Mathew Jonson: Agent of Time

We speak to Canadian Mathew Jonson about his debut solo album, Agents of Time, released on his own Wagon Repair label this month.

Despite an accomplished back catalogue of 12s and EPs for M_Nus, Perlon and Wagon Repair which he's produced variously alone; with his brother as HRDVSION; as part of Cobblestone Jazz or as a member of Modern Deep Left Quartet, somehow, it's taken Mathew Jonson ten years to release his debut solo LP.

Now it's here, it may not be what you expect. Instead of pure dance floor fodder, it's scattered with dreamy, meditative moments, barely-there melodies and edgeless beats which are all colourfully interwoven by Jonson into a nicely complete listening experience. 'When Love Feels Like Crying' is one of the most majestic, beautiful pieces of electronic music you could wish to here, whilst 'Marionette ('The Beginning')' is almost as essential as the version which made Jonson his name. Both are stand-out cuts from an album bristling with them.

Read on, then, to find out about a Richie Hawtin 'Marionette' mix that never was, about the effect illegal downloads are having on Wagon Repair and about exactly what gave rise to Agents of Time...

Good morning, how are you today?

I’m good thanks. Finally we have some nice weather here in Berlin.

Same here in Leeds where I saw you on New Year’s Eve.

Yeah, that was a fun party.

Great show - very smart jacket, too [It was a proper DJ]

Haha. I try to look ok when I play I guess. I think it’s important

What, for the same reason album art is important?

Ya of course, in a way. But on stage it’s more just out of respect for the show and the people. Album art is more an expression of the music inside. Don’t have stage costumes per say - not yet anyways but it’s coming I think. I’m in the beginning of working on a stage show for large festivals. It’s only the beginning so not actually sure yet what they will be, but I am working with costume designers that will be doing them for me now. We’re just in the process.

OK so let’s talk about the album. It took you ten years for a solo debut LP, right? Has it been a conscious thing to leave it that long?

No, not at all. But with writing electronic music it’s more focused on the DJ so singles are what have been important for me as I have been writing lots of techno and house. I did a film score with Cobblestone Jazz last year so started writing different, slower music because of this film and then all of a sudden I had a lot of music more suitable for an album

So you never wanted to make a purely dance/house/techno LP then, and the film score was the catalyst to approaching things differently?

Albums I see as different things than 12"s - there is a lot more freedom involved. I don’t think I would do an album with all dance cuts on it. For me, it’s better that when it comes to dance music it comes out fast and gets to the DJs to play whilst it’s current.

So, how long did the album take to write? Where did you write it, what were you listening to and do those outside factors affect the final album or did you have an idea in your head of how you wanted it to start when you set out to write it?

No there was not really a conceptual idea for it. I wanted it to have some context though and I think the fact that the majority was all written in my new studio here in Berlin is what brought that about. Really the only thing that holds it all together is that it was all tracks written over the last year. At first there was actually no intention of doing an album so it’s more like a collection of music from this one year period.

So ‘When Love Feels Like Crying’ must be an early one… I think I heard Seth play that last year?

Yes, and also ‘Marionette (The Beginning)’ is also very old, like from 2004 I think.

I was going to ask – so that version does actually pre-date Marionette? Wasn’t just written now as a prequel? Why did you release ‘Marionette’ and not the ‘(The Beginning)’ version then, may I ask?

Yes it is older and it is the original version. The single I actually released was a remake of the same idea but slightly different of course. At the time I didn't think that the original had enough things happening in the track to make it something worth putting out. But now actually I like it better than the version I did after. Funny story, too…

Because this [‘Marionette (The Beginning)’] is the version that Richie Hawtin was always playing I think most people thought it was a remix he did of ‘Marionette’ from the responses I got. I gave the old versions to Rich and Sven Vath so they could use it as a tool track, but they’re the only ones that had it – it’s never been released before.

I must say the album is beautiful - the whole thing has a dreamy, edgeless-ness to it...

Thank you. I'm happy you feel that way because I was not sure if it would make sense to anyone when I released it.

