Matte Blvck

Matte Blvck, purveyors of dark, sexy goth-industrial sonic textures, visit with the Void to discuss their recent tour, the future of the band, and the lessons they've learned. 

Featured Songs:
Matte Blvck - House of Serpents


Visit https://matteblvckmusic.com/ for more Matte Blvck
Visit https://glomfest.com/ for more information about Glomfest.
Visit https://darkforcefest.com/ for more information about Dark Force Fest

Transcript

Hello again and welcome to Void Signal. This episode is a short chat with three members of the SoCal, goth-industrial outfit, Matte Blvck. Matte Blvck has been producing dark electronic music for around five years now and have caught the attention of many, both inside the scene and out. In addition to headlining their own successful U.S. West Coast tour, they're the special guest for the upcoming Glom Fest in Los Angeles, and, just announced, they'll be headlining at Dark Force Fest next year. They've also got a new song out as of time of this episode's release. 

I caught up with Alex, Bidi, and newest member of the crew, lighting director Dane, for a short chat before their performance in Sacramento some weeks ago. But before we get to the chat with Matte Blvck, a few words from our sponsors.
Glom Fest is coming, baby. The West Coast is going to get lit up when The Royal Ritual, The Awakening, Dark Chisme, and the whole Glom lineup rolls through L.A., San Francisco, Portland, and Vancouver next month. Get your tickets now and come see me at the L.A. and San Francisco dates. Say hello, do a short interview, see a fantastic lineup. It'll be rad. Get your tickets now, visit glomfest.com for more information. That's Glom, G L O M fest.com.

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Okay, our time is at an end. Enjoy this chat with Matte Blvck and we'll talk again next week. Stay safe, stay loud. 



Brian: [00:00:00] Welcome to Void Signal. I'm your host, Brian Prime. I'm here with Matte Blvck, uh, Alex, Bidi and Dane. Um, it's good to see you. Uh, I'm very excited for the show tonight. Uh, I've been a fan of the band for a long time. Oh wow. This is like my first chance to see you guys. I've known this guy a little bit longer.

Oh yeah. Um, yeah. Julian, Katy. Yeah. Ran into him at, uh, Julian Kay. Show in like 2017 or something. I was like, that guy's cool. For whatever reason. Wait, wasn't I dragging a piece of toilet paper on my boot? Yeah. Bathroom. I was you on stage like that? Um, uh, but, you know, kept in the circle and, uh, congratulations on all your success.

Thank you. How is Tour going so far? 

Alex: Um, I, it's been very consistent. Um, it's the first time that we are a bit at ease. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, we've had really big crowds so far and, you know, we heard from the people here at that, [00:01:00] that the cells are going really well here too. And, you know, for a band like us.

We, we've only been around for five years. Yeah. Um, and during the pandemic, so Yeah. And not knowing if someone's gonna show up or not is, tends to be a, a, a thing, you know? There's the music and the creation and the art, and then there's also the part of the business, which kind of sucks. 'cause you're kind of like, yeah.

Oh my God. Like, are people showing up? Are people and yeah, it's been really amazing. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, I did have a moment in, in Berkeley where I just kind of was able to, it slowed down for me where I was kind of like, okay, wow. Like these are real fans. Yeah. And I, I kind of got a little emotional 'cause it was kind of like I tell them 

Bidi: about 

Alex: the.

About the what? 

Bidi: About like how our peers and, or, you know, people who have been doing this longer than us, telling about how they told you to, like the take it in or soak it in. 

Alex: Yeah, yeah. You know, some of our peers had a lot more successful people. Mm. They've, they, they said that the work is just a part of their, their [00:02:00] life and you kind of tend to forget.

Mm-hmm. And maybe not notice. How things went. And he's like, this is the most important moment for you guys. Just like, just take a moment and look at it. Um, because we're go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Oh my God. Like hundred miles an hour. Uh, how much merchs we, I mean, we've become a merch company apparently now we sell shirts.

Yeah. Uh, and you know, and, and part of the job is to go on the road and be away from our families and, mm. We have to sell tickets. Right. You know, we have to, that's part of the, uh, the job. And, um, yeah. I've, I think it's the first time I've always had fun in our tours. Um, but we've been very strategic with not overextending ourselves.

Yeah. Um, which is why we've never played in SA in Sacramento. Mm-hmm. You know, kind of like testing the water. Yeah. Whoa. Let's do LA Oh, we're okay. We did get in la Okay. Well, San F Francisco 

Bidi: last year. Try San Francisco. Okay. But we would never try to do like SA Sacramento, San Francisco Central Valley.

