Scrit: So the big question everyone`s dying to know: is "Malpaso" named after the immortal Clint Eastwood`s production company?
Mat: Kind of. I`m a massive Spaghetti Western fan and that`s where the phrase came from but I`ve always used it to mean a “bad move” or a “dangerous path.” The track “Malpaso” is all about taking on more than you can handle. You’re in too deep, realize you made a bad move but you just have to go with the flow and see if you make it to the other side in one piece.
Scrit: The Ennio Morricone-flavored “Leone” is a tip-of-the-hat to Sergio?
Mat: Yeah! Mark came up with that little tune. We both have a love of Leone and Morricone and that track is testimony to that passion. The Spaghetti Western genre has been a massive influence.
Scrit: Tell me about it. Brilliant stuff. I was always irritated by how generally dumb and tacky American westerns were at that time - compared to the tangible and aesthetic cool of the Italian westerns. American western score music was especially awful. And Clint Eastwood smokes John Wayne.
Mat: In terms of style and action these film shout out loud: Death Rides A Horse is one heavy movie with its brutal opening rape/murder scene (Tarantino used the theme song in Kill Bill). Django with Franco Nero as a gun runner who drags around a coffin with a Gatlin gun hidden in it and an ear severing scene that again predates Reservoir Dogs. And of course the Dollars Trilogy, my favorite being For A Few Dollars More with Gian Maria Volontè as “El Indio.” He`s so fucking cool in that movie, They all are but El Indio was the character I wanted to be as a kid. He looked like my dad too when I was around ten years old and now I`m older I actually look like El Indio. Life can be real sweet sometimes. The genre made Eastwood and then he went on to make some great modern westerns (and other films) like High Plains Drifter. That film’s got some edge and when they paint the town red, genius. Unforgiven, made in ‘92, is a class movie; Eastwood just got it and kept the genre alive. The most successful mainstream US cash in of the late `60`s was definitely Sam Peckinpah`s The Wild Bunch. "If they move, kill `em." I reckon Spaghetti Westerns made me the sarcastic, violent misogynist I am today ha-ha. "Hey Blondie".
Scrit: Has my memory gone to shit or do I recall yet another project/ band name that`s a new baby of yours?
Mat: Yeah! Cherry Choke is my latest obsession.
Scrit: Is Josiah really done then? Why?
Mat: Josiah is dead. We split back in June ‘08 because my heart just wasn`t in it anymore. As a group, we`d taken it as far as we could musically, creatively and commercially. I`d started up Cherry Choke back in the summer of `07 and was enjoying writing and playing for them way more than Josiah through `08. Cherry Choke has a real late `60`s heavy psych vibe going on and I have to put my mind to crafting songs and melody. Josiah had the tunes but it was always about the riffs. The split was down to my disinterest in playing and writing for the Josiah rock machine. I`m really happy with Cherry Choke and don`t regret breaking Josiah up; it was the right thing to do.
Scrit: So there`s much less emphasis on “the riff” in Cherry Choke? More melody and craftsmanship? I have not yet heard the Evil Deceiver 7" or Cheetah 7".
Mat: Cherry Choke has got the riffs just like Blue Cheer, Hendrix, The Pretty Things, or The Who had the riffs. And like those groups we want to write songs you can sing, dance, and fuck too. We also give the songs room to breathe live so we can jam on a section and see what happens, see where we can take the groove. In the studio we work to the Eddie Kramer production vibe - raw, real, and rockin`.
Scrit: Have to admit I first thought, "What the hell is a Cherry Choke?” Then I read it was a tree. And then the other, older meaning beyond that... ;)
Mat: The tree is a Choke Cherry but the name has nothing to do with that. It`s the name of a sexual act performed by a Victorian prostitute. Think Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat and your pretty much there. What`s the other older meaning?
Scrit: That meaning… So back to Josiah for a sec. This new album, Procession, of which you speak – is all outtakes and live?
