Meet the Noise: Matt Cully
A driving force behind the mega-group Bruce Peninsula, Matt Cully will be performing as EONS with Misha Bower, who will be reading from her debut collection of short stories at the Lillian H. Smith Branch this Friday, December 14 at 8pm. Despite his busy schedule, Matt found a bit of time to answer a few questions for us before the show.
Tell us about your most memorable Toronto concert experience (either performing or attending).
Seeing bands like the Constantines, Do Make Say Think, From Fiction and attending Wavelength's weekly shows in the early 2000s really opened my eyes to the crazy amount of talent we've got going on in the city. I got the opportunity to see a bunch of bands that would go on to the world stage in tiny venues like Sneaky Dees, the Tranzac and The Bagel (RIP).
I'm proud of the portable festival I curate every year on Toronto Island called Poor Pilgrim. It pairs local talent with unique and unexpected outdoor settings and is usually my favourite show of the year ('cause I get to pick all the bands!).
What GTA band or artist would you recommend everyone have on their iPod?
This is a tough one, cause my iPodis pretty diverse, but if I was going to make a playlist of local artists I would have to include Jennifer Castle, Ryan Driver, Alex Lukashevsky, Sandro Perri, Doug Tielli and Eric Chenaux. These guys are all part of a very loose knit crew of unbelievable local musicians that endlessly inspire me to elevate my craft. I would also have to tip my hat to all the amazing solo endeavors of my pals in Bruce Peninsula, cause they all continue to melt my brain to smithereens.
Seeing as this is a library website and all, what was the last really great book you’ve read?I read an amazing biography of Alan Lomax by John Szwed recently. Alan was a musicologist and folk song collector from the United States in mid 20th Century. The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross really got me deep into early 20th century classical music at a time when I was really ready for it. And I'm currently reading Moby Dick for the first time and loving it! Oh, and Misha's collection of short stories, of course!!!
What advice would you give an aspiring artist trying to break into the Toronto Music scene?
Everything is changing really fast and "making it" locally or abroad seems less and less of a reasonable possibility. I'd say the best thing to do is seek out other artists in your community who you respect or are doing similar things as you and share what you're working on. Go to lots of shows. Don't be shy. Talk to people. Make music for you and your friends to enjoy and worry about where it fits into the scene later. If you're chasing a trend your sound is going to be stale by the time it actually reaches people's ears. Just keep it DIY all the way…and when the time comes, you'll know what to do.
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