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Interview with Chris Matyus - Archetype
Archetype have just released their fantastic debut album Dawning in Europe. You'll find a review of that one here. I arranged an interview with Guitarist and Songwriter Chris Matyus, who turned out to be a really nice and down to earth guy. After making sure that Chris was comfortable and felt sorry for me, for having to type in the interview afterwards, we got on to the questions...
If you had only one word to describe Archetype, what would it be?
(Laughs) Boy, you start with the hard ones, right? What would it be... I'll have to say... Ahh... You're stressing out my mind too much, haha... I just got out of bed ten minutes ago
Oh no... Well, it's gonna be a tough day then.
Oh yeah. Let's see... It has to be... Ahh... Oh boy... It has to be either... I could say Original or Dynamic, but that would be two words. Not really Innovative, but... Erm.... That's a hard question (Big laugh). That's the hardest question I ever got.
Really? Well, I'm flattered... haha
Ah, let's come back to that one later ok?
Yeah sure, now for an easier one.
Very good
What's the current situation in the band?
Well, right now we are working on our second CD. The drums have been recorded and I'm doing some computer work on those. We're just writing all the rest of the guitar hamonies, solos and lyrics. But as you can tell it's gonna take me a while, cause I have to do everything.
So you are still writing the songs?
Yeah, well, all the basic song structures are done. The main rythms are done and I'm just writing the harmonies. The lyrics are the hardest thing for me now. I don't know if I used all my good lyrics on the first album (Laughs)
I'm just trying not to be redundant. I don't want to do the same thing over and over again. So, they are coming along.
We are going to be doing auditions for a couple of guitar players for the second guitar position, which has been open for four years. That's about it right now. We're just laying low and not playing gigs or anything like that.
Are the new songs taking some kind of new direction or...?
Oh yeah (laughs knowingly). People's eyes are gonna be wide open when they hear the next album.
Cool!
Yeah, I think it's going to be a lot different than Dawning. First of all, it's a lot heavier from a production stand point and I'm also using a seven string guitar on six of the ten songs that are going to be on it, or eleven if you get a bonus track. But we'll see what happens to that. It's gonna be a bunch heavier and it's a whole different approach for me really, because Dawning definitely had a lot of my Classical influences in there, with the Classical Guitar and the Acoustic stuff and clean breaks. This album is going to have less of that. It's gonna be more agressive.
That sounds very interesting
Oh yeah, I'm very very excited to get it done.
But there's no time frame?
Not really. Considering Dawning just came out in Europe, we got a while. Definitely, I'm not gonna stop untill we get a deal in Japan this time around. I figure it should happen, because Dawning has gotten this good recognition. But we'll see. I want to get a good deal in Europe too. Though I'm not sure if we're gonna sign to Lucretia again. If something bigger comes along we'll take that.
So, for the people who don't know Archetype, could you tell a little about how and why you started the band and how you got to be where you are now?
Well, it started.... Oh, that's a loooong long story... (Laughs) I don't think your recorder has enough time for that.
Oh, it has plenty of time... But maybe my fingers wont like it so much...
(Laughs) Well, I was actually just finishing up at College back in 1997, and I'd been writing a lot of songs for a band. All the years of studying music and playing classical guitar just started weighing on me, and I wanted to do something different, so I started writing songs. At first I actually started writing music on piano. I was taking piano classes and I had to. I wanted to start a band really bad, and about a year before I finished college, I hooked up with a singer that I knew from high school. We were just doing some recording and trying to find bandmates, and luckily he found our current drummer Keith, cause he worked with some friends.
So he got him and I called up this old guitar player I used to jam with back in high school. It was just a little high school band we threw together. He had just graduated from college and he was friends with Jamie, our current bass player. I sorta knew him from high school and talked to him once in a while. He was younger, so you know, it wasn't cool talking to the younger kids (Laughs)
But he played bass well...
Yeah, but actually I wasn't there on his first day. They all got together and everything worked out really well. We started jamming some old Rush songs and a weird something I'd written at the time. Then our singer quit two months later, because his voice wasn't such a good fit with the direction we were going. Then the guitar player quit a year later, but luckily that fall was when we recorded our instrumental demo CD. With that CD we hooked up with Intromental Management and then with the other singer.
So you found him through Intromental?
No, we found him locally here. He just had an ad in a magazine. We'd been searching for singers for like a year and a half, and it got so ridiculous after a while, with all the people that came in and were no good. So, we exchanged CD's and he came in and put vocals down on top of the music and that was our first EP, Hands of time.
From then it's just another horror story trying to do Dawning. Do you know about the original recording of Dawning?
Yeah, I read that it had to be re-recorded because the production was pretty bad...