Mat: The A-Side will feature recordings from the No Time sessions. The tracks just didn`t fit with the final album at the time so we left them out for a possible EP release. When the Swedish live recordings turned out to be so good, we decided to package them all up as an album. The studio tracks on the Procession album are as good if not better than the tracks that made the No Time cut and the live recordings are a real warts-and-all testament to Josiah live. We haven`t tarted it up with overdubs or crowd noise like others have.
Scrit: Not having seen the tracklisting, does the content differ significantly from 2005`s Rare Cuts?
Mat: Nothing from the Rare Cuts release will feature on Procession. It’s all previously unreleased material.
Scrit: How does Kings of Frog Island fit in the picture then? I`ve not had the benefit of hearing II yet.
Mat: Cherry Choke is my number one priority and the Kings are studio-only, so it doesn`t take up too much of my time. I`ve also been working with Swedish group Dexter Jones` Circus Orchestra on their new album and I plan to play live with them as much as possible through ‘09.
Scrit: Why is there only one `T` in Mathew?
Mat: That`s how my mum wanted to spell it.
Scrit: Looking at all you`ve done in the time you`ve done it, you`ve been extremely prolific…
Mat: I`ve been lucky with releases, but I would have liked to have made more records. I probably missed out on three or four due to bad management and life style before The Beginning album came about.
Scrit: Whereabouts in England do you call home?
Mat: Leicester, a city in the East Midlands. Jon Lord of Deep Purple is our finest son.
Scrit: I`ll be damned, well, my brother used to date the daughter of Deep Purple`s bass player, Roger Glover, many years ago. Small world. We went to high school with her and have stayed pretty close over the years. Have you ever been to the southwestern-most tip of England? I understand the Gulf-stream just brushes past it, and as a result some tropical plant-life grows there, including palm trees. Pretty amazing, for England of all places.
Mat: There are palm trees down in Cornwall and Dorset. It`s like Miami without the sexy Puerto Rican women or the sunshine. England is pretty much lukewarm and damp right across the country these days. We don`t get real seasons anymore.
Scrit: Are you and your countrymen as happy as we are about Obama? It makes me feel that one day it may in fact be alright to travel abroad again…
Mat: Ha ha! We`ll see. He is a politician after all.
Scrit: Indeed. But we have high hopes (for the first time in many years). Sure plenty of my countrymen travel abroad and act like complete jerks plenty well on their own without the assistance of the Bush administration`s foreign policy. The stance is all their shit certainly didn`t help. I absolutely back the logic in telling people, "I`m Canadian" when traveling. For a few more years at least just to be safe...
Mat: The guys I`ve met from the US have all been musicians and apart from one or two Valium poppers, everyone has been cool. Josiah played a show with The Atomic Bitchwax around five years ago and Sie (our bass player) was drunk and just lent his bass up against a wall backstage then carried on with the party. As I was packing my guitar away, I watched Ed Mundell quietly walk over to Sie`s bass, dry it off and case it up. Some Americans have a heart of gold. Mundell for President!
Scrit: The Beginning. Was there only one album by this project? And you left to form Josiah afterward? How did this all unfold?
Mat: The Beginning recorded just one album in late ‘98 then split in the middle of a tour in early ‘99 ( I`m saving that story for my book, ha ha). I took almost a year off after the split and traveled around the UK with my other half and an acoustic guitar. As always I got the urge to be in a band again and decided to form a power trio. Josiah were formed April 2000 and the rest is mystery...
Scrit: When do you anticipate putting out the first Cherry Choke full-length?
Mat: The debut album will be released by Elektrohasch in late February 2009. We finished the recordings for the debut back in September but with the second Kings album only just behind me I thought it best to hold back a little before letting this one lose. We just started recording a set of new tracks we`ve been working up over the winter so we should see two albums out in `09.
Scrit: You are indeed prolific. Mat- you’ve been awesome and thanks so much for your generosity on this. We all look forward to 2009 being Cherry Choke’s year man…
