After winning over festival crowds in their native Switzerland & picking up national radio and TV attention there, sleek electro-rockers Matto Rules are turning their attentions to the rest of the world.
Tonight is a pulsating introduction to a band that have built a loyal European fanbase with their slick mix of pop melodies, electronica soundscapes and indie rock guitars.
With the name of the band inspired by Matto, the ghost of insanity in Friedrich Glauser’s pulp novel In Matto’s Realm, the band’s music mixes euphoric pop choruses with a restless rock escapism & electro tension.
After being invited to work with acclaimed LA producer Michael Patterson (Beck, BRMC, Duran Duran) their early singles led to sold out tour dates and radio playlistings in Europe. To give Tonight and their debut album What Comes Around (out now) the right balance of studio polish and raw emotion, the band enlisted Chicago producer Ben Treimer (MuteMath, Emmylou Harris).
Released earlier this year & picking up rave press reviews in Europe, the new album is already cementing Matto Rules as a musical force to be reckoned with.
In this interview, we chat with the band about their influences, their new project, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and a stream of Tonight are below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
Actually, we never really defined our style or genre as such. Rather than attraction, it is the result of our individual musical influences mixed together and distilled at the time of writing and producing the songs. We are a band that likes to experiment with different styles, elements and effects and evolve after all.
How long have you been creating and sharing your music with the public?
Our first release – the single ‘All over’ – dates back to 2011. That’s also the moment when we started to hit the road and play live.
Who or what influences your playing and/or writing? Also, what motivates you to keep going?
All those artists and bands that produce fantastic studio work and manage to adapt it for playing live, bands that evolve over the time and are exploring new styles and boundaries: Joy Division, Beck, Bowie, Depeche Mode, Metronomy, Arcade Fire, Gorillaz, Interpol just to mention a few…
Our motivation is the love and passion for music and the curiosity to find out how far we can go with Matto Rules.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
The goal with our album “What Comes Around” was to capture all the creativeness, the love, feelings and optimism that accompanied the songwriting process and to bundle it into a great record. I think we did quite well.
What was the last song you listened to?
Night Owl by Metronomy.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
For a real good listen on a brilliant stereo, definitely Vinyl. On the road, nothing really competes with MP3 or better even FLAC.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Bandcamp definitely is our favourite because it enables a direct link between the artist and the crowd. Other than that, we’ve started to use Tidal which convinces with very high quality.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what are one or two of the biggest challenges you face when trying to attract listeners to your music?
I think it’s the same for every band – trying to get the people to actually pay for the music, hahaha!
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more of your music?
We are pretty active on Facebook and Twitter. So If you give us a follow, you’ll stay up to date all the time!
Any last thoughts? Shout outs? Words of wisdom?
Yeah, soon there will be more to be released from Matto Rules! A great DJ is doing a remix for our single “Tonight”. And soon we’ll release another music video to our album song “Caveman”.