Yeah. We, 

Alex: we [00:03:00] just don't know because we might be completely broke by the end of it. 'cause Sure. We shouldn't, probably shouldn't be touring if we don't have the fan base. Yeah. But. Man, I'm, I'm just excited about the way things are going right now, and, uh, I think we're all in a really good place. Um, and, um, I mean, Dane, he, he's been with us.

He's our ld. He's the visual aspect of the band, which is a very important thing, and we need to make sure that. He can eat. Yeah. You know? Absolutely. Like we, we play in a band. We play in a band and all that. And, you know, it's, it's very hard to, to kind of do what we do. But, uh, yeah, I'm just very excited right now where, where we are as far as, uh, the career is.

Yeah. Um, I feel like there's something in the air, like something's actually happening. Yeah. Yeah. 

Brian: And uh, it's interesting too just to see, because, um, you know, knowing Betty from the early days of like, you know, you were all had full-time jobs. Yeah. Um, so it was like. Busy people trying to make the dream work.

Yeah. And um, there's a [00:04:00] lot of quality that goes into like the matte black brand. Mm-hmm. Like the merch is great. Um, logos are great. Everything always looks really clean and slick and, um, hats off. Wonderful job. Um, but uh, yeah, it has sort of, uh, it does feel like a momentum I guess. Um, so Well, well deserved.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So what are. For just riding this wave until the next thing. 

Alex: Um, we, we, we wrote this, the last album. I, I feel like we wrote it, um, towards like longer periods of time because we, we spent, we made our first album and then we. We spend our time marketing the band to try to grow a fan base, and we try to grow the business of the shows, you know, and slowly, so we had to invest a lot of time in that.

So, uh, the last album, we, I feel like we worked on it little by little, little by little, little by little, little by little. I mean, I don't think a, a band like us should have. [00:05:00] Two full albums already. Right. It's a, a lot of work. Yeah. And they have to all tie well together and it has to be cohesive. Right. At least like, uh, the quality of the work, we wanna make sure it's good.

Sure. Uh, so there's a lot of pressure there when we're doing that, but I think now that I feel like we have some level of control over the shows. We can now revert back and go back to creating music. Uh, our goal is to, uh, work on the next phase of the band and the next phase of, of the music. We, uh, are about to sign to a label called Breathing Records.

Um, they're gonna take over our old catalog. And then we're gonna do a new album. So I didn't wanna write another album 'cause it nearly killed me. Sure. It was very difficult to make, especially since we do it all in house. Yeah. We pay for it in house, we ship it, we deliver it, we make it everything. Uh, but I think right now I'm really excited about the new work.

I've always told him, I, I don't think we've written our best [00:06:00] stuff. Yeah. And I'm excited to go there. I'm excited to tap into that. Um, because now we actually gonna have time to really put it in there and really do the work that we wanna do, which is experiment with, um, different instruments, experiment with different ways of recording.

Uh, I feel like there's gonna be a lot more patience and, um, I, I feel like we have really good music Sure. Still in there that we haven't tapped into. Yeah. Um, I mean, we've wrote really, we have a new song that, um, we might be releasing in a few weeks or maybe a month. We wrote that in like in a day. Mm-hmm.

And we're like, man, there's, there's, there's juice. Yeah. Yeah. There's still, uh, some stuff in there and I'm just kind of excited about the next phase. So the next phase is gonna be a new album for sure. Yeah. We're gonna continue playing shows. Um, we wanna improve the show. Um, you haven't seen the, the live show yet, right?

No, I haven't. 

Brian: I 

Alex: was gonna talk, uh, 

Brian: I wanted to talk to Dane a little bit and ask, like, uh, coming into this, as, you know, an outside component [00:07:00] of, um, I have seen video of the live footage and it's made me excited for the Matt Black Show. Thank you. Um, what did you, um, how did you feel kind of stepping into this role for the, for the band?

How did you land it basically? 

Dane: Well, um. I guess that's kind of interesting. Uh, these guys found me at a old underground venue that I used to work at in San Diego. Hmm. Um, and this was very close to the beginning of my lighting design career. I, I used to be in architecture before this and I transitioned into this.

Um, and I started my lighting design career in 2021, also just after the pandemic. So, um. This was all very new for me, but my, you know, my beginning in lighting design was doing lighting for, uh, a lot of like techno music and like underground kind of events. So, um, that kind of look, um, applied very well to what Matt Block does.

