Diandra Interviews Matt Holubowski: Here’s To The Weird Ones

I love Matt Holubowski’s voice and lyricism. I, recently, spoke to a fellow songwriter, Ben Wylen, who said for fellow songwriters the lyrics are for the artists and the melodies are for the listeners. To him, words are more powerful for creatives listening to music, while a good beat is for those that simply enjoy it. I thought of this while listening to Holubowski’s newest album, Weird Ones, which observes the strangeness of being a kind heart tossed away for being an eccentric or rather too original to be normal. In our interview, we discuss what it is to be truly “weird” and creative brilliance is often trapped by labels of strangeness.

Diandra: As a songwriter, what have you learned is the power of words or language? What is you wisest or happiest lyric?

Matt: Words have a way of connecting people who might otherwise never have had much in common. They have a way of thwarting loneliness by highlighting the fact that we are inextricably linked by the human experience, which includes joy, sadness, anger, jubilation, frustration, and so on. When we read or hear someone mention a sentiment that we have felt, then for a brief moment, we feel some respite at knowing that we aren’t the only one feeling this way.

Language is also an incredible motivational tool. Choruses can be like mantras you repeat to yourself to help you stay on track. Countless are the times a lyric or passage, in a novel or poem, has gotten me all fired up and ready to take over the world. Words are helpful in inspiring us to better ourselves and their effect can spread like wildfire. It’s why I choose all of my words as carefully as I can.

I don’t know that anything I’ve written is wise, per se, and anything that comes off that way is likely a paraphrase of someone else’s wisdom, but I admittedly do like to insert tidbits of it here and there. My personal mantra of late, as being someone who is never quite satisfied with my work is ‘’Don’t be so hard on yourself’’. I slipped that one into Eyes Wider, and quite honestly the mantra-esque feeling it gives me, personally, is pretty much the reason why I put it on the record – it just barely made the cut!

I also like ‘’To pretend is not the same as existing’’ from Two Paper Moons. There’s a line in Moon Rising that is a reference to the internet having rapidly gone from being a revolutionary form of democratization of information to an information sewer/ productivity killer: ‘’You went there, can’t find it, you took the scenic route I bet’’ (re: finding our free will there).

In thinking of my happiest lyric, I came to the sullen realization that they are very few, but “Around Here” as a whole is about some form of respite or sanctuary so that works, and maybe the start of the Highlands, which is about a real beautiful imaginary place: ‘’I’ll go to my favourite window, and I’ll climb down to where life is a lark’’.

Matt Holubowski – Two Paper Moons (official)

Diandra: Your songs balance the lines between possible and impossible. What is one thing life has taught you is impossible and one thing that is possible, particularly in terms of love?

Matt: It’s impossible to avoid failure entirely. If you never fail, you never tried.

It’s possible to heal, it’s possible to change, and it’s possible to love again even when you’re in the depths of some romantic despair. I don’t necessarily believe in the idea of a ‘’one true love’’. It’s possible to love more than one person intimately in a lifetime.

Diandra: Seeing music as therapy, how do you feel creativity counters destructivity, especially in one’s self? What song did you create counter an insecurity?

Matt: I think as I mentioned above, that music can be a mantra is a way of countering destructivity. As a general rule, I think people are good, and most people treat those around them with respect and empathy, and are kind and generous toward one another, but the same, definitely, isn’t true of how we treat ourselves. So a gentle reminder to do so is a nice thing to do. Seems simple and obvious, it really isn’t.

Pretty much all of Weird Ones, and also probably all of my other songs, were written in an effort to counter insecurities. My favourite and the most effective however is “mellifluousflowers.” Writing that song was a huge breakthrough for me, and it instilled in me a sense of acceptance and forgiveness, which became a recurring theme throughout the album. I am not religious in any sense, but do think some of their texts have little nuggets of wisdom to offer, and I realized, once I finished the record, that I had unknowingly been working on myself guided by the principles of The Serenity Prayer (“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”)

Diandra: Who are the “Weird Ones” that have most inspired you?

Matt: Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Haruki Murakami, Mikhail Bulgakov, David Bowie, Nick Cave, Boris Vian, Justin Vernon, Elliot Smith…the list goes on and on.