Oh my god, you could get better production if you put one microphone in a bathroom and just... It was so bad. That is another whole long story...
Ok, in essence I was wondering about the songs. Were they re-written for the re-recording or are the song structures and such the same?
They are exactly the same. We actually added a couple of vocal harmonies and that's it.
Well, it definitely turned out very very cool.
Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that CD because of all the work I had to do on it. I actually turned myself into a recording engineer overnight. I had to do all the stuff myself.
It's pretty sweet, because the drums on the CD are original from the horrible version of Dawning, but we had to put in samples with them, because it was so bad. If you would hear the snare drum on the original version it sounded just like someone hitting a garbage can lid.
Uff...
(Laughs) It was so bad... The guitars were recorded in a bedroom, not even done in a studio. So I'm pretty happy with the way everything came out. This time around we're gonna do it the right way.
So is that old version still floating around there somewhere?
Yeah, we just sent it out to labels and such. I found one review of it. In Norway I think... Scream Magazine... And the review was horrible. About how bad the sound was and everything. I don't know why he reviewed it, but that's the only review that exists, hopefully.
So how has the reaction been to the European release of Dawning?
Ah, it's been pretty good. I don't know how many we've been selling, but from a production standpoint it's even better. It got remastered and it's even louder and more powerful. People love the artwork and the bonus track. Overall, yeah, this one is way better version than the US version. People love it and I'm really happy with it.
I have to find out who that girl is on the cover of the CD...
You have no idea? haha
(Laughs) No idea.
I thought she had some kind of link to the lyrics
That's pretty cool. It's probably something that the design agency had sitting around. But it fits the cd pretty well.
Yeah, I thought so. I was reading the lyrics to Dawning and I feel there's some kind of theme on the album about searching for inner truth, if that's a way to say it. Is there any lyrical concept behind Dawning?
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up there. I've always had a little bit of trouble trying to describe the lyrics even though I write them, but yeah, searching for inner truth is definitely part of it. Trying to find a way to a better way of life, a different way of living. Things like that, because sometimes I just get fed up with humanity, and it's ignorance and things like that. So, it's kind of like an escape. An escape from humanity more or less. That is what the song Dawning is all about. Getting away from humanity and trying to live a different life. Hence the term Dawning... the Dawning of a new age. That worked out pretty well.
There are basic songs like "Inside your dreams" and stuff like that too. More basic lyrics. "Years ago" is a big story.
Yeah, it pretty much sums up the entire album
Yeah, It's my favourite song on the Cd. It's got the whole classical structure to it. Different tempos and everything.
And the ending part is extremely cool to...
Yeah (laughs)
I know you write all the music and the lyrics. Where does it all come from. Do you get inspired by anything in particular?
It comes from my twisted mind. That's about it really. (Laughs)
Musically I can take this one little trace of music, and when I hear it, I can make an entire song out of it. I always try to keep things original. I don't want to be redundant. I think on Dawning all the songs are definitely a lot different from each other. Actually the new Cd is the same way. I don't ever want to hear "Hey, this sounds like your old song here", you know. So I just look for different things to do in a song. And a lot of times I also let the music flow. Let the music take me where it wants to go. I don't force anything into a certain pattern or structure. It kinda flows pretty easily for me.
Lyrically like we talked about before, it's things I see and how I feel. For some reason it's getting harder to put that into words now. The album is gonna be a little darker. I try to get the theme of the lyrics a little darker or a little sombrer if you will.
Well, I can't wait to hear it.
Neither can I. I'm just realising how much more work I've got to do.
Do you have any spare time at all? And if you do, what do you like to use it for?
Actually, that's the only time I've ever been asked that question.
Spare time... Ah, what's that? I've never heard of that (Laughs)
Well, I do have a little bit of spare time, but I'm always on the computer working. Fixing up some tracks and things like that, and writing lyrics and guitar parts. I teach guitar at a music store, so that's my source of income. I could do that all 24 hours a day if I wanted to. But spare time, I try to get everything done each day. I practice at least two or two and a half hours a day on guitar, two hours of computer work and in my spare time I like to excersise a lot, to get all my frustrations out.
I swim and play basketball and lift weights and run and all that crap. Or I mountainbike and things like that. I don't watch too much TV or anything, but a lot of physical activities. Because I've had a lot of tendonitis in my wrists and my shoulders after years of classical guitar and weightlifting and all that stuff. Lifting weights keeps me flexible and keeps me feeling a lot better physically, so I can do all that other stuff that I do. Then I go out with friends once in a while and have a few beers here and there. Sometimes more beers than I should be drinking.
Well, there has to be time for that too
Exactly.
