Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Matt Kollock. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Matt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

All my life, I wanted to be a professional musician. Well, that’s 47 year-old me speaking. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a ROCK STAR.

The music bug infected me at a very young age via exposure to older siblings’ records, the radio stations my school-bus driver favored and the early days of MTV. Right away, I could sense that music was a language, and I had a gift for understanding – and speaking – it. And I knew I wanted to perform on stages, travel on tour buses, make records in studios and hang out with others who spoke the same language of music.

I excelled at piano lessons. Later, after finding an old nylon-string acoustic guitar in the basement, I advanced quickly on that instrument, as well. All the while, throughout childhood and into adolescence, I was obsessed with music. Not only playing it, writing it and performing it, but also absorbing it, integrating it and paying attention to all the things that make it work. I was expanding my vocabulary. I was beginning to find the others.

Of course, growing up in the rural midwest, my rock star dreams were tempered by serious expectations that I would do something “respectable” with my life, that I would restrain my musical ambitions. Maybe keep it as a serious hobby, and who knows? I might be able to give lessons or something to earn some extra cash. I hated these expectations, but I internalized them anyway. Maybe I wouldn’t be a ROCK STAR. Maybe I couldn’t. Shouldn’t. Maybe they’re right?

I coped by convincing myself that it was okay; I didn’t need to actually work at music anyway. It always came easily to me. So a wildly successful career in music, in one form or another, would somehow magically manifest, too, right? Although I was discouraged by the circumstances of my upbringing, I figured I would just be “discovered” anyway. Surely someone is going to notice me and give me a big box of money to write songs and make records, right? Ha!

So I got started on my half-ass “career” in my teens by playing in cover bands. Into my twenties, I continued my musical endeavors by doing as little as possible, waiting to be discovered. Once that happened, then yes, I would be given my advance and hole up in Malibu or something and start writing my first album. No need to write songs now. No need to work too hard now. That was the attitude. And I regret it so much.

I want to go back and tell 20 year-old me that no one is going to “discover” him. No one cares, in fact! I want to tell him that success is possible, but only through passion, hard work, devotion and productivity. I want to tell him to write tons of songs, play in lots of bands, talk to more people, make more connections, improve your craft… On and on. There is so much I want to convey to that disillusioned and, honestly, delusional young man.

I’ve been a musician off and on over the intervening years. I always had a guitar around. Sometimes I played it every day. Sometimes I was in bands. Other times I didn’t play at all. Often for months at a time. I dropped out of audio-engineering school. I never got discovered. I turned 30. Turned 40. I was not in a good place.

There was a still a musical pulse, though. I never lost my ability to speak the language. I never stopped paying attention. And at a certain point, I realized that life is extremely short and we all die, so why am I not making music the focus of my life? I certainly wasn’t excelling at whatever random jobs I was trying to hold down.

So I decided, in 2018, to take one more shot at the ROCK STAR, er, professional musician life. I couldn’t go back and speak sense to my younger self, but in my 40s, I realized I could do everything I wish I had done back then, just with much more wisdom, humility and valuable life experience. Thankfully, I retained much of my youthful appearance and vigor over the years!

I wrote songs. I went to all the open mics. I worked on my voice. I filled in the blanks with regard to my production/engineering/mixing abilities. I started actually doing the work. This is when my music career truly began. At age 41.

Since then, I’ve performed on numerous stages around the country, written dozens of really good songs (and hundreds of really bad ones) while releasing two full-length solo albums and one EP, containing music written, performed, produced, mixed and mastered entirely by me. Recently, I’ve been branching out as a producer/writer collaborator on projects others have percolating behind the scenes.

Honestly, I’m glad it’s all worked out this way. It’s not easy. But it’s not easy for anyone these days to make things work as a musician. And I’ve been able to avoid all the public embarrassment that would have come with pursuing this career more seriously and experiencing success as a young man.

I have a long way to go to get to where I want to be, and I could spend my time feeling really bad about wasting my youth. But here I am. I know what it takes now. And I have a lot to say.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

All my life, I’ve been obsessed with music. Not just the music, but the ephemera around it. The mythology. The lore. The albums and album covers and liner notes and interviews. The lists of gear and locations of recording studios. The connections within artist discographies and to their influences… Everything. This has informed my approach to my craft in significant ways.

As a musician/songwriter/producer, I come to the table with a visionary approach, deep knowledge and a meticulous attention to detail because I am obsessed with this stuff! Music means so much to me, especially when the stakes are high.

As an artist, I strive for originality and excellence. As a songwriter, I am devoted to making each song its own undeniable world. As a producer, I want to make records that work on multiple levels while rewarding the most devoted listeners.

Albums are like novels, like films, to me. The greatest records are timeless pieces of art. They are records of an artist’s expression that we should all feel extremely lucky to experience.

At the same time, music is just so much fun! I think in the midst of all this high-minded talk about the seriousness of great art, it’s crucial to remember that feeling good is what we’re all after at the end of the day. Music can make that happen better than anything, I think.

The creations I’m most proud of, my albums, are evidence of all this. They deal in big ideas and concepts. They contain lore and mythology to satisfy the most serious deep-dive listeners. They are detailed and meticulously made. They exist in a lineage of records by similar artists I admire. But they are also full of silliness and whimsy. Not to mention really good songs that get in peoples’ heads and make them want to shake their bodies!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I have a lot of ideas on this, but generally, I wish art and the creations of creative people were held in higher esteem. For various reasons, though, art has lost much of its value in the estimation of society. People think it should be free, in many cases, which is ludicrous to me!

But honestly, I think society is doing the best it can with what it’s being given by the entities that control/restrict art, entertainment and other creative works. These entities have prioritized “art” that emphasizes division or is mean to incite rage, and have conditioned society to ignore or dismiss anything that doesn’t produce an instant hit of dopamine or cortisol. And it’s kinda gross! This is largely what has devalued art, I think.

So what can society do? Demand better from the powers that be, the entities whose algorithms dominate our feeds.

Also, I feel like expert curation is lacking. Curators make sense of art, art scenes, trends and tastes. They also give the gift of letting people know what’s good and what’s crap. I would love more of that. Of course, the line between curator and gatekeeper is a blurry one, but I’d be happy to bring more gatekeeping energy back to our world if it meant better curation of the modern art/content firehose blast.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Other people. Of course, I knew other people existed when I was young, duh! My problem was that I thought I had it all figured out and that I didn’t need them. Like there was nothing anyone else could teach me. Oof, that’s a tough one to reckon with.

I’ve learned, perhaps a little too late, that connections with other people are 100% the greatest resource an artist can have. No question. Just simply being associated with other like-minded creative and supportive people is the most valuable thing in the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mattkollock.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattkollock/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mattkollock
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2YUTGmVMdgoIhDygufjKVt?si=NP9ScJE3T0OqBeZdDGfs_w

Image Credits

Nate Lemuel, Darklisted Photography
Album cover art by Matt Kollock