We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Ragland a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Matt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

Sometimes I wonder if life would be easier if I wanted or enjoyed a regular job. The problem is that nothing sounds more boring than a regular job. How simple life might be if I enjoyed a steady job with consistent hours and consistent income! But who wants to do something that they hate? If I force myself to do something that I don’t like for too long, my insides start to deteriorate. With one life to live, doing what you love is not negotiable. But then again so is eating food and paying rent, right? Until your art can effectively pay for your life, some kind of balance must be struck. And establishing this balance is essential to my happiness. That said, I also suck at finding balance, and my happiness absolutely pays that price. So alas, I wonder not what it might be like to have a regular job but to WANT a regular job.

I thrive on art. I thrive on looking so closely at the things that I feel and see that they then have no choice but to reflect back out. With the right amount concentration and clarity, those refections, for me, typically become songs. I know no better feeling in the world than when the reflections come freely. I also know no more frustrating feeling in the world than when they don’t. This makes me think it would be so much easier to be an accountant or a lawyer. But saying I’d be happier as something or someone else is just saying I would be happier if I was a happier person. I’m happy enough. And I’m grateful to have gotten to feel even once the experience of writing a complete song start to finish, knowing that it said what I wanted it to say. I’m sticking with art.

Matt, 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?

I fell in love with music at a very young age but never really thought about trying to make music until I was in high school. I was halfway through high school when one day I saw a friend of mine playing a song that I loved on his brand new guitar. I literally just looked at him playing that song and in that moment thought “well… I can do THAT.” I bought his old guitar from him the next day and never looked back.

Looking back now I was only really interested in writing songs from the beginning. I didn’t aspire to be a great instrumentalist of any kind. I just taught myself songs that I loved on the guitar and then pretty quickly started writing songs of my own. The next year I entered my high school battle of the bands with a few friends and we actually won. When I went off to college, I started writing songs like crazy. It was a really creative and inspiring time for me. I put a band together around those songs and the name of the band is “Nelo” and we went from playing to five people to playing for up to a thousand pretty quickly. This was all right before the music industry became inextricably linked to social media. So, we had an old school approach that relied heavily on word of mouth about our live shows. Eventually, we signed to Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Records.

I’m not sure what I’m proud of most about any of my work in music. I’m just grateful for having gotten to experience what I have experienced thus far. The touring, the stages, the onstage moments… These will never leave me. The camaraderie and simultaneous dis-functionality of the band offstage… It was beautiful and we 100% lived it.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want my art to do for someone else what other people’s art has done for me. It really is that simple. I’ll never know if I’ve accomplished that goal. But that’s a goal that keeps you striving.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The unburdening of your insides. When you make art, you unburden yourself on the inside. “Accomplishing” art is not like accomplishing some kind of objective goal like completing an accounting ledger or drawing up a contract. Art is entirely subjective. You never know with 100% certainty when a piece of art is finished. You just finish it. It’s entirely up to you. There’s a vastness and a freedom to that process that is both beautiful and disorienting at times. You have to catch these creative waves and have the wisdom to know when the wave has reached the beach. If you miss that moment, the wave will surge up onto the beach and then wash you right back out into the ocean.

So, when you ride that wave and hop off at just the right time, there is no better feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: matthewscottragland.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewscottragland/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScottRagland/