Michigan based avant pop producer Matthew Dear has spoken to ClashMusic about his concept album 'Black City'.
The decline of Detroit has led to rising unemployment and social deprivation. Yet in an odd irony it has also served to fire up the city's creative community, resulting in waves of seminal electronic music.
On 'Black City' Matthew Dear appears to be dissecting his adopted home city. A concept album centring on a fantasy Gotham-style metropolis, it a hugely ambitious new effort from the celebrated producer.
Of course, techno is littered with sci-fi concept albums, but this one is slightly special. Matthew Dear fronts a new full band, turning his electronic productions into living reality. Speaking to ClashMusic, the producer explained that he almost worked backwards on the new album.
"I just wrote the songs,” he said. “There is no finish line; it’s almost like working backwards. Finish the music and get all the ideas first and then all these life experiences start coming out of the woodwork and start to shape our actions and then the concept comes out.”
Continuing, the producer mused on the process of moving from a desk-based producer to a frontman. “The main thing is I don’t want it to be fake" he explained. "In the past it could’ve backfired in the sense that maybe I didn’t have an act, or this show to give people."
"So I guess just finding the natural way to be on stage is what’s important to me, and you watch some of the greats like Dave Gahan, Chris Martin and Bowie of course, and it’s showmanship but there’s a very natural flow and you have to find that. People can see if you’re bullshitting.”
Partly inspired by Detroit, Matthew Dear's recent move to New York also affected the way he interacted with city life. "It’s a fast city, especially coming from Detroit, which was very isolated, sparse. Living more in that fast pace, that really energetic non-stop environment caused me to write a lot more strained songs."
"And touring a lot, in Detroit you come back and just sort of unplug but in New York there’s easily something that can fill your day-to-day agenda if you let it. That weight and that strain on your day-to-day life, New York City is a lot more morose and melancholy. I think there’s hope at the end of a lot of songs; it’s dark but with a little sort of wry smile.”
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