We recently connected with Matt Basler and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I knew I wanted to pursue music when the devil came to me in a dream. “Matt,” he said, “I am the devil and I speak to you in the dream realm. Turn away from the songs that bind you to the heavenly coil and grunt and spit with me in the deep deep well of gloom.” It was a tempting offer, but I knew then and know to this day that the devil is the king of tricks. Still, when I tried to rebuke the him, no words would come. I felt my hands reach for him as if they had a mind of their own. The devil’s eyes gleamed and he began to hop up and down, spinning and urinating everywhere. I felt certain that I would be the maiden of despair for the rest of my days.
In my sadness, a tear fell from my eye. As it fell – crawled – down my cheek, I realized it was not a tear, but a small ant. More and more ants trickled from my eyes. Soon they were pouring and began crawling all over my body, covering me in a wriggling, living cocoon. The devil made it no secret that he hated this. “Wretched boy!” he hissed, stomping his cloven feet.
When I was fully coated in ants, I sang out in the most beautiful voice, or rather, voices. Every ant lent its sound to me in a beautiful, harmonious choir. The devil’s head exploded.
When I woke up, I called my manager at Dairy Queen and put in my two weeks.

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

Growing up, I was really interested in ants. I had an ant farm, but was disappointed when I learned you couldn’t ship a queen through the mail. This meant that your ant farm was always destined to fail. So rather than bring the ants to me, I decided to bring myself to the ants. Every Summer I would choose a colony of ants in our yard to receive my “divine blessing.” I would place gifts of cheese, old cake, caterpillars, rotten fruit, and even road kill when I could get my hands on it right at the entrance to their kingdom. I’d spend hours each day watching them bring tiny chunks of my present into their hole. Sometimes I swear they would even look up at me with awe. This is the energy I bring to my songs.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

One time while I was squatting over one of the anthills in our yard Mother said to me, “Matt, you can’t waste your time on this anymore. Please. Bruce called and he said you didn’t come into work today. Is that true? Matt. Matt?” I ignored her and Bruce (my DQ manager). So many people in your life will tell you that you can’t, but I am here to tell you that you can!
In fact that Summer, Gatherer’s Hope (the name I gave to that ant colony) grew to incredible size. I loved the way their borders were so defined by the places in the yard the grass wouldn’t grow (Father did not like this).
Now I have people telling me I can’t be a musician. The Devil, Mother, Father, Bruce, and so many more. So so many. But my drive, my goal, is to see my fame and fortune grow. Just like those ants, I want my music to spread and choke out the grass. I want to cover the earth in dirt. That’s my goal.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There’s a classic episode of Friends where Ross has to move. He doesn’t want to move because the new apartment doesn’t allow monkeys and he has fallen in love with Marcel. He spends a lot of the episode telling Joey that life is not worth living if he can’t kiss that special monkey. Without the tender smooch of Marcel, he’d rather be worm food. I have never fallen in love with a monkey, but this reminds me of when I had to move to the city to be closer to the action. All the hot venues were in the city, not in my small, rural town. The relationship I had formed with the ants was not romantic, but rather that of a God and his subjects. Could I handle going from being worshipped by thousands to perhaps mocked by a handful at an open mic? I wasn’t sure, but I knew I had to take that chance.
So this country boy-ant-God picked up his guitar, hopped on a bus, and moved to the city! I actually felt like a tiny ant when I arrived. So many people! It made me wonder if all of my success has come from a giant creature laying meat at my doorstep. Metaphorically I mean. I know for a fact no one has ever actually left meat at my doorstep unless perhaps they do it at night and a stray dog takes it before I get a chance to find it.
By the way, there are ants in the city and they’ll come right inside your house!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.mattfbasler.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mattfbasler
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mattfbasler
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mattfbasler
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/mattfbasler

Image Credits
Courtney Jones