I had the opportunity to meet up with Matisyahu while he was on tour this summer and I have to say it was a dope conversation. Chopping it up on life, trials and tribulations, spiritual journeys, and his new album, Undercurrent. Here is the short version of our conversation. Enjoy!
Big ups to Matisyahu for sharing and for you to continuing to support these great artists!
The Story behind his hit song “One Day”:
Basically I finished the Light record and at the time, there were big changes at Epic. That was when Amanda Ghost was hired on. She listened to the record and she was like, "Yeah, it's over produced and we need just a couple of simple bangers that we could go to radio with." My attitude at the time was cool, let's take a crack at a pop song. I'm glad I did.
I had quite a bit of songs but none of them were on the radio except for "King without a Crown." I had to think what I was going to do. I was on tour with this cat from Toronto - K'Naan. He had this song, "Waving Flag." I was like, "Yo, the record company is sleeping on this song." I asked him who produced it, and he told me these guys called The Smeezingtons. So when my new A&R at Epic asked me if I got anyone I want to work with, I told him The Smeezingtons.
Well I go out to Los Angeles and start to write "One Day.” One of The Smeezingtons, ya'll might have heard is Bruno Mars. This was before he got his record deal. So I say to Bruno, "Give me my 'Waving Flag' or my 'No Woman, No Cry' or something." while we were in studio. He writes fast, man. He's real quick. Boom, boom, boom. I think at the time, my girl wants to go eat and the closest kosher spot is across town. Well 3 or 4 hours later, I get back and Bruno says, "Yo we rewrote most of your song." I was like, "cool." So basically I go into the booth and they just instruct me - give it some more Bob Marley, give it some more of this, of that, keep singing up there, you got it." That's really how "One Day" was born.
On growth and evolution in music:
I found reggae music through my cousins who were from Barbados. They were my first cousins. My mom is one of three sisters, of which one moved and got married in Barbados. So when they would come up to visit for summer camp, I'd play for them the hip hop that I listened to - and they'd play for me the stuff they listened to. My cousin Craig would tell me, "Hey check this out!" and it'd be dub, and I loved it. That was my first introduction into reggae and dancehall.
I loved the music so much, I started to question my own identity. It sent me on this little identity crisis in many ways. I wasn't a Rasta but I identified with it so much through the music. I really started to listen to the music. I began to hear the references to the Old Testament which I heard all of those stories in Hebrew school. So I figured they were onto something that I somehow missed or didn't get all the way.
With reggae music, I found my own identity as a Jew. This set me off onto a new path. I became religious then my career starts to take off. When this happened, I really hadn't listened to music for 3-4 years. I was just studying The Torah. I attribute all of that studying to the music I was really into before I began my journey.
As a teen, the most incredible musical experiences I had came at Phish concerts. Those experiences for me, like musically and spiritually, were on a whole different level. That's where I recognized improvisation. That's where I recognized that you don't have to separate live music - where you have a performer and an audience. It went as simple as even doing it with lights. Like in traditional shows you have lights on the performers but not on the audience. But Phish concerts, the light was on everyone.
So put it all together: the Judaism and the spirituality, and then creating the environment of improvisational, fully being immersive along with the music that I love - the reggae, the hip hop, the rock - continues my evolution. All of this keeps me wanting to go into new territory and keep evolving which leads me to my new album, Undercurrent.
On Undercurrent:
I see my last two records are part 1 and 2 of my story similar to the story of Abraham on the mountain about to sacrifice Issac. For me it was a huge breakthrough, this intense feeling of freedom but also the intensity of what was really going on. I can draw all the similarities to my own life. Like when I wrote those first two albums, I was living in the hills, on the side of a mountain. Then basically when I moved back to New York, I was living literally on a river. It was about fire and water - fire being on the hills in Los Angeles and water being on a river in New York.
Undercurrent is about that life. After all these things happen, after everything I have been through, I'm finding that my life is settling down now after being on earth for 37 years. Life is like, "Where you at?"
That is what Undercurrent is about.
This record was everything I've learned, that process, and what I trust in that process. This record doesn't have the radio hits but more of what I know is pure to me.
This record was my record of no compromises.
