 Often compared to Jason Mraz and John Mayer, Matt Duke is a Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter who just released his newest EP, Acoustic Kingdom Underground EP. Duke's music isn't your typical coffee house folk though - his lyrics are laced with literary allusions to John Updike's Paradise Lost and Ayn Rand's We the Living. His soulful, slightly jazzy EP also takes notes from Biblical stories, as one song, "Kingdom Underground," retells the story of Adam and Eve. Themes in his very intelligent music include religious struggles, the quest for truth, and of course, love and sex. His expressive and honest tone make him an accessible singer, with a big fan base mostly comprised of swooning females. Recently, Teen Scene had a chance to chat with Matt and we are excited to share what he had to say with you!
Which comes first the chicken or the egg? Are you inspired to write something out musically or, because you're inspired by books, do you generally find that lyrics come to you first?
We'll call the music our "egg" and the lyrics our "chicken" respectively - now you know my sentiment about that first rhetorical question: The egg?...I guess. Yes, sometimes there's a theme or an idea I want to express and I'll try to methodically craft the music so that it doesn't sound like an afterthought, but nine times out of ten the music comes first. Once that's established, even if it's just a melody, the mood of the tune will usually dictate what it is I want to sing about and I suppose subconsciously I might even already know what that something is. There's really no rhyme or reason most times, at least not as of late, but I will admit that a lot of thought does go into what I perform since it's a reflection on myself and I'll most likely be playing these songs for a good, long while. What's been your favorite performance thus far?
My favorite performance (can I be diplomatic and say that EVERY performance has been my favorite? Insincerity doesn't really register via the internet, does it?) came and went not all that long ago. I was part of a show at Drexel University playing in their Mandell Theater with my drummer, Nathan Barnett and bassist, Dane Kline. We decided not to play through the usual suspects and instead played a handful of songs that might not ever make it onto a record even for as long as I plan on touring and making music. The moment that stood out for me was a song called "Love Buried" that feels very relaxed and etherial eventually working it's way into a sonic frenzy as the song comes to a close. We rehearsed it once the night before and felt that maybe it would work in a setting similar to venue we showed up to the following night - so we decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad that we did because even now I find the live recording of the song to still be very moving (which is a strange feeling to have about your own music or at least admit publicly) - the performance couldn't have possibly gone any better. Your past songs, do you look back at them like most artists look back at past work, with perhaps a bit of a cringe, or do they bring you a nostalgic comfort like photos of old friends?
I look back with a little bit of both. An artist's focus - anyone's focus, really - should always be about bettering themself and challenging themself so that he/she can harness all of that true potential that he/she wants people to see. If you were to ask me how I felt about the songs I wrote when I was 15 or 16 years old, I would cringe and maybe even dry heave a little bit, but with each record I make or song I contribute to a compilation, time has me look back on every performance and wonder how I could have done it differently, yet I still carry a fondness for everything that I've written. There was always a reason why I wrote what I did and I knew I always captured who I was or what I was thinking at the time - whether that was perfectly or imperfectly. But to be honest, I spend more time fantasizing about future and what's to come.
4) What's inspiring you these days?
The music of my youth. I've made a vow to myself about being a little less heady and to try and get back to what made me want to write in first place and all credit goes to the music I listened to growing up. Little bits and pieces of it pop in my songwriting from time to time - that sort of thing becomes second nature - but I started to stray from my roots a little while ago when I began reading voraciously and stopped being as introspective as I probably should have been. I'd done a pretty great job of grasping the thoughts and ideals of great thinkers and writers and parlaying those and the stories of people I'd met into song. There's a place for all of that and I'll likely continute to write that way when it feels right, but I've finally gotten over being anxious about writing things having to do with my own life and the things that have shaped me over the years and it's only now that I've begun expressing them again through music - both stylistically and lyrically. There's a happy balance between the two methods of writing music and I'm still searching to find out where that is. Until then, I've resurrected all of my Ace of Base albums hoping for inspiration. Kidding. Or am I? Do you think it's easier to write an album if there's a thematic aspect to it that is relatively concrete?
No! And YES! How easy it would be to write ten or more songs and throw them on a record, slap on a price tag and just wait for the consumer to make me a multi-platinum selling artist. It's been done, sure, and is it easy?, yes - but the great records that really stick with people and have the desired profound affect aren't made without being at least concise in some aspect. I give listeners a lot of credit - they can always tell when an artist or a band is being disingenuous. With that said, it might be easier to throw a bunch of songs onto a record, but the real joy is making each song feel like it's part of something bigger, whether that record be conceptual or, as you put it, relatively concrete in some way. I breathe easy knowing that when a record is finished it had a purpose and a focus. It might be a hit or miss kind of record, but that's the way record's should be made and that's certainly the way I want to continute to make them.
What's your favorite book?
Lost Horizon by James Hilton. First paperback ever published and found huge success. Was made into an Academy Award-winning movie (though I didn't really like it all that much) and has been credited as being responsible for the conception of Shangri-La - that wonderful, mythical place tucked with the Himalayan mountains of Tibet that was like a utopia far removed from the rest of a war-torn World. I first read it when I was 14 years old and I've read it every year since. What's your musical fantasy band or performance?
You know when bands sometimes perform an album at a concert from start to finish? More specifically, a pivotal record that might not be their own, but it's super cool that your favorite band just performed it in it's entirety anyway? I think I'd like to do that with either Peter Gabriel's "So" or Supertramp's "Crime of the Century". That'd be sweet. How do you freshen old topics such as love, fighting, struggle, etc?
Those topics have been around for so long and you'd think that by now it'd be a tiresome thing to keep harping on break-ups or spiritual unrest or, as Kelis might add, milkshakes and how they bring all of the boys to the yard. But I think that older you get, you don't necessarily get wiser on every subject, you gather more or a different perspective. You begin to look at love, fighting, struggles, from all angles instead of just one narrow-minded view. There's a wealth of ways to describe love and though I once doubted myself and how long I could possibly write about the same subjects, it seems like there's always a fresh and interesting way to re-examine it or sing about it or experience it. How that stands to reason, I have no clue. But I owe a lot to friends, family and the arts for helping me try to make sense of it all. If you were a fly whose wall would you land on?
Joaquin Phoenix. What's his deal, anyway?
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