Interview with Matana Roberts

On Thursday, June 18th at 8:30pm, Matana Roberts presents ILLUMINATION, a collection of sound paintings that testify to why any artist would chose to live in New York in the first place. A city unlike any other, with an artistic spirit unlike any other.  An Illumination in sound, space, real time.  A testament to the tenacity of the creative human spirit.

Roulette: Do you consider yourself more a composer or a performer?
Matana Roberts: I am constantly trying to work on a little of both all the time. But in some ways for me its all the same….I get my composition ideas from performance ideas and vice versa.

R: Are there any people you see as instrumental in your development as an artist.
MR: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Paul Auster, Fred Anderson, Barry Adamson,  Aaron Cometbus, Von Freeman, George Lewis, Lydia Lunch, Inga Musico, Blondie, Foxy Brown and Foxy Brown, Minutemen,  Bikini Kill, Nas, Jdilla, Ntozake Shange,

R: Chocolate or Vanilla?
MR: Definitely chocolate.

R: How did you get into music?
MR: Grew up always around it in some way or  another. My father was a vinyl collector, and avid fan of Sunra, Cecil Taylor, David Murray and the Art Ensemble etc etc etc; My mom was really into  singer songwriters/musicals and opera as well as really good black soul and pop music….. music programs in the Chicago public school system helped a great deal. I probably wouldn’t be playing if it wasn’t for some of those programs.

R: Is there an event or experience that led you to start in experimental media?
MR: My maternal grandmother’s death in 2005. Sometimes the death of a loved one is a nice reminder of how risk taking is one of the best things you can do to live a fruitful life.

R: What genre of music (pre-defined or newly defined) would you fit your work into?
MR: That’s a good question. I’ve got so many toes dipped into different pools of creativity. I’m just trying to explore all sides of myself I guess, but honestly not really sure where it all fits and if it will ever. I’m just trying to do the things I’ve always wanted to do despite  natural artistic  insecurities…

R: What is it that you want people to hear/think about/be tuned into in your work?
MR: The blessedness of their existence.

R: What do you, as a composer/performer of music, listen for in other people’s work- what moves you? What tickles your brain?
MR: I listen for things I don’t like – things that irritate me because upon closer inspection it shows me new truths about myself that maybe I wasn’t aware of before. I am moved by seeing people having their own personal performance revolutions on full display. I am tickled most by folks that go out of their way to connect with others in their sound approach.

R: What was the last music you listened to?
MR: russian orthodox chant music, early black flag, and lots of  early steve reich as of late

R: Tell us as about the origin of the project? How did you meet your collaborators?
MR: As far as the collaborators , I’ve known them all for a long time and wanted to do something with peers of mine that seem to in a lot of ways represent a really beautiful NYC sound.

R: Who are your major influences (art, literature, culture, etc)?
MR: Riot Grrl, Spock, bell hooks, witchcraft

R: Describe, if you can, the cloud of ideas that you’re making work under these days – in terms of music, current events, new technologies, personal.

MR: Honestly, I’m just trying to keep it all together. Trying to expand more on multi media aspects that I can draw from, trying to understand what it means to be an African American artist in a post Obama world…. trying to explore new colors of the saxophone that were once foreign to me and trying to keep daily NYC panic to more of a balanced minimum.