Oftentimes when a musician makes the transition from a band to a solo career, it can be a tricky proposition to make it on his/her own. When singer-songwriter Jay Matthes made the jump to writing solo, the various uncertainties in his life made it even tougher. His longtime band A Common Engine had just ended on less than ideal terms and his personal life was a mess.
As a result he began to write what he calls a “middle finger of an album.” But he soon found that this was a road he didn’t want to continue on.
“When I played the new songs for people it came across as bitter and it wasn’t who I wanted to be and who I wanted to come across as,” says Matthes. “I made an effort to change who I was and what I was doing with my life.”
As a result he found a happier state of mind, which led to a new relationship and a new collection of songs that would become his debut album, A Drier Place.
“They aren’t all happy but not a single one of them is angry,” he says. “There’s optimism, there’s silver linings, there’s tongue-in-cheek. It came from a better place.”
He realized this was a clear theme on the album when he wrote the title track. “It’s being in a better place today than you were yesterday and being in that drier place,” he says.
Matthes recorded the album in Zach Rieboldt’s basement in Whitefish Bay with the help of a number of notable musicians from Milwaukee that he’s met in various ways over the years. They include Michael Erickson, Corinn Bonkalski, Jake Williams, Jacob Brenwall, Jack Kammien and Michael Spencer (the latter of whom made the trek from Cincinnati to record and was back all within 24 hours). He turned to Rieboldt to produce after seeing the quality work he did with the two A Common Engine albums.
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“The sound he creates is amazing and what he does with what little we use is pretty amazing,” Matthes says.
He wanted the music to be natural so there are no pitch corrections, programmed instruments or anything like that. This sound, which he self-described as “no-frills Americana,” includes a wide range of influences including bluegrass, country, pop and rock. He tries to make sure each song is distinct, honest, thoughtful, genuine and not boring.
“We wanted to make sure that when you listen to the album you heard an artist and didn’t hear a producer,” he says. “We wanted it to sound like it did in the studio and I think we accomplished that.”
He hopes this is a proper introduction to who he is.
“I want to make sure that when people come out to shows that I’m just tearing the roof off that place and making damn sure they leave saying, ‘I’ve got to come see him again,’” he says. “You only get one first impression and I’ve put a lot of work into making this a good first impression.”
A lot has happened for Matthes over the past year but he strives to keep his head held high and keep moving forward.
“In my life, whether it’s been music or family or crazy supportive friends and people I meet at shows, a lot can happen in a year whether your band ends or whether you have a broken heart or whether things aren’t going right in your career with your music. It’s important to identify what gets you through those times,” Matthes says. “In this case, these ten songs have really held me up since I started writing them.”
“It’s been a lot of work,” he adds. “But I’ve been seeing a lot of that come back to me now to have people listen to this album that might have not listened to it before.”
Jay Matthes will play a free show with Mike Dawes as part of the MKE Unplugged series at UW-Milwaukee’s Helene Zelazo Center on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. You can stream A Drier Place at jaymatthes.com.
