Diandra Interviews Matthew Logan Vasquez: Finding A Spiritual Experience In Music
I love Matthew Logan Vasquez: always have. His music is so inspiringly raw, and, interviewing him, I felt my suspicions confirmed. Hearin his music, you can see his heart as if it fleshes upon listen. Discussing his newest record, LIGHT’N UP, he speaks about the spirituality of atheism and the refuge you make when you find someone to love you forever.
Diandra: In your newest album, LIGHTN UP, you talk about wanting to feel and be settled while living a life that is in constant motion. What did this record teach you about how you define and seek inner peace?
Matthew Logan Vasquez: Woah! Good Question! I think with this record in particular, and it was something I wanted to step into since I started working under my own name, is letting the song content be more journal based A song like Oslo the truth is stranger than fiction. I couldn’t make a sadder song. A lot of the tone on the record was elements of “being on the run” and feeling the sensation of “I finally got roots” but then life happens. Going through that process of a lot of sorrow and letting go of a lot of the things I loved in Texas.
Matthew Logan Vasquez “Vacation” [Official Video]
Diandra: I have seen you live a few times, and you are a big, funny personality. Then, I read interviews or hear this last album, and you talk about your struggles to deal with your sensitivity and self-love. Do you think having a big heart or rather a sensitive one is key to your artistry?
Matthew Logan Vasquez: I don’t know. I wouldn’t say I have the hugest heart but I am definitely pretty sensitive, and I definitely have my shares of insecurities and overconfidence. It’s a funny cocktail because it makes me me. Yeah, it has a lot more to do with those two elements. I kind of always felt like this is what I want to do. It is very much wrapped up in my identity and spurs me on to do it the way I do it. I think the record says that. I am always trying to wrap things up and do a retrospective of it.
Diandra: I think heart is a mixture of ego and spirit. It goes big both ways. How has having a family helped you to love yourself better as a person and artist?
Matthew Logan Vasquez: Having a family changes the center of things. In my younger twenties, I really only had myself to think about and worry about. Also, the guys in Delta Spirit, the only thing we were living for was trying to make the band get bigger and travel together and get through it like a brotherhood. Then, you get married and you have a kid, and you start thinking about the long-term of life. You get a partner, in every aspect, and that, certainly, makes me have to carry as a representative of them. If you met my wife, then you’d know that is easy. She is awesome, and I throw a lot less temper tantrums these days. When you are in love and you find the right person it softens your harder edges.
Matthew Logan Vasquez “Trailer Park” [Official Music Video]
Diandra: In Light’n Up, you mention your struggles with “religiosity” or the “religulous,” but your verses show you are spiritual and seek to be mindful. How would you describe godliness and humanness?
Matthew Logan Vasquez: I think my spiritual journey has definitely taken its turns. It’s funny because the church I used to play worship as a worship leader, it played a huge role in my life. The state when I was 15, I was dropping a lot of acid, and that is what moved me from Texas to California. The only think I was allowed to do was go to Church and that spiritual power, or the idea of it, really took me to a different place. Now, as an older person, I learned about the history and the systems that were in place to organize religion. Now, I have come to the conclusion about my agnosticism in terms of spirituality. I’m not taking for granted the time that we have here. Sometimes, I look at my songs and I say, “Man, I’m writing songs for recovering Christians.” ( he laughs)
A lot of us musicians can attribute the fact that we know how to play an instrument or sing and write songs because every Sunday we played at a church. In terms of taking a group of worshippers to the throne room of God, it’s just a different place. I’m still trying to figure that out and wrestle with the most intense time, I’ve ever had, was when I played for hyper-Evangelicals. People were throwing their souls into their most vulnerable state, and, when you are apart of that, it is not centered on you, it is all centered on an idea. That is a really powerful thing. I”m still trying.scratch that itch on how to get people to that “throne room of God” idea.
Diandra: You have gone from Delta Spirit to solo and then Glorietta to back as a solo artist. What growths did you see within yourself in latest transition from being in a band to going solo?
Matthew Logan Vasquez: I wanted to get out of the “me” of being an artist. You learn a lot about people in a creative environment going 90 miles per hour. You eat together, travel together, create together, drink together…. It was a great time and I really miss that. In this solo project, I have a really great band of awesome dudes, but it is impossible to just be friends because I am also an employer.
Diandra: You, obviously, adore your son. What is one lesson of love you hope to show your son through your music and journey as an artist?
Matthew Logan Vasquez: It is a hard lesson that I learned as a kid. Growing up and going through bankruptcy, as my family went through that, my parents lived with their parents, I lived with my mom, we went through that for a year and found ourselves a house in Texas. I think no matter where we go, and what we go through, the riches of Life are in love and family. The connections we make stretch our lives to be longer and enrich them. They are more valuable than a yacht or a big house. It is about knowing people and being apart of a community. I feel like I’m apart of the tribe of people that are optimistic about the betterment of each others’ lives.
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