Entrance (a.k.a. Guy Blakeslee) just released the great Promises EP and is gearing up for a full-length early next year via Thrill Jockey. In the meantime, he’ll be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Readers, you’re in for some really good stuff.
Blakeslee: Matt Baldwin is a guitar wizard in the truest sense of that oft-misused phrase. He uses the guitar to create other worlds, to traverse psychological boundaries and to invoke states of relaxation or concentration that are non-ordinary and fleeting. I first met and heard him a decade ago in the haze of a then-blossoming California psych-scene, presenting finger-picking explorations with his acoustic 12-string guitar at concerts in Big Sur, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz …
One particular set really stands out: at the Festival In The Forest in Big Sur, 2008—early in the day with the sun beaming down and the tall redwoods behind the stage, Matt “went electric,” walking onstage in a golden robe with a Stratocaster and some Bowie-style make-up on his face and two other musicians at his side, delivering a blisteringly cosmic performance that was in shocking contrast to the previous times I’d heard him play. Since then, his prolific recorded output traces the journey of a gifted instrumentalist at first interested in the traditions of the past, along the way discovering and elaborating upon a sonic vision of the future. 2011’s Night In The Triangle is a personal favorite: a double LP soundtrack for a film that was never made. The 17 songs on this record cover a vast stretch of territory, from the delicate melodic lyricism of “Sketch For Winter” (a cover of Durutti Column) to the brutally dissonant meltdown of “Juvenal Europa” to the playful ethnic sci-fi of closing track “African Genesis.” When I heard this record for the first time, I was amazed and a little bit shocked. Getting to know Matt over the years, I learned he has a parallel career in psychology and psychotherapy, which makes a lot of sense, given the profound revelations I’ve experienced while listening to his mostly instrumental records; it’s as if there’s something encoded just under the surface, some powerful intention speaking through the sound. Matt has a new record that’s in the works, and I recently caught up with him via email to ask a few questions.
How does your study and practice of psychology relate to your musical practice? How does the idea of music as a healing force resonate with you as a guitarist?
I never expected the two to converge, but as it turns out I recently started doing music-therapy groups in the psychiatric hospital where I work. I am also getting involved in the new wave of legal research into psychedelics for use in psychotherapy, where the entire trip experience is facilitated by music.
Did you ever take any lessons? Was there a particular song or artist who was influential on you picking up the guitar at the beginning?
Guitar lessons briefly when I was 11, but I was not a very good student. Teenage solitude was the best teacher. John Fahey.
What role does singing/vocalizing play in your new recordings?
I’m singing and writing lyrics more and more.
What’s the title of your next record? Is there anything you’d like our readers to know about it?
It’s going to be called Platoon.
Matt releases his own music on his label Psychic Arts, and you can find it here.
