Went to Vegas last week specifically to make music with my good friend Mat who I haven't seen since we played a show together back in May. We got to jam, catch up, and I did this interview with him all in a few days time. Here is the transcript of our conversation .
INADRM Radio:
So I am out here in Las Vegas right now with Mathew Higgins of Sarival, and he just came out with a new album called 'Float' in late December, and I've got some questions for him to help you get more interested in it.
So how did you go about writing the songs on this album, and was there a certain process that you used more than once?
Mathew Higgins:
Yeah, it's very song to song. But alot of it's just me sitting in a bedroom and kind of noodling away at something, and then once I catch onto something, a lot of just back and forth from Ableton, guitar, and occasionally some sort of piano.
INADRM Radio:
Did you write alot of B songs or B sides that didn't make this one?
Mathew Higgins:
Yeah, a few things. A lot of them stop early in the process if I get real distracted. So more or less, I have a few things that I look forward to, like, finishing in the future, but a lot of them, you can just hold off entirely.
INADRM Radio:
Very cool. What's your favorite song from this album that came out?
Mathew Higgins:
I don't know if I have a favorite. Everything's my favorite. If it gets finished, I feel like it felt like it was always worth my efforts, but I liked the process of writing ' Talking To Myself'. I kind of had the idea, shelved it, and then it all kind of fell together when I was finishing it. It was the last one to get finished, so maybe that has something to do with it.
INADRM Radio:
That's the one with two versions right? Where you have the acoustic one as well, right?
Mathew Higgins:
I do. I want to put the acoustic one on spotify. I keep forgetting to export a file, but it's on YouTube if anyone wants to check it out.
INADRM Radio:
Yeah, go check it out. That one's great. It's recent and it's on the Bad Take Youtube channel right?
Mathew Higgins:
That is the one.
INADRM Radio:
Did you do all the mixing and mastering on this one?
Mathew Higgins:
Yeah, absolutely. Everything past it getting recorded was me. There's a few people, that like, play guitar on it. A few people, well actually, you helped do a beat or like, a track, for one, and that I kind of finished and put out on my stuff, which we've done in the past. But on your INADRM project.
INADRM Radio:
Very cool. Who are the other collaborators?
Mathew Higgins:
Tuff Kid Babe Life, as you guys will know him eventually. That's the one to check out. And shout out to Jan. He's both our cameraman and also he featured on the record on some point.
INADRM Radio:
Jan is the best. Also, whenever we were playing live at a festival, he got us in when they wouldn't even let me in. It's pretty great. Yeah, he's very likable. So do you have any plans to make any physical copies of this one?
Mathew Higgins:
Yes, I want to do a proper CD release and maybe cassettes, we will see. I kind of want to print them and I know basedo n some tales that's kind of a long and tedious process, but I hear worth it, so that'd be fun.
INADRM Radio:
Let me know if you do that. Looking forward to that seriously. Also, are there any plans to perform these songs live?
Mathew Higgins:
Yes, soonish. Hopefully, I've been practicing on my own and we also have a few people that might want to actually get a band back together, essentially. And hopefully playing live with some INADRM.
INADRM Radio:
Hell yeah. Maybe an INADRM/ Sarival tour even. That'd be cool.
What are some artists or events in yourlife that inspired the making of this album?
Mathew Higgins:
I try and listen to, I don't listen to as nearly as much new music as you do. I try and keep up, but I like getting lost in certain albums. So I'm sure a lot of this is kind of different amalgamations of stuff I was listening to a ton of the time, but especially towards the later half of the record and the stuff I finished newer. Alot of it's a lot more kind of me kind of experimenting more in Ableton and different sounds and less of just guitars and drums which has been a lot of fun. So there's a bunch of influence there. You kept nagging on me to listen to Boards of Canada more and that may have made it in there.
INADRM Radio:
I'm happy to hear that one, finally coming around. Pretty cool.
Which artists are currently inspiring you?
Mathew Higgins:
Oh, JPEGMAFIA. He's fantastic. Experimental hip hop in general, like all that genre. I've been listening more and more of so much Earlsweatshirt, but I don't know if it's necessarily influencing my music writing on my own, but it's just what's been on my car kind of on repeat. And then a lot of your stuff, your more recent releases, '100 million' shout out. I finally watched the video, but I've listened to it a billion times on my car. 100 million times.
INADRM Radio:
Very cool. We watched that video yesterday.
Do you have any ideas already for the next album or what you're going to do next, musically?
Mathew Higgins:
I don't know about an album for sure, an album at some point, but I think I'm going to let that kind of stew long term. And in the short term, I kind of want to do some shorter term releases, maybe little EP's or stuff. Collaborating with certain artists and going back and forth. It'd be nice to have a little boxset of me and INADRM's future releases and maybe some stuff with other people as well.
INADRM Radio:
I'm super down for that one. That sounds cool. And also, where can your music be listened to and what's the best way to support what you do?
Mathew Higgins:
You can listen to it anywhere you can stream music pretty much. Recently got accepted by Pandora. That for some reason was a long thing. I had to be verified, I guess. Four years later, oh, look at that, my first release. Thanks Pandora. Not sponsored. And the best way to support me is yeah, just listen to it. Like wherever you can take the time. Your time means more than any money. Unless you want to give me some money. In that case. There's some links in bio, but yeah, so yeah, go stream it. It's 'Float' by Sarival.
INADRM Radio:
I'm going to put links in the bio for all of it. And his linktree as well, so you can follow him on Instagram and all that. And is there anything else else you'd like to say?
Mathew Higgins:
INADRM.com
INADRM Radio:
INADRM.com go check it out.