By
David
Diehl
You may not be familiar with Matthew Santos, but if you’ve heard Lupe Fiasco’s hit single “Superstar,” then you've heard his haunting, soulful voice on the hook. In fact, Matthew is on multiple tracks with Lupe, and plans on touring worldwide with his fellow Chicago native in the upcoming year.
But with an independent Ep and Lp released (As a Crow Flies and Matters of the Bittersweet respectively), Matthew says he has major plans of his own for the future. We caught up with the hot new artist at S.O.B.’s in Downtown Manhattan, after opening for Goapele at a recent holiday show. According to Matthew, “Everybody has their own story.” Here's his.
Shine: How’d you get started making music?
Matthew Santos: Well, I always had an ear for music. I would hear commercials on T.V. or soundtracks to movies like "The Neverending Story," for instance, and then I’d go onto my piano and start banging it out by ear. So basically it was an intuitive thing for me. I just liked sound, and I just started playing things by ear.
Shine: When did you start developing your skills?
Matthew Santos: I took a couple years of piano lessons when I was a teenager. Dropped that. Picked up a guitar. Learned four chords and started writing songs. Cause that’s all you really need, two or four chords. And I was always into writing stories when I was young too. I would just sit in my bathtub during the summer and write short stories. The writing part was easy for me. It was the music I was struggling with. So once I got the technicalities down with the guitar, I just started writing, and writing, and writing.
Shine: When did this go from something you did in the bathtub to something that realistically could become a career for you?
Matthew Santos: Slowly. When I was 18 I had to make a decision whether I was going to go into fine art or into music. I was also painting. Painting was my first passion. So I was painting like mad, but I was also playing music like mad. So I had to make a decision, 'What road was I going to take?' So when I was 18, I got accepted into this great art school, but said, ‘F*ck it, I’m going to go into music.’ So I went to Chicago and began studying musical composition, and then, by chance, met all the people I needed to really start a movement. All of these pieces to the puzzle just fell into my lap. I quit my job, and at 21 I had the realization that, you know what, I’m going to do what I was planning to do: sing from my soul and make music. It was a felt sense, this is what I love.
Shine: How did you hook up with Lupe Fiasco?
Matthew Santos: I met Lupe through Greg Majors, who’s our sound engineer. He showed Lupe some of my stuff. Lupe dug it, and then asked me to be on his mixtape. There was a great response after that, and he asked me to be on "American Terrorist." Atlantic loved it, and they asked me to be on three more tracks on The Cool, including the single "Superstar."
Shine: Did you write the material that you perform with Lupe?
Matthew Santos: Lupe writes the words and the basic melody, he gives it to me and I try to make it music.
Shine: Your solo sound is much different from what we’ve all heard on the hip-hop tracks. What sound are you really trying to capture on your solo projects?
Matthew Santos: I grew up listening to R&B, folk, and rock n’ roll, then I got into blues, then I got into world music. It’s all sorts of sh*t. I don’t know what I’m going for. It’s not about genre or style. It’s about expressing yourself deeply, and however that comes out, then it’s good. We don’t even know what demographic to aim at. We’re getting responses from 11-year-olds to 60-year-olds.
Shine: Do you think that it’s a natural progression for an artist like yourself to begin as a solo performer, one mic, and then move forward to a more energetic style with a full band?
Matthew Santos: I think that it is a natural progression. Dylan did it. Most musicians do it. Start out as solo, get recognized as a solo artist, all of the sudden they're touring around huge arenas and they got to have a band behind them. But at the same time man, I’m going to be doing my solo stuff until I die. That’s the essence of my music. It’s me and a guitar.
Shine: Do you see yourself continuing to crossover to hip-hop?
Matthew Santos: The hip-hop world, that’s an interesting world. I’m not from that realm. It’s not really my niche. But I love who I’m working with now. Lupe Fiasco is good people. Unless Jay-Z calls me up or if Kanye wants to work on something. It’s fun, but I can’t do anything unless my heart's into it.
For more information on Matthew Santos, check out www.myspace.com/matthewsantos.
For information on S.O.B.'s go to www.sobs.com.
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