We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Solomon Matthew a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Solomon, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
Most recently, the biggest risk I have taken was to start an instagram video series. I call it “The Enigma Sessions”. It is simply a weekly performance, whether a cover or an original song that I post. I was starting to feel like I wasn’t making enough music and falling behind all my peers. I see them making so much music, producing, singing, literally finding words to write (which I find extremely hard at times). I wanted to do something that I could post consistently in this era where social media dominates mental space. Each episode is called a “mystery”, a synonym of “enigma”. So each episode is a mystery in itself. You don’t know the format, whether it is a soft acoustic cover in a bedroom, or a full band in a studio, or even a performance itself. The concept imagery and branding is so open ended, it gives me full artistic freedom to do anything I want, and make each episode my own and as artistic as I want it to be. So far, the response has been amazing. People love each episode and look forward to the next. It brings me joy and shows me that I am really doing the right thing with my life. It also shows me that people really like my music, and my artistic vision. That alone is beyond encouraging.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am Solomon Matthew, a music artist, producer and engineer. I make mainly EDM, Pop and R&B music. I am an artist first. I make music that impacts people in different ways. I feel like I have a lot of life experiences to draw upon that feeds into my writing. I want to make sure that no matter what, people know they are never alone, and they are a lot more resilient that they think. I want to make people feel something when they listen to my music. I love to see people dance and enjoy my music. If everyone in the crowd was dancing to my songs, without even looking at me, I would be happy. I make music for the love of making music. It is something that I need to do no matter what. I feel like I stand apart from other artists because I don’t put myself in a genre box. I make whatever music comes to my head and do it to the best of my ability. I love all genres of music and I like to make all genres of music. I feel like I stick out because my singing voice is very unique. I honestly have never heard of someone who sounds like me and I would love to hear someone who does.
I started playing music when I was extremely young, around 3 years of age. My mother put me in piano lessons and I learned to play piano from the ages of 3 to 11 years old. At 5 years old, my cousin taught me how to play drums, and from then on I taught myself. At 8 years old, my father taught me how to play guitar and from there I taught myself how to play through YouTube. I started making my own music in middle school at 12 years of age. It was something I loved to do as soon as I got home. I would spend hours upon hours in front of my computer, trying to make the best EDM song on FL Studio.
As I got older and started playing guitar in church youth group and producing more, my friends and their families would have me over to play and sing worship music for them. At that time, I never thought I had a good voice, but everyone else around me thought I did. So I started really working on my voice, singing worship songs everyday simply to get better.
High school was when I really started to realize that I want to be a musician full time. I was in orchestras, and concert band. Though I loved playing in both groups, it simply wasn’t what I wanted to for my musical future. I was producing, writing and singing my own songs. I wanted to be on stage hearing people sing back my song to me, and this is still the goal. After I graduated high school, I went to college for a BM in Music Industry. I wanted to know how to break out in the industry. I wanted to know the inner workings of the music industry, how to market and brand myself, how to make an image for myself and how to promote my music. Little did I know, two of my biggest opportunities was around the corner, and it didn’t come from my college.
My friend ran a studio in downtown Columbus, Ohio called Avant Music Group. He invited me there to hang out and see the place. The moment I walked in, I was amazed. The place was filled with equipment I could only ever dream of seeing in real life. He told me I should come by and make music there whenever he is there. I started going there after classes everyday to hang out and make music. After about a year of being there, hanging out with my friend and the owner of studio, I became a staple and a face of the studio. The owner, Gino asked me to come in to run an engineering session for him since he and mu friend would be busy that day. He taught me the ropes of his ProTools template and threw me into the fire with a client I had only met seconds before. I had 2 hours to be the best engineer Avant Music Group had ever seen. That same day, the artist and I finished 7 songs in 2 hours. Gino came back and saw how much work I had gotten done in such a short amount of time with this artist, he smiled, looked at me and said, “you’re on the team”.
I am an artist, musician, producer and engineer. I am able to make any track that you might need whether EDM all the way to Deftones style metal. I am a studio musician for hire, specifically for drums, guitar and bass. I record for any track that needs it, or will play with any group as a fill in. I am also an audio engineer for all types of recordings. Single vocals, full live bands all the way to full orchestras.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think the best way to support artists and creatives is to simply interact with their content. Whether it is liking or saving their post, sharing it with a friend, commenting on the post. Go listen to their music or watch their videos on youtube. I think interacting with the artist is something that artists themselves look forward to. It is something that we live for. We want to talk to our listeners and the people who are even slightly interested in out music or art work. For me, if someone interacts with a post of one of my songs, I feel like I’m doing something right. It gives me joy and makes me feel valued but also it shows me that I must be doing something right. It gives me motivation to make something better for my audience and for myself. Go tell a friend about that new song you found scrolling through Instagram. Go show your mom that cool video of this really small artist dancing to their song. That alone will help artists so much.
I think showing up to smaller artist’s shows is also really important. Small artists get overlooked by the big mainstream artists all the time. Most people would want to go see The Weeknd over a local band. I completely understand that because The Weeknd is amazing. But I’ll spend $50, I’ll never meet him, I may get some overpriced merch and hot dogs, and see an outstanding show. In comparison to going to a small show with 100-200 people, $5 entry, cheap drinks, my friends are around, I get to meet the artists and hang out with them, and I get to see an outstanding show of a different style. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to avoid going to your favorite artists’ show. You absolutely should. But also go to the small artists’ shows too. See how they play live, if you’ve heard them before or not. you might find your newest favorite artist, or you might just be impressed by the musicianship, or you might simply think they’re cool people to be around. The smaller artists like me, WANT to see you and meet you. We want to shake your hand and thank you for just being there bobbing your head. You being present in the room, enjoying our music, means so much to us as artists.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Hearing people play my music on their own because they like it or tell me they like a song or an art-piece I make, is easily the most rewarding feeling of being an artist for me. I released a song in mid 2023 called “Everything Will Be Okay”, and I remember seeing that song pop up on my friend’s top songs on his Spotify. I brought it up to him and he said that him and his daughter listen to it all the time. His daughter took the mouse and started playing the song, and she knew all the words. That meant more than the earth, moon and stars to me. Hearing someone love my song so much that they listen to it on their own, out of their own free will, is easily the most fulfilling feeling. My new series, The Enigma Sessions, I receive high praise for each video I post. People share the videos everywhere and constantly tell me how much they love this series, the music and the singing. They look forward to the next week when I drop a new episode. It brings me immense joy and fulfillment knowing that people look forward to my releases, my music, my art.
Contact Info:
- Website: solomonmatthew.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesolomonmatthew/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theofficialsolomonmatthew
- Other: Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@thesolomonmatthew Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/45CAAYZEXQR9Hx62EhCESo?si=G5eVuipBRVGLECvru2Xj4g Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/solomon-matthew/1666763123 Artist Inquiries/Booking Email: [email protected] Mixing, Mastering, Production, Engineering, Studio Musician Inquiries: [email protected]
Image Credits
Danshaw Smith Jr