It’s interesting you say, essentially, the album is a collection of tracks and not something written to go together on an album. Did you do anything to make sure all the tracks worked together as a whole listening experience or is it just luck?! How did you decide on track order for example?

The order felt natural as I wanted to start slow and go into something more up-tempo then get deep and more moody at the end.

What music were you listening to at the time of writing the album? In interviews a couple years ago you said you listened to more hip-hop, d&b, r&b than techno – is that still true?

Ya, it’s still true. I don’t really listen to much techno at home. I do listen to a lot of Moodyman, Theo Parish and Omar S, though, but that’s much deeper than the dance music you usually here in the clubs in Berlin.

Really, Berlin doesn’t do deep?

No they do but it’s more of a morning session thing at Panorama Bar than something you would hear in the middle of the night. Most of the music I listen to in the day is classical music or jazz

But your sounds are deep - deep in a dreamy way - where does that come from?

Probably because I have always used music as a way of meditation so, even though I’m writing techno, the purpose for me is different a lot of the time. I still have my dancefloor tracks, of course, where this is not apparent, but for the most part music is a way of letting my brain and body relax and adjust to daily life.

So will you play any of the album out live? Was any of it written with that intention?

Yes, of course. Tracks 2, 3 , 4 , and 5 are all played out regularly, also track 10 ’When Love Feels Like Crying’. I have played ‘Agents of Time’ as well to close some of my sets.

And what sort of set up do you play them on?

They’re always different - I never really know what I am going to do on stage till it happens. For some big shows though if it’s a really large room I will make a set that is more specific to the setting- like the main room at Timewarp [festival in Germany] for instance, when it has to be big room music.

And which do you prefer - big like that or cosy intimate vibes?

I like both - the setting of a place is always adding its own energy into the music so everywhere I play is interesting in some way new.



How different is it, then, to write/record alone rather than with other people as you often have in the past?

I go much deeper most of the time and its more meditation than it is when I play with Cobblestone Jazz for example, but it really just depends on the intention behind when I go to the studio.

So you're a very heady person...

Ya, I think so.

What are you searching for with your music then? What you want to make people feel/think? Or is it just about you and if we like to listen in, great!?

Sometimes I write music that is dancefloor specific - tracks like ‘put your booty shorts on’ and ‘Sunday Disco Romance’ but the rest of the time it’s really more of a reflection of where I am in my life and the emotions that I am going though on that day. It’s also about being open and being in touch with the sides of the world that are not so easily seen or felt.

Sides of *your* world or sides of THE world...?

The world the universe and everything beyond

Nice. What’s the meaning behind the album or individual song titles? ‘Thieves in Digitaland’ for instance?

It’s about cyber crime. The others have meanings too for sure.

Ah of course - I was thinking along the analgoue vs digital debate

No it’s about stealing things on the net and hacking

Have you been victim of that or is it a general comment?

All musicians have been a victim to that; it’s why the record industry is changing so much since mp3s were introduced. Most people out there are not paying for their music and therefore are really hurting the musicians that they like most.

As a label boss [at Wagon Repair] you must feel it worse than most?

Ya, I feel it, but it’s just something we all adapt too.

…how?

Changing the way you do business and scaling down the costs of things. An example would be the fact that we sell less vinyl now so we can no longer put full color [sic] art on our singles.

That’s a shame for a label which prizes artwork as highly as wagon repair.

Ya, it suck,s but we adapt. We still do art on our albums because there is more money available to do that and now we are focusing on albums and this is something new and even more fun anyways so... Also the new structure we have for singles releases a lot of the pressure to sell a lot and can give us the freedom to release music that we could not necessarily do before if we were considering breaking even. The art we had before with full color [sic] costs almost 5 times more to produce.

OK last question - what’s next for you?

Ah yes, well, as we released the new Cobblestone album in March and now my solo one is out I will be doing an extensive world tour. Europe this month then Japan in July, then back to Europe in August and then back to Japan again in September, October Mexico, November South America, December Europe then January Australia! Then I finish to go relax at my house in Goa, India in Feb and March.

Kristan J Caryl