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

Zach, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Back when Invoke first formed in 2013, we spent many hours applying for every chamber music competition, residency, grant that we could get our hands on. At the time, you could have called Invoke a “straight ahead” string quartet; two violinists, a violist, and a cellist playing the standard repertoire by the greats like Beethoven, Mozart, etc. We did have a hankering for playing new music by contemporary composers (maybe even writing or arranging a piece ourselves) but being only a couple months old, we were still far away from developing any sort of identity. Cue a late night application session between our violinist and violist, Nick and Karl, were they applied to a chamber music competition for “innovative concert design.” Part of this application included describing what makes your concert “innovative” and listing a set list of the pieces that you would potentially perform if you won – this is where things got interesting. Nick and Karl described a concert of completely original tunes written by Invoke where (at the time hypothetically) Nick and Karl doubled on banjo and mandolin, creating a seamless sound blending classical and bluegrass, and shifting the concept of what a string quartet is or could be. As you can probably tell, we advanced in the competition, and Nick and Karl had to update the other two that we suddenly had a couple months to write a whole set of original songs, learn how to play banjo, and incorporate it all into a show. Geoff and I took the news with nervous excitement and we quickly shifted to writing and rehearsing for the show. It definitely was a step outside of our comfort zone as a newly formed group but one that we’re so glad we took ten years later.

Zach, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Multi-instrumental quartet Invoke (Nick Montopoli, violin/banjo/vocals; Zach Matteson, violin/vocals; Karl Mitze, viola/mandolin/vocals; Geoff Manyin, cello/vocals) has been based out of Austin, TX, since 2016.

Invoke’s journey from strangers to string quartet is an intriguing tale. All students at the University of Maryland in 2013, the last place Montopoli, Matteson, Mitze, and Manyin expected to bond over a deep appreciation for new American music was in the heart of Tuscany, Italy, busking for “spaghetti money” on the medieval streets of Siena while there for a summer music festival. That shared spark followed the four friends back to Maryland and from there, excitement, drive, and a desire to stand apart from their quartet competitors in a chamber music competition inspired the group to embrace multifaceted musicality. Learning to play and write music for instruments like the banjo and mandolin, Invoke took their creative scope –– both as composers and ever-curious storytellers –– beyond the bounds of classical convention.

Since their formation, Invoke has been traveling the world, sharing their music with audiences from classrooms and opera houses, to beer halls and dive bars — expanding the scope of what it means to be a “string quartet” as they go. In addition, they have collaborated with many different artists along the way, recording albums for composer Graham Reynolds (A Scanner Darkly), singer songwriter Ruut, and more. The have also self-released three albums of their own music — Souls in the Mud (2015), Furious Creek (2019), Fantastic Panet (2021) — and are excited to announce their newest album, Evolve & Travel, and it’s debut with Sono Luminus which is set for worldwide release, digitally and CD on October 27, 2023.

This new record marks the group’s tenth anniversary and features seven original works. Each song reflects Invoke’s growth as people, composers, and as friends with a rich history of shared creative experiences and personal memories.

Invoke instilled their versatility, compositional creativity, and artistic spirit into the seven original works on Evolve and Travel, while also highlighting the strengths of Mitze and Montopoli as songwriters and composers. The music lets the group completely abandon any semblance of the traditional “string quartet” formality and focus on what makes “Invoke” Invoke –– best friends who make the music they love to hear, weaving together threads of classical technique, folk improvisation, and musical camaraderie.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The people you meet along the way. While Invoke mostly traveling to perform on stage, a big part of the job is getting to meet all the people who make this life possible; other musicians, visual artists, arts presenters, volunteers, students, you name it. Every one has their own spin on what we’re up too and we’ve just gained such a cool extended family of interesting and inspiring people!

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

Staying true to our voice. A big goal of ours has been to play the music we love to hear which can feel like a constantly shifting target. Something we prioritize is having the flexibility in our schedules, rehearsals, meetings, to explore our current interests and build in those new sounds/pieces into the performance. Sometimes that can be tough, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable but we know that it’s crucial to our creative process and in the end, it keeps us all invested in the group and the music fresh.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.invokesound.com
• Instagram: @invoke.sound
• Facebook: /invokesound
• Youtube: /invokesound
• Other: New Album: https://www.sonoluminus.com/store/evolve-and-travel

Image Credits
Marshall Tidrick