So you're pretty much able to live of music?
Yeah, It's pretty cool, because sometimes when I go to work, teaching kids, I may be thinking about lyrics or a guitar part for the CD while I'm teaching, so I get things done while I'm working and getting paid. That's pretty nice.
Do you have time to listen to other bands and do you have any favourites?
Oh yeah, my favourite band of all time is Coroner. Remember them?
No, they are an undiscovered band for me.
They are from from Switzerland. Late eighties, early nineties. They are my favourite band. I listen to them alot and I listen to Dream Theater. Dream Theater is the only really progressive band that I listen to beside Rush. Yeah, Coroner, Dream Theater and Rush are my biggest influences. I listen to them a lot and I also listen to some Death metal and some Black metal here and there. Cradle of Filth and stuff like that.
I also listen to some New Age stuff, like Enya and things like that. King Diamond, I am a big fan of him, Savatage... I don't listen to other music a lot, because sometimes it clouds of my mind a little bit, when I'm writing lyrics or harmonies.
You're careful not to get too many influences.
Yeah, exactly. You get that a lot. A lot of bands are just exact clones of somebody else, because they've listened to them for years and years and I don't want that to happen.
So, are you able to name your three favourite albums of all time?
Three favourite albums of all time... Let's see. Archetype, The original demo, Hands of time and Dawning. How about that (Laughs). No I don't even listen to those CD's anymore...
Three favourites, let me think. One of them is definitely "Mental Vortex" by Coroner. And I've always loved "The Eye" by King Diamond. That album just sticks out. Totally awesome. I love that album. Other than that I like.... Did you ever hear of that New Age singer Lorena Mckennet?
Nope, never.
She's a Celtic kind of singer and her CD... Ah, I can't think of it now. I can't do my favourites right (Laughs)... She did one CD that is just totally awesome. I don't listen to Metal all the time. If I did that I would go crazy. Oh... It's called "Book of Secrets" by Lorena Mckennet and that album is awesome. It just takes you to a whole new place. It's very Celtic and really awesome. I can hear those three over and over again, whenever.
Cool. So, have you ever been to Denmark?
No, but I definitely want to come over later this year.
So, are you going to do a show?
Well, if I get the CD done in summertime and get a deal going in Europe, I'd like to be over there in the fall. Obviously I'd like to be over there playing with the band, which is definitely possible when the new CD comes out. Otherwise I might just come over there on my own and visit the Management company in Denmark.
You have never seen them before?
No, I have only talked. I've seen their pictures and laughed at them (Laughs). I have a friend who lives in Spain, but Denmark and Spain are pretty far apart. Then my mother is from Austria, so I have some family there. So there's stuff I can do.
Cool. Well, I hope to see you live some day.
Yeah, that's the whole goal I guess. We were supposed to play the Gods of Metal festival, in Italy but they backed out of it and I was kinda upset with that. When the next CD comes out things will change. I realise you can't make a career of one CD.
Yeah, you have to make a name for yourself.
Yeah, well, the name is out there now. I'm expecting a lot of things to happen with the next CD. If they don't I'll totally go insane.
No, you can't do that.
Then I'll make a Death Metal album
No, you can't that. (Laughs)
Well, that's pretty much all the questions I had. Let's return to the first question again. One word to describe Archetype...
One word... Awesome (Laughs)
Ok, one word to describe the band, I would say... It's so hard to figure that out... I would say.... The first thing that comes into my head when I think of the band is Creative. The stuff that we do. I don't think we sound like any other band out there, maybe besides vocals here and there, in which you can always find similarities. I've always strived to write original sounding music and lyrics. We make our things very creative, which I think makes it more listenable.
I just hope I can get a good deal for the next CD, worldwide and maybe make some money of it finally. For a while we can keep going on, and working out all kinds of money to record things on our own.
It must be pretty hard sometimes, but you just have to keep going.
Yeah, right now we're pretty low on money. I use a Macintosh computer system, which I do a lot of work on. We work with ProTools for recording, so I do all the editing and a lot of mixing on my own. Of course when the time comes to recording the guitar, I gotta fork over a lot of cash, I have to pay up. But we'll see. It will get done eventually.
I definitely wish you good luck in the future. If you have any final words for our readers, now is the time.
Yeah, tell them to go out and buy our CD, Dawning. We hope to come over to Europe and smack them around a little bit later, don't miss the show. Check out our website too.
This was a very fun interview to do, and If you haven't read it already, then click here for a review of Dawning. It comes highly recommended. Off record I also got some interesting news on the band and the next album. If everything works out, something incredible is on the horizon. I keep my fingers crossed...
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Written by Steen - 3/21/2003 |
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