The art of techno: Mathew Jonson

The art of techno: Mathew Jonson

26 June, 2009 | 8.43AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: mathew jonson, wagon repair

Before Mathew Jonson became the star of Canada’s techno scene, before his celebrity as a live act, before his Vancouver record label, before his releases on Minus and his Cobblestone Jazz outfit - before all that, there was a geeky kid in Victoria, British Columbia.

He was obsessed with making sounds. He played drums in a marching band at 7, experimented with electronic music at 10, and later rocked school assemblies with Nelly Furtado whom he went to school with. “We would perform Maria Carey covers together and Nelly used to rip that shit up and have 500 people screaming during our school performances,” he says, laughing at the memories. “We also used to produce electronic music together.”

Jonson’s first release was a drum & bass remix of Nelly Furtado’s first single ‘Party’s Just Begun (Again)’. While the Canadian-Portuguese singer went on to become a pop star, Jonson began releasing techno and minimal on the label Itiswhatitis Recordings in 2001. His breakthrough came with his third release ‘Typerope’ (listen to five essential Mathew Jonson releases below).

“‘Typerope’ was really the release that got me DJ recognition,” says Jonson. “Then came ‘Decompression’ on Minus in 2004. That had an impact way beyond the DJ world.”

The subtlety and attention to detail on ‘Decompression’ was perfect for Minus, which at the time, was experiencing a surge in popularity as interest in minimal techno burgeoned. Mathew Jonson was cast as the exciting new kid on the block as minimal snowballed.

Jonson says it was just good timing, “I don’t believe in writing what’s popular currently, as it’ll only end up sounding contrived. I just happened to have all this music ready to go as the whole minimal thing took off,” he says, in his typically unassuming way.

Wagon Repair

Jonson launched his own record label Wagon Repair in 2004. The label’s first release ‘Screw Loose EP’ by The Missing Link set the tone - clever stripped back techno, evolving soundscapes, and unique abstract coverart. Then came Jonson’s ‘Marionette’, the record that would later define his career and confirm Jonson’s status as a master of synthesis.

The 11 minute, beautifully constructed track was unlike anything that had come before. Its profound hypnotism, innate sadness, and melancholic dynamism, captivated all dancefloors that year.

“I write music that is a reflection of my day,” he says, about ‘Marionette’. “When I made that track I was in a deep meditative head space and expressed whatever emotion I was feeling. That’s the way I like to make music.

“I’m not the kind of musician who focuses on dance music. I write electronic music. For me, it’s about mixing art with dance music. That’s what I try to do.”

Getting to that place has not been easy. After Jonson’s career took off, he found he was spending more time on the road than in the studio.

“I was only in Vancouver for five or six days at a time, and then I’d go back on the road for 10 days. I was doing four transatlantic flights a month so I was hardly ever in the studio,” says Jonson, who was married at the time to Frank Camping, the artist who does all of Wagon Repair’s idiosyncratic artwork.

Along with the increasing success of his Cobblestone Jazz and The Modern Deep Left Quartet projects, Jonson’s output was slow and he admits that some of it was pretty off the wall. “I only produced one release last year ‘Symphony For The Apocalypse’ and the B side of that was total wierdness. The year before that I only did one release too.”

“To be able to make and release music that is not to everyone’s cup of tea is liberating. I can do whatever I want, because of Wagon. On other labels, you get pushed in a certain direction and get influenced by other people’s opinions, but I trust myself to know what is good music.

“ Some people think our music is crazy, but some people get it. Sven Väth for instance, he opened almost every one of his sets last summer with ‘Symphony For The Apocalypse’ and he put it on his Cocoon mix compilation.

“But yeah, the B side of that was totally weird! It was in 6/8 time and 90 bpm. That freaked people out, I guess.”

Wagon’s 50th release

It’s been five years since Mathew started Wagon Repair, which celebrated its 50th release last week with Jonson’s own ‘Walking On The Hands That Follow Me’. The double A side sees Jonson firmly back in deep melodic techno territory and it’s the closest he has come to revisiting his ‘Marionette’ symphony.

“After finally moving to Berlin and getting settled in, it allowed me to produce that kind of music again,” he says. “Before I was traveling all the time, and was hardly ever in the studio. Music was really difficult to do. It’s nice to write music like ‘Marionette’ and ‘Walking On The Hands’ again,” he says.

