{"id":3552,"date":"2011-08-21T07:37:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T14:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3552"},"modified":"2011-08-21T07:38:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-21T14:38:59","slug":"matt-nathanson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/matt-nathanson\/","title":{"rendered":"MATT NATHANSON"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

MATT NATHANSON<\/h1>\n

Reaching the masses by stripping down and reinventing a pop-friendly sound<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bob Dylan has worked with some interesting collaborators over the years, but singer and songwriter Matt Nathanson believes the rock legend missed out on one that would have been particularly interesting. \u201cI\u2019ve always said if Bob Dylan had written lyrics for Def Leppard, he\u2019d have had the perfect band,\u201d Nathanson says. As that unusual rock fantasy suggests, he believes in blending art and commerce, poetry and pop hooks. Recording Modern Love<\/em>, the follow-up to his 2007 breakthrough, Some Mad Hope<\/em>, the San Francisco-based singer-songwriter sought to emulate the blockbuster albums he also sees as artistic triumphs. \u201cFor me, making records is always aiming for your favorite records,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was the only expectation on my end: Let\u2019s make INXS\u2019s Kick<\/em> or Violator<\/em> by Depeche Mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counterintuitively, in this case that meant less was more. Nathanson at first approached Modern Love<\/em> much as he had his previous six albums, tracking the songs with a live band. It wasn\u2019t until the game-changing tune \u201cKiss Quick\u201d that he and production and songwriting partner Mark Weinberg stumbled across the recording technique that would lead Nathanson into more adventurous sonic terrain. \u201cDuring the moment of creation, there\u2019s sometimes this feeling of, \u2018This one is totally important,\u2019 and \u2018Kiss Quick\u2019 felt that way,\u201d Nathanson says. \u201cIt sounded good, but it sounded wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fix was to strip away the rhythm track and have Death Cab for Cutie drummer Jason McGerr record a new beat, which was looped and layered over the original vocal. Nathanson then rerecorded the keyboard and guitars, creating an atmospheric sound reminiscent of U2, another key influence. \u201cIt was taming the rhythm,\u201d Nathanson says. \u201cIn that process, the song opened up.\u201d \u201cKiss Quick\u201d set the template for the rest of Modern Love<\/em>, reinforcing one of Nathanson\u2019s major rules of recording: \u201cThe song is god. Listen to what it wants. What it wants is usually way less instrumentation and way more subtlety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Nathanson\u2019s last album spawned the single \u201cCome on Get Higher,\u201d which sold more than a million downloads, the rocker says he didn\u2019t feel any pressure to one-up himself. \u201cThe success of the last record happened at a really levelheaded time in my career,\u201d says Nathanson, who at 38 has been making music for nearly 20 years. \u201cAt that point, making records became less about pleasing other people and more about pleasing myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Kenneth Partridge<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MATT NATHANSON Reaching the masses by stripping down and reinventing a pop-friendly sound Bob Dylan has worked with some interesting collaborators over the years, but singer and songwriter Matt Nathanson believes the rock legend missed out on one that would have been particularly interesting. \u201cI\u2019ve always said if Bob Dylan had written lyrics for Def […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2440,1636,2438,2439,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3555,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}