NOTE: For regular visitors to BeachBoys.com, the name Matt Tyson should be familiar to many - his prolific output, first under the moniker The Malibus, and currently recording under his own name, Matt is one of those rare artists who is a triple-threat: writing, arranging and performing almost everything on his albums. Besides his obvious talents, he is also a huge Beach Boys fan, and his albums are often canny homages to both The Beach Boys sound, and to Phil Spector's wall-of-sound productions. He also happens to be a genuinely nice guy, and when I asked him if he'd consent to an interview for this site, he graciously accepted, and went above and beyond in his responses to my questions. You can find Matt's music at both CDBaby andSoundClick.
Tell about your newest album, Malibu Jukebox - what was your experience in writing and recording it?
Well, I’m always writing (already have a handful of songs started for the next release) and I still have a backlog of songs started over the years so it’s a kick to get a batch of songs recorded. I’m pretty psyched about this CD.13 new songs; probably 5-6 that would be categorized as strictly “fun-in-the-sun”. Uptempo and definitely Beach Boys inspired.
There’s four songs that I wrote over the last couple years for the FiBERGLASS project that was started with a few friends. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gotten off the ground so I decided to record them on my own because I really wanted people to hear them! Of those, “Angela” and “Talk of the Town” are a bit bizarre in a SMiLE sort of way. “Cars, Surfboards and Girls” is pure BW-homage, kind of an uptempo little brother to “My Car, My Board and You” from the first CD. It was written in response to one of the guys commenting on “Angela” and “Talk…” saying, tongue-in-cheek, to cut the weird stuff and write about cars, surfboards and girls… seemed like a great song title to me and the lyrics just jumped out. “A Quiet Place” is a bit more introspective, speaking about the noisy world around us and wishing to find a little peace ( a friend said it sounded like a “prayer to God“ and I like that description).
A few of the songs are more in the modular vein. A little like “Tidal Wave” from California Myth but not as long. “Details” is sort of Beatles meets Beach Boys 1967, though the lyrics are more topical about the media culture that we live in. “I’ll be True To You” is a satiric love song about growing old with each other. “That Kind of Girl” is more straight forward with a few weird bridges/codas thrown in. “Angela” and “Talk…” are also in this modular style.
“I Wanna” is a 70’s era BB-type song. It has some of the same lyrics from the California Myth version but is really a totally different song in tempo, melody, chords, style… It was actually written this way first, but sat around for a year until I realized that I really liked this version too.
“Belief” was the last song written for the CD. Basic straight forward power pop with spectorian production and BB backing vocals. A Christian-themed lyric about keeping the faith in the face of adversity.
You're quite obviously a big Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fan, when did you discover their music? What are your favorite Beach Boys songs/albums?
I can remember distinctly, hearing “Fun,Fun,Fun” while riding in the car with my father. I wasn’t even into music at all back then (had to be maybe 7-8 years old at the time) but I recall thinking that sounds kinda cool. Then around 1967 I finally got into the fact there was all this music being played that was intriguing me. Backtracking as the Djs played “golden oldies” I fell in love with doowop and then the Beach Boys. Buying their old 45’s when I could find them. I think the first album I bought after The Monkees (which I still love their first three albums) was “Best of the Beach Boys vol 2” - what a great collection of songs! I was smitten. I quickly spent any money I had on their other albums when I could find them.>>>
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