Music Mondays got the chance to sit down with a California native known as Matte Roxx!. We discussed everything in this tell all introduction to this extremely talented artist and you won’t want to miss it. 

6/24/22

Zomb: First things first, where are you from and how old are you? 

Matte: I’m from Los Angeles and I’m 19 years old.

Zomb: Wow, I had no idea you were 19. There’s a lot of veteran experience in your voice. What was growing up in Los Angeles like? Tell us a little bit about your early years in LA. 

Matte: When people usually think of LA they envision downtown or Hollywood. I grew up in East Los Angeles/Boyle Heights. My neighborhood is mainly Hispanic/Black culture wise but still traveling Los Angeles I grew up surrounded by what seemed like a spectrum of cultures, music, and art. My youth was kind of the stereotypical low income, high cost of living household/family life. I grew up grateful for what I had when I had it. My mom worked a job to provide for her and I and while she was away, I always had music to help me with my feelings and emotions. At a young age all my family kind of put me on to different genres and languages, generational divides really helped me expand my mindset and knowledge early on and helped mold me and my teen years a ton. I fell in love with music almost immediately after birth, one of my earliest memories was my late dad’s (rest in peace) bumping kanye on his kicker stereo system. I instantly knew all the lyrics to my favorite songs, learned to navigate an Ipod (classic) at about 4/5 years old and started adding counter melodies to songs and filling in censored words with words of my own and I guess that's where my inspiration really started. 

Zomb: That’s extremely well said, so it’s fair to say your early years played a huge part in who you are now. Music is definitely such a huge defining piece of growing up for so many people, with music being a crucial part of your early years. Who are some of your early inspirations? You mentioned you remember Kanye, who else is on that list of your early favorites? 

Matte: My early years definitely were an enormous influence on the person I’ve become. I’ve been through and seen many things a child should never have and that’s where most of my inspirations come into play. People like Kanye West, Blink-182, & Morrissey/The-Smiths really allowed me to channel my emotions and feelings into a healthy outlet, a sort of escape. Their lyrics also helped me recognize I wasn’t alone and there were people who were going through the same situations, thoughts and emotions. Along the way people like Kid Cudi, Lana Del Rey, The XX, & Future did the same as I matured. 

Zomb: It’s wild how we remember the sounds and lyrics that resonated with us when we were younger, such a surreal feeling. Those are definitely some heavyweight in terms of early inspirations, when did you start to record music yourself? When did you first get into creating your own music? 

Matte: I think one of the craziest things about my origin is that I’ve always wanted to make my own music. I loved it so much that at 8 years old, my step-uncle introduced me to ableton. He mentored me on house music which led to me finding a love for EDM and Electronic production as a whole, introducing me to my first DAW  and production tools. Within a few years Charlie, or as the world knew him, Monstergetdown, would sign to Mau5trap. Deadmau5’s label. He further taught me lessons on production and music in general but by age 15 or so the lessons just turned into studio sessions and us hanging out. I was on my own from that point and mind you I never asked for favors or connections 1.) because I was too young and 2.) he always told me to get it on my own. He was never too fond of my other styles but I embraced my ability to take from all my influences and create genre-less and timeless music for myself and whoever enjoys it. Over the years my sound & goals have changed profoundly. I recorded my first rap track at about 12 and rock at 14 But finding my sound really came with years of practice and learning.

Zomb: That’s such a great come up story, so you definitely got brought into the more creative driven parts of music rather early, you can easily see how well your influences have developed into sounds of your own. My next question for you is, at what point did you want to take music and art seriously? You knew it was a staple since you were younger but was there a turning point you knew you wanted to create forever? 

Matte: I knew I wanted it to be my main career in high school however I only had the resources to start after graduation in 2020. I never had a prom or in person graduation but I got my first XLR mic and Interface. I started studying vocal production/mixing in my first year of college and started creating my brand/image a couple months after. So far it's been almost over a year that I’ve been taking music seriously. Before I just loved creating and doing it for fun, but now I have goals to help people with my music, heal, change lives and minds and really create and leave behind a message for the youth and generations to come guided by love, unity and passion. I like to believe my genre blending helps me reach all walks of life while doing what I love. I used to help run/own a music & mental health outreach server on discord too. 

Zomb: It’s so solid to have a significant memory like that, so 2020 was the year everything really decided to take a turn for the better creatively on top of having a wonderful vision for what you wanted to achieve with your sounds. Caring about the future and overall well being of those that relate to your music is something like no other. Speaking of your sounds, how long does it take you to particularly create and release a song? What is your process like? 

Matte: It usually very much depends on the project. I can go from making, mixing and releasing a song in an hour, to knit picking and perfecting a feature and delaying it a week for the other artist. But all my tracks start out with me going through and picking or creating an instrumental that’s on the same frequency as me at the time. Afterwards I start thinking of flows and melodies and almost instantly start freestyling. If I have solid bars/takes on the freestyle, I’ll cut parts and punch in or use bars and rhyme schemes I like as punch in starters from the top. I find that writing for me feels less genuine when trying to read back what you wrote at a different time and frame of mind, but there are situations I’ve ghost written and produced for a healthy amount of people. I do love writing, and poetry alike and someday hope to make an all written album, but for now I enjoy my methods as I even surpass people I know that take days and weeks writing and practicing a flow just to come out flat. I already see a major influence on people around me and people who try to bite me just from what I do effortlessly and I love the feeling, regardless I constantly evolve and my process changes so there is no one “Matte Roxx! sound '' An example is the fact that “4 THE K.!.D.Z'' was all recorded, produced and mixed within a weeks span. And it keeps getting better!

Zomb: Absolutely such wise words from Matte right here, wow man. The methods behind the madness never cease to amaze me and I loved hearing that. Speaking of your library, what is your favorite track you’ve created or been a part of? 

Matte: See, the thing is, once I complete a project, I tend to view it as a whole and then start to get bored of/think less of the rest of my discography (but my wife swears on her grave its all in my head) which I know to an extent, but I really enjoy a lot of my latest/unreleased gems and snippets I’ve previewed. I want to say if I had a top released song it’d be “SUMMR! BUMMR!” or “H!GH L!FE!”

Zomb: That’s super interesting, you know I definitely feel the same way with my own personal releases and artists certainly feel the same. Speaking of new releases, what are your plans for the summer and the rest of 2022? 

Matte: For the rest of the summer I plan to work my ass off and grow my sound and feed/serve the streets with as much variety and divine music as possible. and create positive energy for the party people or the people hurt who need a shoulder to lean on.

Zomb: Excellent goals all around honestly, love to hear that. Who are some artists you’d like to work with in the future outside of the ones you already have/do? 

Matte: Definitely more mainstream artists like 100 Gecs, Clairo, Jhonny Marr & Kanye As for the underground I really don’t seek for new artists to work with anymore unless it’s through a mutual connection, they somehow find me.

Zomb: Definitely love those names and as for the underground that’s for sure a solid way to go about things, the natural connection is the best connection. One of the last questions I had for you is, outside of creating what keeps you sane? What do you do when you aren’t typically making music? 

Matte: Mainly, not to sound crude but substances help me, the outside world was and is vicious to people like me and my community. (Not to sound corny but) Waking up and seeing things for what they are made me less interested in things that waste my time and aren't good for me. A lot of people here in LA are backstabbers and cheats so I try to stay with my family and such, I enjoy nature however and healthy alone time. Maybe every now and then ill play my childhood love COD: Zombies (any black ops game tbh) Working out is definitely something thats been helping the mental health recently so I'm looking forward to indulging in that!