A charmingly chaotic chat with South London’s sharpest showman, where talk of gigs, fashion, and David Guetta somehow collide in the Moth Club greenroom.

With a barebones production and devil-may-care attitude, Matt and his band do it all, and better than most. From converting the plain into the neon and wrapping it all up in a whammy finale worthy Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, Matt-Felix is one to start listening to.

After a month and a half of conflicting schedules and my fantastic capacity for procrastination, I was at last, finally, thankfully, able to sit down with Matt-Felix and have a word about himself, his band, his music and his style. Whilst normally it’s the discretion of the journalist or publicist to write a script of questions, and for conversation to stay concise and on topic, we found it impossible to take the line of post-gig chit-chat seriously in any meaningful way. Below is one of my favourite conversations with an artist (and some of my worst reporting), all taking place in the Moth Club greenroom.

So Matt… we’re Live… how was the gig?

‘Subscribe to my channel!’

You haven’t got a fucking channel, Matt.

‘Yeah I really should though… God. As of the gig, the gig was great, actually, really good. We’ve played three gigs in a row, which I don’t think we’ve done in a really long time. Actually we’ve never done three gigs in a row like that… but its great to get into a flow of things you know? You really start to get into it.’

So I want to talk a bit about the Bermondsey gig you played last year. Obviously it was recorded Live and listeners can tune in online. Was there added pressure knowing it was going to be a Live recording?

‘No, no! It actually wasn’t going to be a Live recording! It’s just my guitarist Francesco is a bit of a music nerd. He loves to record all the gigs so we can listen back and hear our mistakes. You know? Hear me be out of tune. My manager Marcus went: “Wow! These sound cool, I’m releasing them!” So…’

No mistakes then?

‘Well… enough mistakes for it to sound improvised.’

Moving on from music, snore.

‘Yeah who the fuck wants to hear about music?’

So everyone asks about artist’s musical influences, where’d your fashion and style come from, if anywhere?

‘The truth is… my fiancé. That is the full-stop answer. All from her, she dresses me.’

What, every morning?

“Yeah.”

Do you think it influences your music in anyway or do you think that your music influences the way in which you… sorry, your fiancé, dresses you?

‘I think it’s the music that influences the way she dresses me. That said, it’s always just kind of been her thing: baggy black trousers… I don’t know quite a lot about fashion. I just like to keep it nice, simple, black, classy… and don’t overthink it? I mean the whole band are in black so we look like a unit, you know?’

Of Course.

‘Opposed to someone in pink, and another in a Hawaiian shirt. Well, my drummer would definitely wear a Hawaiian shirt if I let him.’

I think that’s just in the nature of drummers though, isn’t it?

‘His misses wouldn’t let him wear a Hawaiian shirt either… so in answer to the other question… I can’t remember what is was… basically all of our misses dress us? Anyway. Carry on.’

Back to music.

‘Thank God.’

Um Piss off? Now, you’ve just brought out your Sophomore EP, what’s the process of production been like on it?

‘Well, two of the songs I did at home, all by myself. Not to be all like “Oh I did it all by myself” but it was all on a little laptop, home studio situation. And then on some others, we went into the studio and made up some live drums, embellishing it! It’s been a bit of Frankenstein process, trying to find a process that works for the song.’

So what was it BandCamp? GarageBand?

‘Logic, actually! We’re more pro than GarageBand.’

Pride cometh before the fall, Matt-Felix.

‘Well actually, Steve Lacy did all his tunes on GarageBand… and they sound amazing! So maybe we should.’

Do you think your sound’s changed to fit your growing popularity?

‘Yes, since the last release, definitely.’

Want to expand on that? Matt-Felix?

‘Uh, well okay it actually hasn’t changed that much since the last release, I was just throwing it out there. It’s quite weird because a lot of the songs that we’ve released and are going to release were written a while ago, apart from maybe a couple. It’s a fusion of music I wrote two years ago, and of music written two months ago… you know what I’m trying to say?’

What does you ideal set-up look like for production?

‘Francesco’s done a lot of songs with me, and what he adds is so unique. There’ve been times where the whole band goes into the studio and they add their own style to it. We lay it over and it comes together. But, yeah, sometimes it is just me at home… doing the best that I can!’

Do you have a preference or do you not want to hurt any feelings?

‘No! Not at all! It totally depends on the song. Some songs I’ll demo… and that will literally be it.’

Oh, very Geroge Harrison of you, well done!

‘Oh yeah?!’

You ever heard the demo for Run of the Mill? Breaks my heart.

‘Of course. Who’s your favourite Beatle?’

Ringo.

‘Oh come on now. That is a completely stupid answer. You’re just saying that to piss people off. I love Ringo but in terms of songwriting, it is George Harrison. You’re wrong.’

Whatever. Okay, serious question now, what’s your end goal in music, what kind of career are you looking for?

‘The satisfying thing about [music] is the writing of songs, and playing the gigs. It’s never going to be about the “success”, whatever that might look like for some people, I don’t know. It’s not like “If I play Glastonbury, I’ll be satisfied”. Obviously I want to keep playing to bigger crowds… but the satisfaction comes from the writing of the music.’

Right answer… That being said who would you have in your musical Room 101? Who do you hate right now?

‘Ha! Oh God really? Meg my publicist is looking at me right now, she doesn’t want me to say anything. Well, I actually don’t hate anything right now! I don’t hate that much!’

Don’t be absurd of course you do.

‘On the Uber ride here it was all like Titanium, and all that vapid… Payphone by Maroon Five… it’s NPC music! I learnt that the other day… NPC. Have you heard of that?’

Are you 80 years old? Of course I have.

‘A friend called someone an NPC and I was like “what does that mean!”. It’s non-player character. There’s NPC music out there right now, and it’s made entirely by David Guetta. He’s who I hate.’

So I know you might have two new songs coming out by the end of the year!

‘Did my manager tell you that? Well, we’re trying to figure out which to release and which to finish right now… the pressure is on! There’s a lot of ideas going around that we could choose from, and I’ve just released an EP so I’ve had my head in the ground. I don’t want a break at all, but it’s hard to just say: “that’s the one I want to do next!” You know? And it’s the first time that that’s ever happened. But we’ll get there! Pressure’s a good thing, we just need to get up and make a decision.’

And you have a Christmas show at Shacklewell Arms coming up!

‘Christmas show.’

Yeah well that’s what its called… ‘Christmas at Shack’.

‘It’s not a bloody Christmas show.’

It’s called Christmas at Shack!

‘Who the fuck called it that! Okay, readers, it’s not a Christmas show. I will not be playing Christmas songs. I will not be wearing a Father Christmas hat. But we’re going to be playing the new EP, we’re going to be playing some new songs… maybe. Oh, and we need support! Preferably not David Guetta

You wish you could get him as support.

‘Could you actually imagine… David Guetta supporting Matt-Felix at the Big Shack Christmas show… nightmare.’

Matt-Felix is indeed playing a Christmas show on the 11th of December at the Shacklewell Arms where he may or may not appear wearing a Father Christmas hat. Unfortunately, David Guetta has refused to respond to my emails regarding the possibility of support for said gig. His silence of the matter raises more questions than it answers. Listen to Matt-Felix’s new Sophomore EP, Dark Enough to See, right now on streaming services! Leagues ahead and giving a performance of a lifetime, Matt-Felix is one to start listening to.