We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Allen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Matthew, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I’ve always known I wanted to do something creative or at the very least artistic. I wanted to entertain. But remember one night at a highschool production of “Cats” the lights went out when I was singing a solo. I kept on singing in the dark and eventually the rest of the show caught up when the generators kicked in without missing a step. I got a standing ovation that night and I knew I would never do anything other than this.
Matthew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Well My name is Matt and I am from a little town called Rosemount MN. I have always been into music but my journey into Hip Hop was a little different than most. I was actually in a pop rock band straight out of high school and I really wanted us to make it big. We changed our name a few times but no matter what we did we never took off. I signed up for a open mic hip hop competition as a joke in hopes of bringing some attention to the band. I fell in love with it and eventually after the band finally called it quits I decided to give music one more run in this new genre. The rest is history. I always say I make hip hop music for anyone who feels a little different and I think that sums up my style pretty well.
I am so proud to say that since making the switch over I have been able to play stages all across the world while being more creative and “myself” than in any other form of music before.
The “Nur-D Club” is what I call my amazing supporters and with their help I have been able to play with some really big names from Ludacris to MisterWives and a lot in between.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Fivver. Honestly I had to teach myself so much editing, graphic design, etc. and while doing this whole thing DYI is super dope and will grant you a whole lot of new skills…I would be lying if I said I would have saved myself a whole lot of time and looked a lot more professional had I just reached out to someone who knew what they were doing already.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I honestly think one of the best things we can do as a society to support artists is to find ways to uplift the ones who share our values. So often people make excuses for an artists behavior when it’s toxic or harmful which feeds back into the collective consciousness because artists are influential.
I think doing this job is a privilege, not a right. So we should be taking a firm stance on artists who continue to display behavior that we know does us no good.
There are so many young, talented, hungry artists who could be getting the opportunities and money that are currently going to artists whose actions have shown they don’t truly value what they have been given.
But if we were to uplift artists we believe in and champion behind those who use their influence for good the our whole society will benefit from it.
Contact Info:
- Website: nurdrocks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurdrocks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NurDClub
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/NurDRocks
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUnPZT25Mww
- TikTok: @nurdrocks
Image Credits
The picture of me jumping should go to Marri Wiegel