So. [00:08:00] Um, I, you know, for me it was very natural in terms of like, oh, just do what I've been doing. Yeah. But you know, now it's for a band's music instead of doing it for like, some random dj. Right. Um, so, you know, being that it was very much at the beginning of my career and it was, you know, in a lot of ways the beginning of map blocks kind of rise.

Mm-hmm. Um, I felt like it fit very well because we were both. We kind of able to grow together. Um, he, he's 

Bidi: just as obsessed as us with his, with his craft. 

Brian: Yeah. 

Bidi: When we were, we were writing together LA one day and this fucking guy's listening to podcasts about lighting, dude. And I'm like, this is what he does.

This is this passion. So. That, that felt good to know that he, that he gives himself homework. Mm-hmm. I didn't know there were podcasts about 

Brian: lighting. It's an untapped market. I, yeah. And, um, there's dozens of us. 

Alex: We always, we always knew going into the band. 'cause I played in Julian [00:09:00] Kate too. 

Brian: Yeah. 

Alex: Um, and, and new division.

And we have a bunch of bands and no one ever cared about the lights. No one cared about the show. Mm-hmm. They cared about just doing the like playing. And I'm like, man, like the visual aspect is such an important thing. So for off the bat, and I think why Matt Black, it kind of worked immediately is that the package was set from the moment we did our first song, the visual aspect was already there.

Our visualizers, the, 

Brian: yeah. 

Alex: Super stro kind of, um. I dunno, like mechanical kind of looking. 

Brian: Yeah. 

Alex: Um, the fixtures and the way he set up the lighting, it just fits that. 

Brian: Yeah, 

Alex: for 

Brian: sure. 

Alex: Um, it looks like the videos. Yeah, it looks like, and I feel that, that, that was just always an important thing as for us to, to do.

Uh, 'cause you know. Um, there's a lot of bands that program the lights. Mm-hmm. You can tell they're programmed. Mm-hmm. It's like one, two. Yeah. There's a humanity to the way he does it. [00:10:00] Uh, I mean, today they don't allow haze and it still looks freaking incredible because he now has to work within his means to make it look good.

Sure. And he, and you'll see what he end up doing. Yeah. And that's awesome. Yeah. Um, you know, he, he works on the fly, so it's, we're really happy to have him. 

Brian: Yeah, and from what I've heard, and I'm excited for the live representation of this thing because, um, albums and releases have been great and I've been excited to get to the chance to see you guys.

And I heard, you know, through back, you know, uh, private conversations. Someone go, oh, I wasn't. All that into Matt Black until I saw them live and they, uh, complete like, oh shit, this band is fire. So I'm excited to see the lighting in person for myself. Um, yeah, and I do think that is such an important component, especially since we have bands on the scene that elevate lighting and stuff for live shows like health and things like that.

Yeah. We just really deliver on the performance aspect. Huge fans. Um, I work, you know, I recall seeing per in my Yes. Amazing performance, but the [00:11:00] lights blew my mind. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah. Um, awesome. I'm glad that that attention to detail I think has served, um, you guys really well because like I said, everything comes across as so slick and cohesive and, uh, one vision.

Well, I don't wanna keep you guys too long. We don't have too long before the door and stuff. We're, 

Alex: we got time, man. We're, we're 

Brian: chilling. Okay, cool. 

Alex: And Neil, 

Brian: our lives Neil for. Yes it is. Yeah. Yeah. That's our, yeah, so that's our, 

Alex: uh, our, our friend. Yeah. And he did, he did a shirt for us. 

Brian: Yes, I am sold out fast, man.

I wish we had more, I found out about it long, too late and I was like, I don't even have one. So I have, okay, such a good shirt. Gimme your, when. I was excited to finally get a hoodie. Um, 'cause I went to go buy one and Wow. It's good quality. You feel it? It was amazing. Yes. I was very pleased. Yeah. Uh, I take my hoodies and my garments very seriously.

Ah, okay. So, you know, am I gonna spend money on that shitty hoodie? Um, but Okay. Uh, [00:12:00] what is, um, bitty you've. You've been a little quiet for a little bit of this. You feel, feel you've interview me before, how you feel. That's 

Bidi: why I'm like letting Alex and Dane kind of, 

Brian: um, what do you feel is the band's trajectory, um, from this point and where do you see yourself 

Bidi: in that?

Man, it's um. That's a hard question for me. Uh, Alex has a better idea. I mean, we, it, it, I, I don't like to count my eggs before they hatch. Sure. But does it feel different this time af After being in this industry for 10 years and playing in a lot of bands, it does feel different for me. It really feels exciting, like it's gonna reach.