What do you feel is weird about you, and do you see weirdness as defining of humanness?

Matt: The choice of the title Weird Ones was made in the same spirit of acceptance that I keep talking about. More specifically/personally, as accepting that I would like never be as weird as I’d like to. I’ve always been fascinated by the thought process of people who we perceived as strange. It’s so interesting to see how someone’s mind goes where it does, and when someone iterates something intriguing, I can’t help but wonder what mental gymnastics they performed before coming to that particular conclusion.

There was a point somewhere, half-way in the last tour, where I was becoming more embedded than ever in the music industry/scene, and I found myself observing how there seems to be a trend of weirdness or alternative individuality or ugliness or protest in art, as if somehow this “norm-core movement” of the last decade invented marginality. And, no different than any insecure artist, I became interested in it, and wanted to be a part of it, but for all the wrong reasons. For a minute, I thought that, to speak to my generation, I needed to look and sound like them, so I began to obsess over this idea of being weird or challenging or whatever it is people are trying to do. I fucked up all my songs with weird sounds in an effort to challenge people’s idea of what I am, and in the process I just drowned out any true originality I might have had.

Lucky for me, it didn’t last long, and I quickly came to the realization that I would never be as weird as Dylan or Waits. If it were to be, it would have already happened, and for it to happen now would be to be dishonest, which I don’t think I am. So I began to thing of the varying forms of weirdness. I thought of Leonard Cohen, and how polite and well-spoken and clear minded he was. Was he any less weird and original than his more flamboyant counterparts? I don’t think so.

So, to answer the question more straightforwardly, I think that weirdness is defining of humanness. Yes ,(it’s clear by how we’ve evolved that we are a creative animal, and creatives are weird in that they think outside the box), but only when weirdness requires no effort and only when it celebrates genuine originality, whatever form that takes. Weirdness is trendy at the moment, but to follow a trend is in no way original, and though trends will come and go, the weirdness of the human mind will always remain. But what the hell do I know!

Describe a moment in your life when you felt your strangeness was you power.

Matt: I’m not sure if you mean powerful in relation to myself or in relation to others. Every time, I write a song, I feel powerful. I guess writing a song is a reflection of my individual strangeness. But power is relative, and in relation to others, is generally something I avoid.

Matt Holubowski – Thoroughfare

Diandra: Singing to moments of disillusionment and beauty, what has music helped you to feel comfortable with about yourself in love?

Matt: Basically, everything I write about is cathartic in some way. It’s my way of expounding whatever rumination I’m going on about at that moment. With this record, what I especially loved was that I drastically lowered my inhibitions and feel like I’ve been the most raw, open, and honest I’ve ever been in song. Being wholly taciturn became silly to me in recent times, and I feel that I love myself more for just saying what I want to say without fear of being judged or laughed at for whatever I say or think or sing or write.

Diandra: This is such a scary time to be an artist/person, i.e. a global pandemic. As someone who loves travel, what are the things about this world you have seen that gives you hope?

Matt: People, places, and the things I feel when I travel have given me hope. Nothing can calm you down or put things into perspective better than the raw, awesome power of nature can. Something about being somewhere real high up, looking down at the vastness of life, is so comforting. Last week, on the eve of this whole quarantine business, I visited Joshua Tree, and watched the Coachella Valley from afar. I thought to myself, well the festival may be in dire straits, but the valley is not. I have also met people with such charisma, motivation, intelligence, generosity and kindness, that it’s hard to think that it won’t all be ok. It’s a scary time, yes, but in times of trouble, we have been known to come together – eventually.

Diandra: Here’s to hoping we can get back out on the road soon and remind ourselves of all that!With your magical realist style, i.e Paper Moons, what are some surreal, magical things you wish, actually, existed and why?

Matt: I really do wish there were two moons. That would be nice. I’d like to be able to fly and teleport so I could avoid all the shitty airlines. Though, I’d probably miss the experience of driving down endless roads. I wish we could also change the colours of things like the sky and the sea and the trees at will. Wouldn’t it be fun to spend a day where the world is candy-coloured or something like that?

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