Matisyahu was one-of-a-kind when he first came on the scene with his 2004 CD, “Shake Off the Dust … Rise.” A resident of Brooklyn, he was a Hasidic Jewish musician with a sound that blended reggae and hip-hop.
But in some important respects, it’s only with his recently released CD, “Light,” that Matisyahu has become his own man on an artistic level. He has now made an album that comes closer to fully reflecting the sound and range of music he wants to create.
“I sort of broke away from anyone who was telling me how to make music or what kind of music to make,” Matisyahu said in a phone interview. “I just sort of went, ‘These are the kind of beats I want on the record. These are the people I want to write it with. This is who I want to work with.’”
Reggae and hip-hop continue to be at the root of many of the new songs. For instance, “I Will Be Light” is a pure reggae/dub song, while “Escape” leans heavily on hip-hop with its rapped vocals and skittering beat. On “Smash Lies,” Matisyahu fuses reggae and hip-hop seamlessly, finding a beat and pulse that somehow suggest both styles.
But much of the “Light” CD ventures well beyond reggae or hip-hop. “So Hi, So Lo” is a graceful and hard-hitting fusion of soul and rock. Grand, symphonic pop sweetens the melody of “For You,” while the beat has street-level grit. “Motivate” and “Darkness Into Light” add rock into Matisyahu’s musical vocabulary.
The move toward a wider ranging sound hasn’t happened overnight for Matisyahu. (His English language name is Matthew Miller; Matisyahu is Hebrew for Matthew.) His musical interests began to expand soon after his first album arrived in stores.
Touring introduced him to the music of his band mates and opened him up to a wide array of artists and musical styles, Matisyahu said.
The music on “Light” wasn’t created overnight. After touring behind his 2006 second CD, “Youth,” Matisyahu took a break and started what eventually grew into a two-year process of writing and recording “Light.”
“I wanted to take the time with the record. I didn’t want to be rushed,” Matisyahu said.
The songs on “Light” are helping Matisyahu achieve a goal for his live shows. He said that as he toured behind his first two studio albums, as well as his 2005 concert release, “Live At Stubbs,” he found himself trying to deliver increasingly high-energy shows.
“I started to notice that all of the songs at the end of the tour, all of the songs would be about five bpms (beats per minute) faster than when we started the tour and the recordings,” he said. “Every song was getting faster. And there was this feeling I’d get … like having to keep this energy going at this high level all the time or else it’s not a good show.”
Matisyahu found himself wanting to create a more varied concert experience, both in mood and intensity.
The greater range in tempos and styles on “Light” is helping achieve that goal, as is a revamped backing band that includes his long-time guitarist, Aaron Dugan and keyboardist Rob Marscher, along with the Dub Trio (guitarist DB Holmes, bassist Stu Brooks, drummer Joe Tomino).
Matisyahu had seen the trio perform a number of times before they joined his show.
“The last time I saw them I was really struck by them and their new record that had come out,” Matisyahu said. “We got together in Brooklyn. We played a show, an all-improvised set, no rehearsal or anything like that. And it felt, like, totally amazing, really beautiful. The music just, I didn’t have to ever tell anybody how or what to play. They’re such a creative group of musicians and tasteful, but we all have this sort of thing going where we really felt we were listening to each other.
“From that night on they became my band, with Aaron and Rob,” he said. “So it’s a bigger band, a lot of melodic keyboards and guitars with lots of pedals and stuff, a lot of dubs.”