Higher ground. Mm-hmm. But I don't know if it's just me. Like there's like, I'm a little scared sometimes inside. I'm like, well, I better not get too excited. 'cause Yeah. It might not happen, you know? But it does. I feel it in my bones more like and more because it's, it's our [00:13:00] music. Sure. You know, like, even though I, I loved my role in, in, uh, Julian Kay.

Um, I did get to write music with them and stuff like that. But it was something that they had already established. But this time around I'm seeing the fruits of the labor, I'm seeing the audience grow in a healthy pace. Um, I'm looking at how it's gonna end up being something very special. Mm-hmm. It's funny because, you know, I think Alex was saying yesterday, who are we talking to?

You're like, someone said, where, where, how big do you guys want to get? I don't know if it's, I mean, what kind of question is that? Obviously we want to get huge, but. Setting goals is important. So I, um, what's the word? Uh, goals with, uh, small, I wouldn't call 'em small goals, but goals where you say, Hey, you know what?

I wanna be able to play Thousand achievable goals. Achievable goals. Like a, like a, like a theater. 

Alex: Yeah. Yeah. Luckily 

Bidi: I've done theaters and I've done arenas in the past with different bands, but theaters feel great. It's still kind of personal. Mm-hmm. [00:14:00] I know it sounds, I don't wanna talk about finances 'cause it's not rock and roll, but finance financially, it's safer for us to be like, oh my God, we're selling out theaters at 1,500 capacities.

I can sleep better at night knowing that I'm not gonna be broke all the time. Right. Yeah, 

Alex: absolutely. 

Bidi: Um, but I mean, taking all that out of the picture. To me, it's about building a legacy and building a catalog. Yeah. Um, I saw this great interview of Robert Rodriguez and he said that he said, nothing beats having a, a body of work.

He's like, you never know which one's gonna be the one. He's like, I've built so many movies and I didn't know which one was gonna be the one, but I consistently did it. I made a brand and a name for myself, and the next thing you know, one of my movies was huge. 

Alex: Mm-hmm. 

Bidi: So I think if we continue to deliver great music, a great brand, a great life show that it's gonna be undeniable.

Mm-hmm. That our fan base is gonna [00:15:00] grow even more. And that this could be something really, really special. 

Brian: Yeah. 

Bidi: Agree. 

Brian: Um, quick change of, uh, shift of gears. Um, you are Latinos living in South Southern California. Um, how does the current state of the world reflect on mad black, if at all? 

Alex: Uh, I'll, I'll, I'll tap into that a little bit.

Um. I'm terrified, you know, to be, to be quite honest, um, my, my dad, when he was 16 years old, came here illegally and, and risked his life. Uh, essentially left his family and and Mexico to come here as a 16-year-old. 17. 'cause that's how young he was in 80, uh, 85 to work at Pizza Hut, you know, and all that he's ever wanted to do and wanted to do is work so he could take care of me.

Right. Had he not done that? I don't, [00:16:00] we wouldn't be talking right now. Who knows what my fate would've been. Um, I just, the how ICE is conducting, um, the raids and all that. I think it's. It is awful. I certainly understand that the law is a law, but you know, at least when my dad, he did get caught eventually, but there was due process.

Mm-hmm. He had a court hearing, he had family members write letters for him, it wasn't like. Here. Uh, you're a kid. Yeah, you too. Oh, you know, picking it is crazy. It's terrifying. Um, and yeah, we're Latinos and it, and it, and it hurts us, man, because we, we love our people. We love, uh, our culture, we love our food, we love, um.

Our farmers who I, I'm just not sure how things are gonna change. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, I'm genuinely terrified for a lot of people because I, I, I know a lot of people that, that, that are gonna be affected by that, [00:17:00] especially since we're from Calexico in, in a border city. Yeah. Um. It's just, it's wild times, man.

Um, the way I look at it's like three more years and, you know, hopefully everything. So it's just, I'm just trying to, you know, stay calm as possible and, you know, hope that, hope for the best. But yeah. Sure. 

Brian: And I mean, I, it is sort of the, the downside of it, right? Is that like, you know, I also find myself at a good point in my career and highlighted my life, but it is backdrop by this very grim situation we find ourselves in Absolutely.

Yeah. Um, okay. Uh, I will go ahead and hit you with the last question of the show, of course, but this to each of you, um, what is something that you've been, uh, enjoying recently? Uh, and your answer can be anything, both movie, tv, show your dog, just what's got you jazzed when you get up. 

Alex: Uh, right now I've been enjoying, um, I've been making a lot of techno music.