“The B side ‘When Love Feels Like Crying’ is super deep and emotional. When I made it, I actually had that feeling of being back in that place. It felt like I was back in the right space and I had a personal connection to the music again. I was back writing music that was a reflection of my day.”

When Jonson talks about Berlin, he seems happy. When he faces a blank canvas he is excited. Recently, he and Cobblestone Jazz members Tyger Dhula and Danuel Tate produced a score for a silent 1922 German movie called ‘Faust’, premiered at Mannheims’ Time Warp festival. He says, “It was such a deep soundtrack. Doing that movie score was nice because it allowed me to express many emotions.”

Studio lust

I collect it because it’s vintage and I want this stuff till the day I die

When we get onto the subject of studio gear, Jonson is ecstatic. He loves analogue gear. Instead of buying a house, he built a studio.

“I have a fucking huge gear list,” he says, and laughing nervously. “I kind of have a problem. If I see a deal on some kit, I just have to get it. I stockpile equipment. For instance, I have five Roland SH-101s. I have doubles and triples of everything. But I collect it because it’s vintage and I want this stuff till the day I die.

“I also need it for touring because shit breaks on tour. Every time I go on the road a new tech problem appears. It has gotten a bit rediculous though. Like it’s gotten to the point where I can actually set up another studio in Goa for my winters, which will be almost as well equipped as my studio in Berlin.”

Video: Inside Mathew Jonson’s studio

Mathew was kind enough to film this video tour of his studio.

Jonson won’t reveal how much he’s spent over the years, but he is a completely unapologetic gear junkie. “How do I justify that? It’s not hard. You don’t feel guilty because you’re investing in your studio and your music,” he says.

“With every new piece of kit you buy, you can have more fun and feel more inspired. Your music will get more diverse, and better hopefully.

“That said, sometimes it’s for the better, and sometimes it’s for the worst. Like in the old days, when I produced all my tracks on Itiswhatitis I did it all using the same kit, so I had a certain sound as that was all that those machines could produce.

“Now I have so much kit, that I end up experimenting a lot of time and sometimes I get a little lost. It takes time to learn what you can do with certain gadgets. It can get really complicated.”

Being a true artist, Johnson is proud of his studio space which is his second home. “I have so much of the kit that I once used to dream about, it’s great. It has two rooms, great light, and all the acoustics was done by the same guy who did the acoustics for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. I spent a lot of money on panelling. It’s also big enough that four people can easily work in there, all on different stations.”

Cobblestone Jazz & The Modern Deep Left Quartet

While Mathew Jonson is a one man techno band, he is also a musician with a hunger for collaboration and live improvisation. In fact, Jonson’s work with The Mole, Danuel Tate, and Tyger Dhula as The Modern Deep Left Quartet is 12 years old.

He explains, “We started out doing it in Victoria, BC, where we all lived. We would just turn up to a club, and bring a whole studio onto the stage. We were really inexperienced with live shows back then. There was a sense that anything could happen. We started incorporating other musicians, string sections, jazz guys, and African vocalists.”

For the performance of their ‘Faust’ score at Timewarp, Jonson took along half his studio. “We performed underneath the cinema screen and it filled the entire space,” he says.

For my live club shows, the majority of the kit you see me using is on my tech rider. I’m a promoter’s worst nightmare.

Was it all for show? “No way, we used everything. And the equipment just takes up so much space. Analogue gear can only make one sound at a time. A bassline? That’s three feet of space right there. Another bassline is another three feet. With a computer, you can get a whole orchestra out of 1 foot.”

To get the kit to Mannheim, Jonson drove from Berlin in a van. “You can’t fly with it. If I had the money, I’d have a team of roadies that would carry all my gear to every show,” he says lustfully. “For my live club shows, the majority of the kit you see me using is on my tech rider. I’m a promoter’s worst nightmare. I only take a few FX boxes, MIDI controllers, and maybe a 303 or a drummachine with me on a plane.” And you thought DJs had it bad.

The Quartet closed Montreal’s high profile Mutek festival recently. Cobblestone Jazz have helped redefine the concept of live techno performance, but despite both of their successes on the fringes, Jonson admits that they are still very much an anomoly.

“The Modern Quartet stuff is really difficult to play on the dancefloor and whenever I hear a DJ play it, I always respect them for it because it’s not easy,” he says. “You know, so many DJs play it safe these days. Maybe they’re scared of the competition, or they’re scared that they will lose bookings if they play something weird but I think it’s boring.”

