Matthew Edwards

My essentials for Stereographics © Matthew Edwards

Alors totalement inconnu au bataillon, en dépit de son passé de leader d’une formation dont le nom aurait dû nous mettre la puce à l’oreille (The Music Lovers), Matthew Edwards est sorti de l’ombre en 2012 avec The Fates, le premier album de ses Unfortunates produit par le multi-instrumentiste Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart, PJ Harvey…). Le merveilleux Folklore a suivi en 2017 sur l’impeccable label londonien Gare du Nord Records, livrant le récit de son retour dans sa ville natale de Birmingham, après 20 ans d’exil en Californie. Avec ses compositions instantanément familières, où se côtoient pêle-mêle rock arty spleenétique, lyrisme boisé et pop capiteuse, Matthew Edwards s’offre une entrée fracassante dans le cercle fermé du songwriting cultivé et typiquement insulaire, tout près de héros de l’envergure d’Edwyn Collins, Robyn Hitchcock ou Stephen Duffy. Élégants et nostalgiques, The Fates et Folkore sont des albums pour lequel l’expression “disque de chevet” pourrait avoir été inventée. En un mot, essentiels. — Julien Sauvageot

LES ESSENTIELS DE MATTHEW EDWARDS

1 — New York Tenderberry by Laura Nyro. In so much as one can consider a record essential so I consider this to be. I have never been without it wherever I have lived and I have bought copies for many of my most loved people. For me it is indispensable – It made me fall in love with the idea of New York as a passionate English schoolboy. This is the first copy I owned so excuse it’s tattiness.
2 — A key ring with my childhood address etched into a steel disc by my father. My Dad loved making things and had a very utilitarian aesthetic. I carry it with me always.
3 — A St Christopher that was given to me by my Grandmother on the day I was born. Nan had 30 grandchildren and for some reason I was the favoured one. It is always on my person.
4 —The Green Book – When I have a song 90% written it goes into this green wallet. It’s from the 1930’s and was a bookmakers racetrack diary/ note-book. I found it in a barn years ago.
5 — A 1963 Guild Parlour acoustic guitar. Bought in Santa Rosa a few years ago from a man who’d owned it from new. Sometime in 1967 he changed the headstock logo to a carved rose. As I walked away from his house with it I turned around and saw he was crying. It was precious to him and it is precious to me.
6 —The Unfortunates by BS Johnson. It gave me the name of my group. I love Johnson although this is not my favourite of his. That would be ‘Trawl’.
7 — A Season Ticket to watch Birmingham City FC. I am a Birmingham City supporter from birth. All my family are from within half a mile from the ground in Small Heath and we all supported the Blues. Being a Bluenose is an awful curse – we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over and over again. BCFC are my only religious affiliation.

Matthew Edwards
Décembre 2017

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My essentials for Stereographics by Matthew Edwards
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