Yeah. Like one, like 1 25, 1 [00:18:00] 30. Yeah. And just kind of learning the process of that, of how, like those producers kind of work. Mm-hmm. Um, that's been getting me excited. And right now I, I do own three businesses. Matt Black would be one of them, but I also have my personal business and I've just love kind of, I've become acclimated with.

A stressful environment of Sure. Of being self-employed. Mm-hmm. But I'm starting to kind of like, almost like I feel like I've cracked the code. Like, okay, thanks. This is what you do, this is how you do it, and this is how you get it done. And I've just kind of been loving that, that process right now in my life.

I feel like something switched and, and, and in my brain where I'm able to kind of move things around. Um, and you know, obviously being with my family and kids and I have three kids. Um, and yeah, just kind of. That must've been my, my world lately. Yeah. Very busy. Yeah. 

Bidi: Uh, what about you, Betty? Oh, it's actually been an interesting year for me.

Uh, I'm [00:19:00] actually sober and clean now. I've been sober for about six months. This is a non-alcoholic drink, by the way. You're like, no, you're not. Uh, yeah. I've just been working on myself, my mental health and, um, the, the thing is, um. I just didn't, you know, I didn't want to be a waste of talent 'cause uh, I'm really exploring a lot of my skills right now and, uh, you know, the drinking and the drug use is really, really bad.

But I'm really enjoying sobriety and being clean and, um, rewiring my brain, rewiring my lifestyle. Hmm. Um, that's been a huge thing in the last six months and I think the best of me is yet to come. Hmm. I think in the pa I think I was just doing enough. 

Alex: Yeah. 

Bidi: Like I'm good. Like I have talent, you know? Sure.

But I think that now a lot more focused me. Sure is, is gonna reach new, new, new grounds, new heights. And, uh, I'm, I'm really excited to see that. Yeah. Good for you. [00:20:00] And, 

Brian: uh, for those at home who can't see, but he looks great. Yeah. Yeah. Doing well. Uh, Dane, what about you? 

Dane: Uh, yeah. Um, I'd say the biggest thing I've been excited about lately is I recently transitioned our light.

Show and just my own lighting education into, um, a, a new kind of pro-level lighting control system called Grand Ma. Mm-hmm. Um, which is what any kinda large scale show uses these days, or most of 'em do. Yeah. Um, so, you know, for the longest time I've been running lights for Map Black and for, you know, everyone else with kind of like an entry level mid-level lighting control software.

So this kind of gives us. Um, a lot more, uh, you know, things that I can do with the lights so you can scale it up to much, much, much bigger lighting productions. 

Brian: Sure. 

Dane: Um, and, uh, yeah, I've just been getting excited about kind of wrapping my head around that. And this is the [00:21:00] first Tour Earth Map block that we're, we've kind of broken that out on.

Yeah. So, um, 

Brian: dedication to your craft. A 

Dane: lot of, a lot of new things. You, this 

Brian: one. Uh, and my manager Sadie. Uh, hi. Hi Sadie. Uh, 

Sadie: hi. 

Brian: What have you been enjoying recently? 

Sadie: Oh, man, I get to answer this question. 

Brian: Yeah. 

Sadie: I don't know. Okay. So I have recently, I don't love the sun. I don't like being hot. I don't, I don't do the outside.

Um, but I have been enjoying doing things once a week on the weekends, on my time off. For me, things I enjoy because we don't get the time back. You know, like you have three businesses, I am sure you enjoy doing all the little things, the stress, even because you're addicted to it. Yeah. You know, uh, the children and all their screaming heads off.

Um, you know, the, the sobriety, you know, you, [00:22:00] um, see. View the, the world differently and you're experiencing it for the first time and you know, just your, your craft and your dedication mm-hmm. You are going to make something, you know, and you're gonna be proud. You're gonna be able to look back and, and say, I did that.

Mm-hmm. So me, I don't know. I small scale and I'm enjoying my time. 

Brian: Amazing. Yeah, good answer. Uh, I always answer myself, um, what the fuck about gonna drink? Um, uh, not to get too, like wholesome or anything, but, uh, kind of the same answer. I've just been enjoying my life and it has been difficult at times given the state of the world.

But I, I think we all have to just keep doing what we can, uh, operating within our spheres of control and trying to grab as much joy and, um, happiness for ourselves as we can while we can, because fucking who knows what's gonna happen. Okay. That is it. Thank you. Thank you all so much for your time. Much appreciated 

Sadie: you.

He's also very [00:23:00] smart.