“It truly showed me that this music and music in general is a universal language for those who speak it, and it can really transcend all barriers”

Matt Pascale: Sweet Home Los Angeles

"Home" is the highly anticipated new 12-tracks album by Matt Pascale & The Stomps, via Dixiefrog Records. This album is a major step forward in the artistic journey of this band which, despite its youth, is well capable of composing and delivering a brilliant, instinctive sound that blends with the many facets of Los Angeles, a city that has profoundly affected their musical vision. Sometimes there are striking discoveries and Matt Pascale & The Stomps are certainly one of them. With intense husky vocals and an elegant sonic palette, the band creates an astonishing sound full of raw energy, precision, and feeling, where everything flows perfectly. “Home”, the first album by Matt Pascale & The Stomps, was cut in Los Angeles, in the heart of North Hollywood. The album represents the solo debut for the Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist, and was recorded in the studio of producer Fabrizio Grossi, who is already well known for his collaborations with artists such as Steve Vai, Billy Gibbons, Glenn Hughes, Eric Gales, and the Supersonic Blues Machine.

(Photo: Matt Pascale & The Stomps)

“Home”' is an album that takes off from the blues and its vintage vibe, yet quickly evolves into a modern and far-reaching sound, combining elements of rock, pop, funk, soul, and even hip-hop. Thus it all becomes an authentic, emotionally charged musical journey, a series of songs destined to leave their mark and touch the soul of the listener.

Interview by Michael Limnios                    Archive: Matt Pascale, 2013 Interview

Special Thanks: Davide Grandi & Lorenz Zadro / A-Z Press

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

When first starting I was very obsessed with blues legends such as Muddy Waters, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, and that’s pretty much the only thing that was going into my playing. Those foundations remain, but growing up as a person and an artist I got to listen to a lot of new blues music, but also a lot of hip-hop and contemporary black music, a lot of alternative and indie as well… I feel like right now the palette that I have as a musician and composer is much wider, and more diverse; What hasn’t changed is that music always needs to feel good in the gut, it needs to be impactful, it needs to be groovy, it needs to have soul, I’m constantly looking for new ways to achieve that.

Who are some of your very favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music?

After all the blues legends I named earlier, contemporary artists pushing the boundaries of blues music come to mind, such as Marcus King, Gary Clark Jr. or Eric Gales. But recently I also got a lot into Hip-hop, both classics like Dr. Dre and Notorius B.I.G., and modern like Kendrick Lamar; I’ve been listening to a lot of Bon Iver, especially regarding his vocal production and use of vocal effects, and also Jack White is a huge inspiration both for his way of approaching guitar sounds, and for how he is always pushing boundaries and experimenting while clearly deeply respecting the tradition of blues and rock.                                                          (Photo: Matt Pascale & The Stomps)

“When first starting I was very obsessed with blues legends such as Muddy Waters, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, and that’s pretty much the only thing that was going into my playing. Those foundations remain, but growing up as a person and an artist I got to listen to a lot of new blues music, but also a lot of hip-hop and contemporary black music, a lot of alternative and indie as well…” 

Currently you’ve one release with Fabrizio Grossi. How did that relationship come about? Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album “Home”?

Me and Fabrizio got introduced by a great mutual friend of ours, Pablo Bonelli, which was helping me with management and booking at the time; I Remeber he said he knew a producer that could help me a great deal, he introduced us, and despite the age gap and Fabrizio’s stellar curriculum, we immediately got along very well both personally and musically. After working remotely for my first singles as a solo artist, we got a little crazy and decided to fly the whole band overseas to record the album in Fabrizio’s studio in North Hollywood. We have a lot of stories from the days of the recording, like having a little too much spritz campari in the studio after the first day of recording was done, or that time that we shared a pineapple pizza on top of Nathan East’s fly case.

What has made you laugh and what touched you from your experiences in USA and Los Angeles music circuits?

I had already been in the US by myself, in Memphis, which is obviously quite different from Los Angeles; What struck me was that as a white person from Europe going to the blues jam session there I was met with some skepticism by the local musicians, but then when I got to play the guitar with them I kinda got accepted into their circle and even invited me to play another show with them; It truly showed me that this music and music in general is a universal language for those who speak it, and it can really transcend all barriers.

Why do you think that Italian Blues Rock scene continues to generate such a devoted following?

I think it’s a very rich tradition to which a lot of people are deeply connected to. That is something very powerful and something that defeats the passing of time, and the coming and going of all different trends; But I also have to say that in Italy I also had some problems with certain parts of the musical scene being too stuck in the past, and too skeptical about any kind of experimentation and innovation, which is also why as a band we tour abroad very often. I really hope that the Italian scene can kinda catch up with a lot of cool things that are happening abroad in the coming years.

“I had already been in the US by myself, in Memphis, which is obviously quite different from Los Angeles; What struck me was that as a white person from Europe going to the blues jam session there I was met with some skepticism by the local musicians, but then when I got to play the guitar with them I kinda got accepted into their circle and even invited me to play another show with them” (Photo: Matt Pascale & The Stomps, Italian band destined to leave their mark and touch the soul of the listener)

Which meetings have been the most important experiences for you? What was the best advice anyone ever gave you?

A very important meeting for me and the project alike has been with Paolo Maspoli, he was originally my flatmate taking me into his place in Chiasso, Switzerland, got very involved in the project helping with logistics and all sorts of things, and ended up helping a lot with the making of the album, hence why he’s credited as Executive Producer on the record; it really wouldn’t have been possible without him.
And the best advice obviously came from our guru Fabrizio, who always said to always make sure that your record sounds real, and human: leave in a note that’s held for too long, or a hit that’s not 100% precise, sometimes you could even do it on purpose; with modern recording and production technology it’s so easy to just make music that sounds too perfect, too calculated, too sterile, while the thing that people connect to are often the imperfect and human parts of records, like Lou Reed’s voice cracking on ‘Perfect Day’, or ‘September’ by Earth Wind & Fire ending at like 1.5x the speed they started with.

What keeps a musician passionate over the years in rock, blues? How did the blues shape rock and roll culture?

I think that there’s so much material and so much variety for those willing to look around, which means both looking backwards, and catching up with a smaller artist or subgenre from the 70s or the 80s that you never got to listen, or looking at upcoming artists doing something new and experimental and seeing where the genre is going today; Of course there’s a lot of copycats and unoriginal music that is just more of the same things that we’ve heard for decades, but that’s the way it’s always been in any cultural space for all of human history, and those that stand the test of time are either the innovators, or those that really capture what a genre is all about and are able to kinda crystallize that in a single work; And of course rock is deeply rooted in blues, the vocabulary, the licks, the attitude, so much of the DNA of these two worlds is shared.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

I’m 25 years old, I listen to the radio, I listen to pop music, I actually like some of it and I’m not at all an elitist or an old-head, at least i don’t think of myself that way. I think it comes naturally to have my taste influenced by those things as well, I care about my songs being snappy and catchy, I’m a fan of short songs that keep listeners engaged and don’t overstay their welcome which I think is a very Gen Z thing. Plus I’m a fan of electronic drums, modern production, synths, even tasteful use of Autotune, all of which you can hear on the record in the middle of all the more “traditional” elements; So I think I never worried about making my songs more presentable to new generations, because I think I’m part of the new generation, and I hope that bleeds naturally into the music.

(Photo: Matt Pascale & The Stomps)