A lot of people don’t quite get Cobblestone Jazz or The Quartet, but that’s just fine with Jonson. “I hope our sound is risky. I’m all about pushing boundaries and pushing music,” he says.

“Sometimes I like it clean and nice, and if it moves me emotionally I’ll put it out on Wagon, but a lot of these club music fads are boring.

“For instance, the whole bongo house thing is boring. If you give a record to the press now and it doesn’t have bongos on it, they rip it apart.

“I don’t care what’s cool or popular at the moment. I’m all about personal creativity.”

Trends can be a blessing and a curse. Jonson admits that he profited from the upsurge in minimal techno, but he hates bandwagons.

“These trends, I don’t know how they all start but they are rediculous,” he says. “Like the whole minimal movement. For a while, all producers had to be minimal. If you weren’t minimal, you were crazy. And all these minimal producers wouldn’t touch a bongo or a percussion loop. Now congo house is the new trend.

“I think in general, a lot of people are close minded and like to play it safe. Plus the crowds generate the fads themselves.

“I get bored of trends so quickly. My dream party would be to have a drum & bass DJ play really good d&b, followed by a house DJ, a rock band, and then a hip hop DJ. Variety is where it’s at,” says Jonson.

With all this talk about about Mathew Jonson, the producer and live act, whatever happened to Mathew Jonson the DJ?

“I haven’t DJed in three years, but I’m DJing at Glastonbury this week,” he says, laughing. “I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do. I haven’t been hanging out at record stores so I have no idea what music is hot.

“Fortunately I’ve got some tracks from my producer friends and some of my own stuff, but I’m totally nervous about it. I don’t even have time to prepare. It’s funny that my first DJ gig in three years is at Glastonbury.

“DJing is a fun kind of thing for me. I don’t have the time to hunt for tracks. Plus because DJing is about dancing, it forces you into a frame of mind where you have to think about dancing and that affects the music you make,” says Jonson, like a true artist, aware that the experiences of the world, both great and small, can have a profound affect on his work.

5 essential Mathew Jonson releases

‘Folding Space’ (Sub Static)

‘Typerope’ won Jonson many fans in the techno community, and his follow up ‘Behind The Mirror / Folding Space’ proved that his intricate melodies were here to stay.

The B side ‘Folding Space’ was a perfect balance between electronic funk and melancholic minimal trance.

‘Decompression’ (Minus)

With ‘Decompression’ and the equally jaw-dropping ‘Ultraviolet Dream’ on Richie Hawtin’s Minus, Jonson fully established himself as one of the smartest minds in techno.

He juxtaposed dark strings against twinkling space synthesizers and funky vocal loops, to provide a wondrous journey full of twisted emotion.

To this day it remains one of Minus’ most successful ever releases.

‘Marionette’ (Wagon Repair)

Jonson challenged the world of techno in 2005, by offering it a universe of sound. ‘Marionette’ was the masterpiece that offered much more than mere sonic wizardry, it was a complex and evolving piece of music with melodies so deep that they never languished when the track finished.

It is perhaps, one of the most emotionally draining techno tracks ever written.

‘Symphony of the Apocaplypse’ (Wagon Repair)

Sven Väth opened almost every one of his sets in the summer of 2008 with Jonson’s ‘Symphony of the Apocalypse’.

With typically quirky synthesizers, haunting keys, precise rhythms, and multiple story lines, it’s a magical piece of music.

‘When Love Feels Like Crying’ (Wagon Repair)

Wagon Repair’s 50th release is a two-folded delight - one part dark dribbling techno, one part blissful soothing downtempo.

The deep chords on ‘When Love Feels Like Crying’ were an unexpected summer treat from Jonson, and the track proved that his melodies can relax, as much as they can move the heart.

Unreleased work

‘After The Bombs Fell’ (unreleased)

Produced when he was a mere 20-years-old, way back in 1998, Mathew Jonson’s unreleased track ‘After The Bombs Fell’ is a staggering 18 minutes of haunting techno. The winding bleep lines, intricate drum patterns, and lonely sounds echo across a post-apocalyptic world.

You could tell that even back then, Jonson’s artistry was unique.

This article is the first time ‘After The Bombs Fell’ has been heard in public. Jonson is considering releasing some of his earliest work on Beatport.

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