When Crys Matthews played RadioLive for the first time in September of this year, she blew the audience away with her performance. Some call her the "next Woody Guthrie" for her work as a social justice music-maker. She spoke with Acoustic Interlude host John Macdonell about her writing and activism.
Macdonell: Now, the first song was really nice and upbeat and everything (“Exactly Where You Are”), and then the second song was intense. And thank you for writing that. Thank you for performing it.
Yeah, it was very important, to be able to share that song here in Florida. I started that song after the shooting in Buffalo, but I finished it after the killing in Jacksonville. Two different instances of hate crimes and domestic terrorism in America, specifically targeting, Black people. So, it was very important to share that song here.
Macdonell: Well, thank you. Thank you again for doing that. Unfortunately, it seems to be more and more common, and the entire situation that we're living through is just so radically different from the way it's been in the past.
Matthews: It is and it isn't — that's true.
Macdonell: We're coming from two different perspectives.
Matthews: For sure. Yeah, I think that's also kind of the important aspect, you know, you guys are kind of going through an interesting situation down here with regards to how history is taught — the accuracy of history that is taught. And for that to be the case in a state — sometimes we think of places like Oklahoma with Tulsa, but even Florida has its own version of that with Rosewood.
Macdonell: Exactly.
Matthews: There's an importance in being able to actually account for our history and to be able to see our history because a lot of that history is what has got us to this moment that we're in right now.
Macdonell: It's crazy. Yeah. I am just hoping that so many people are activated by this. You know, riled up — that they stand up and do the right thing and it changes.
Matthews: And that's kind of the point I like to always start. The first song that I sang is called “Exactly Where You Are.” And I always like to start with that song, because even with some of these more difficult conversations, which a lot of these songs for me are kind of conversations — I feel like at the heart of all of them is just being able to meet folks and just remind folks of our shared humanity, our shared experiences, to be able to kind of tackle some of these things. I think that what is lost on so many of us is that it's so very easy to just demonize another group of people because they seem so very far removed from you and your experience when in actuality, we have way more in common than not.
Macdonell: That's great. It’s a great thought because you're absolutely right. And the way things are now, everything is so polarized. It is so easy for the group of people over here to say, ‘That's not me, that doesn't affect me, and I don't care that that happened.’ It's sad. Hopefully, it will change. And if people like you keep sending the message out it will change.
Matthews: We are trying hard.
Macdonell: Well, tell me about writing. How do you write? How often do you write?
Matthews: It's always been kind of an interesting process. For me, songwriting is more free therapy than anything. Most of us singer-songwriters — we can't really afford good therapy on a regular. For me, it's always just been a way of kind of processing what I'm feeling. And so, because of that, I'm not like one of those very disciplined songwriters. I live in Nashville now, and people wake up at eight in the morning and by the time they go to bed, they've written, like, five or six songs. That is definitely not me. I kind of just write as the spirit moves me most of the time. It feels as of late, that I've been writing pretty consistently just because there is so much happening in the world. But, yeah, it's really just as something weighs on my heart, or as something I really, am having a hard time kind of settling down and just figuring out what it is I want to say. I think because I'm a preacher's kid, the idea of being so very intentional with your word is kind of ingrained in me. And so, I try to really sit with my feelings and sit with my thoughts and kind of get to the heart of what is the point, what is the thing that I actually want to say? What is the thing that I actually feel? And it's always, a lovely surprise at the end of a song when it actually resonates with somebody else also needing help, kind of figuring out what they feel or think about a certain issue or a certain experience it.
Macdonell: Must be gratifying to see that look in their eye. I get it.
Matthews: It's so fascinating. I think that is also why it is constantly drilled into me that we are so very similar as humans. Because so many of the things that I experience as a person, who checks an awful lot of boxes in this world, so many of the songs that I think about resonate with people who don't check the same boxes I check. And yet those songs, those words move them and reach them and speak to them just as profoundly as if they were their own experiences. So, I'm very fortunate to be able to have a constant reminder of that fact kind of every day. Almost just seeing somebody else just be like, ‘Yeah, me too.’ It's a really beautiful part of being a singer-songwriter.
Macdonell: It's a common humanity. And if you can access that, it's great. It's wonderful. Now, when you are writing, what comes first? The lyrics or just the emotion?
Matthews: The music. It's such a grab bag sometimes — a riff will come first. I have a song called, “This Kind of War”that's about the opioid crisis. And the first thing that came was that motif that plays kind of throughout the song. That music for that one came first. But, oftentimes it will just be a chunk of a lyric or a sentiment of a lyric that comes first. And then how does that feel in my body? Does it feel like it's going to be a slow song? Does it feel like it's going to be a fast song? Does it seem like it's going to be deeply sad and in a minor key, or is it going to be upbeat and peppy and in a major key? So it's just always just kind of following the song where it's trying to take you? I never try to craft it into something. I kind of just let it let it go.
Macdonell: Yeah. It writes itself.
Matthews: They often do. I have to do the editing. I really have to do more of the editing. But the vessel most of us songwriters, we all kind of just think of ourselves as just vessels for these bits of lightning that just strike at any given moment. And we just try to catch the lightning as it comes down.
Macdonell: Channel it.
Matthews: Yeah, our main job is just editing it enough to make it make sense to somebody who hears it.
Macdonell: Yeah, that's great. That's a great way of looking at it. I don't know if you know Mary Gauthier...
Matthews: Oh, yeah, Mary's a very dear friend.
Macdonell: I've known her for years. She always comes on the show when she's around. And I asked her the same question, and she said it's about the writing. And I asked her if she had to give up something music or writing, which would it be? And she had said in a heartbeat, not even thinking about the music, because I'm a writer, I have to write. And she said it just flows through her and there's something greater going on. And she really appreciates that very much.
Matthews: You can always spot a singer-songwriter if you're there for sound check, and the first words out of their mouth are 'Don't make the guitar too loud. The words are what matter most.'
Macdonell: They are. Yeah, I guess. And certainly with, your music, I think the words certainly do matter. Thank you.
This interview has been condensed and edited.