have Adam on several tracks on this record. He’ll bring just what you hadn’t realised you needed.
‘Mr Alligator’
Initially I thought this could be a “drums and vocals” album. That idea wore thin pretty quickly, but it allowed for this track. First take, I think? I don’t like to get too caught up in time recording an album, and I’m lucky to have had the confidence of both Sloth and Neil Thomason at Head Gap to help in getting things done.
‘Debriefing’
This song had been hanging around for some time. Since London and 1999. The rhythm changed everything though, and the band I’m playing with now give it a new life again. It’s about crossing borders, legitimately, or, dropping in unannounced.
‘Rat Bones’
Reincarnation and associated karma. The groundwork for this was done many years ago in East Vancouver but once I’d booked the studio, I had to complete the songs. Again, the rhythm and the feel change everything.
‘Lightning Lou’
On holiday a couple of years ago, I met the daughter of a friend, whose name is Louisiana Lightning. Really self-contained, and smart – very much her own person. The type of kid who would tell your fortune. So this song is for her, and her friends. Lewis Boyes again on lead guitar, an underrated resource.
‘Death to Nature’
Things get a little tricky here – how you interpret the title depends on where you’re at, but it’s not a directive. To me it’s more like a subtitle, or a chapter heading.
‘No Logic’
Harry Crosby’s story is chilling, entertaining and inspirational. I wanted to write an album about his life (there’s a bio, Black Sun). Things just don’t work out that way; I can’t be too prescriptive, like, “Today I’m gonna write about this.” I use this as leverage to bring in things and people from my own reality. It’s only through doing the work can you find out who is really driving the bus. So this is kinda about Crosby, but kinda for Tim Coke – who would’ve liked the story, I’m sure. Venus asked to be included in the cast as well, so there she is.
‘When I Was Mean’
Did I mention how important Sloth is to this record? All the records I’ve done in the last few years? I do all my vocals live in the studio, and getting to sing along with Sloth beating the shit out of the drums is a good time. He was in Tasmania’s notorious Little Ugly Girls – who were like a Cassavetes film. Adam Simmons again on sax.
‘Hilary’
Started in a hotel in New York, and finished above the Pacific. I realised that the songs I write about girls or women are probably the ones that are actually about me. Or anyway, most of my stuff is gender-nonspecific if it comes down to it. The “she”s or “he”s are just phonetics. Simmons on clarinet provides dignity and clarity.
‘He’s Not There’
Written pretty much in the time it takes to sing it. Elton John says when he’s stuck for inspiration he writes a secular hymn. There’s not much to like about Elton these days, and I won’t write songs like this anymore. The next record will be funk-pop, and more selfish. The working title is Rated M.
+