Matt Addison - Mythical Motors Interview
Are you originally from Chattanooga, TN? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Were these things that were relevant growing up in your guy's household?
I'm from Chattanooga originally and have lived here my whole life, aside from two years that I spent in Murfreesboro attending college. I was a student in their Recording Industry program, but I decided that I wasn't fully invested in either the business or technical side of things. So, I returned home to focus on making music in my spare time. I first began to really fall in love with music around the age of 13 or so, when I first heard Nirvana. After that, I quickly discovered Sub Pop Records, which led to bands like Sebadoh. I remember seeing their album, Smash Your Head On The Punk Rock in a local mall. I noticed that it was on Sub Pop, which was always a good sign, but it was the collage art on the cover that really stood out. I had no idea what the music would sound like, but because of the cover, I knew I had to find out. From there, I discovered bands like Superchunk, Pavement, and then Guided By Voices, who remain my favorite band to this day. Around this time, my brother and I started playing music together. My Dad bought a 4-track machine for us that he found at a local pawn shop. I had just started playing guitar, and my brother and I would record ourselves singing, playing guitar, and bashing away on whatever percussive instruments that we found around the house. I remember attempting to record covers of bands like Sonic Youth and Beat Happening around this time.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert? When did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music?
The first concert I ever attended was Metallica at the UTC arena in Chattanooga when I was about 12 years old. However, I saw Nirvana about a year or so later, and that made a much more lasting impression. I started writing my own songs around the age of 14, and I was inspired by the home-recoded sounds of bands like Sebadoh, Eric's Trip, the bands on Shrimper Records, and Guided By Voices. I even mailed a cassette of some of my earliest 4-track recordings to Dennis Callaci, the owner of Shrimper Records. I received a handwritten letter from him that was very encouraging. He had played one of my songs on his radio show, and he told me to keep being creative and to write as many songs as possible. I think it was around this time that I knew I would always keep making music. In the late '90's and early 2000's, my friends and I would spend our time going to shows, sometimes in Atlanta, or at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. But, there was also a pretty exciting music scene in Chattanooga, at the time. There was a local restaurant and hotel called Lamar's that hosted many bands. Lamar's had been around since the '70's, and the atmosphere at these shows was very surreal and unique. I was lucky enough to see bands like Olivia Tremor Control, Cat Power, Ladybug Transistor, Papa M and many others in my home town thanks to Lamar's. It was a pretty great time.
When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you? Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to MM? How did the band initially come to be and how did you first meet your bandmates? What inspired the name? I understand you're pretty influenced by groups like GBV, correct?
Before we became known as Mythical Motors, the original name of the band was Heaven's Basement. We played our first show in 2007 at JJ's Bohemia in Chattanooga with another band called Jane Starship. At that time, the band consisted of Brad Smith on drums, Mike Brown on bass, Daryl Black on baritone guitar, Adam Hipp on guitar and me on guitar and vocals. I had recently met Brad at the first ever Robert Pollard (of GBV) solo show at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. We started playing some of my songs together as a duo in my parent's basement. Soon after that, I started a new job at the company where Brad had been working for a few years. Two of our co-workers were Adam Hipp and fellow music fanatic, Mike Brown. We learned some of my songs, and soon began practicing together in Mike's garage. Since most of us worked together in the same office, many of our co-workers came out to support us at our first show. I think we had only learned 6 songs, plus a cover of "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory," by Guided By Voices. But, we were well-received and it was definitely a fun experience. Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices have always been the biggest influence on my music and that was definitely clear from the band’s earliest days. It was also something of a shared connection between my bandmates, as we would often cover GBV and Robert Pollard songs in our set. The band continued to develop over the years, with Adam Hipp leaving to spend more time with his family. He was replaced by Stacy Plamer, and after Stacey left, we were joined by Johnny Wingo. That lineup remained until 2020, when the pandemic forced us to stop playing live. There was also an incarnation of the band that featured Hollie Stockman on cello, which added a unique dynamic to our live sound. The name of the band was changed to Mythical Motors early on, when we became aware of a UK band that was also called Heaven's Basement. Wanting to avoid any confusion, we decided to change the name, and I quickly selected Mythical Motors from the long list of potential song titles that I had written.
From 2006 up until now the band has released a huge body of work. Would you mind walking me through some of your favorite albums and why they mean so much to you? How do you approach the writing and recording of MM albums? What is the particular process?
Some of my favorite Mythical Motors albums include Worlds Of No More Forever, Long Live High Energy, This Is What the Twilight Zone Was Preparing Us For, A Rare Look Ahead and Field Trip To The Ghost Town. Worlds Of No More Forever was our second album, and it consists mostly of my solo 4-track recordings. However, some of my favorite songs on the album are full band tracks that were recorded on our bassist's digital 8-track. These include live staples, "So Sets The Summer," "Panic Radio," and "Full Breathing Costume." This Is What The Twilight Zone Was Preparing Us For stands out to me because it contains 22 songs in about 35 minutes. It feels like a very concise and varied summation of my songwriting. The songs were recorded very quickly and spontaneously, and that method worked surprisingly well. The cassette version of this album was released in 2019 by Fall Break Records. A Rare Look Ahead is another good introduction to Mythical Motors, as it contains 20 tracks, ranging from some of my most polished pop songs, to acoustic snippets and full band garage rock. It was released on cassette in 2020 by the Cincinnati label Lo-fi City. Field Trip To The Ghost Town is my half of the split cassette with Antlered Auntlord that was released last year by the Athens, Georgia label, Happy Happy Birthday To Me (HHBTM). These 10 songs comprise my most concise album to date. They are all very pop-focused, and some of my favorite songs that I've written. My songwriting process has remained pretty consistent since I was a teenager. I often start by selecting a title from my list of potential song titles, and that sometimes inspires the direction of the song. Sometimes, I try to write very quickly and spontaneously, usually recording the ideas as I go. Once I have the basic melodic ideas ready, I record the guitar track and a basic vocal track. From there, I add the drums, the finished vocal tracks, bass, and any additional guitar and keyboard tracks. Usually, it all comes together fairly quickly, and then I move on to the next one. I even have a song entitled, "On To The Next One."
2023 saw the release of your most recent work “Join Her Circus." Can you tell me about this recording and what this material means to you? What was the overall approach and vision for this record and what did you ultimately want to achieve and express with this record?
Several of the songs on Join Her Circus date back to around 2020, or so. I recorded these tracks around the time that I was also working on A Rare Look Ahead, but they didn't seem to fit on that album. So, I held them back for a future release. I later combined those tracks with a newer batch of songs that seemed to have a similar spirit. Overall, I was attempting to create an album that was somewhat more complex than most Mythical Motors releases and one that covers a lot of ground. Join Her Circus is a bit more post-punk and garage rock focused than my previous album, but it also features some pop and lush acoustic songs. My favorite aspect of this album is that it covers a lot of ground stylistically. It is a bit of an adventurous departure from my previous work, but still retains a focus on melodic songwriting.
Anything in the works for this spring/summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
My next album is finished and was mastered by Álvaro Lissón of Meritorio Records. The title track was inspired by one of my daughter's drawings. She told me that she wanted to make an album cover for me, so she created the drawing with that in mind, and titled it Upside Down World. I then wrote a song with that title, and decided to use her drawing for the cover. I'm very happy with this batch of songs, and hope to release them early next year. Thanks very much for doing this interview!
