Review Fix Exclusive: Dante Matas Talks Midnight Sun EP And More

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Dante Matas, who discusses his new Midnight Sun EP, detailing its creative process, influences and goals.

About the EP:

Midnight Sun is about conflicts and resolutions between people. It’s about fully embracing one side of human emotion while trying to understand it’s opposite from that perspective. In other words, the songs that sound hopeless come from a place that’s hopeful and vice versa.

Review Fix: How did you get started in music?

Dante Matas: I started learning piano when I was around 7. I had only ever heard classical music until I was 12 and I would write these little instrumental songs without really any knowledge of how music worked. It was a lot of fun. I picked up the guitar when I was 12 and starting writing songs with chords and lyrics that were more influenced by rock and pop music from a bunch of different eras (mostly 60s, 70s, 90s, but I’ve grown to love them all). That was also a lot of fun.

Review Fix: What makes you unique?

Matas: I think I try really hard to not be unique in any way just to be different and maybe it works. But for a more real answer: I have no idea. I play a lot of instruments and spend years writing songs and recording them over and over to get them right. I think a lot of people do that though so I’m really just copying them. Sometimes songwriters avoid complexity for fear that it might confuse the listener. I definitely do not do that. In my mind, things can be catchy and can come across as simple even if in reality there is a lot going on. Sometimes that makes songs special. Maybe that makes me unique? I have no clue.

Review Fix: What groups inspire you?

Matas: I like Radiohead, The Beatles, Fleet Foxes, Prince, The Magnetic Fields, Tame Impala, Abba, Elliott Smith, Judee Sill, Simon and Garfunkel, Wilco, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Debussy. I mean, this list could go on forever actually.

For lyrics, in particular, I like Leonard Cohen, Fiona Apple, Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan.

Review Fix: What makes this EP special?

Matas: It’s a collection of songs that were all written at completely different times but they somehow all fit together. The oldest song is something I had been working on for almost 5 years and the most recent song was written and recorded about a month before I sent it into mastering! I guess that means the EP covers a lot of changes in my life and the world around me. Each song says a little bit about a lot of different things. It’s also special to me in particular just because it’s the first time ever that I am relatively satisfied with how the recordings do justice to the songs!

Review Fix: How was the standout song in the EP written?

Matas: The song “Midnight Sun” was written in one day, which is very rare for me. Well, everything except the title. It was meant to reflect on a moment in an imagined future where you are reminiscing about the past. It was going to be called “Future Nostalgia” but I was walking home one day and I saw band posters all over this wall with that exact title (I think it was for The Sheepdogs?). So I scrapped that idea and left it for a while. Then one day I was randomly listening to Louis Prima and in this one song he just starts speak-singing and he says something about hanging a bucket of goldfish legs on a skyhook in the midnight sun. I thought that was so cool and it made me realize that a midnight sun is a real thing and that it somehow perfectly encapsulated what I was already saying in the song. So I changed the title. That’s literally how it happened.

Review Fix: What was it like to work with Igor Vrabac?

Matas: Igor was great, he primarily does film scores and is classically trained so he really understands the drama of music and helps bring that out in my songs. I basically brought him what I thought were the finished songs but we ended up remixing them together and taking out a bunch of unnecessary parts. He really helped me learn how to not overthink things too much with recordings, and also to commit to the decisions you make.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Matas: Right now I am playing live more often than I ever have, and I’m putting together a band to play the new material I have been working on. My plan is to finish recording an entire LP by the end of the summer. It’s a bit ambitious considering it took me a year and a half to finish Midnight Sun and that’s only 5 songs, but for some reason I think it’s going to happen. The new stuff is very different, but it’ll still sound like me. I’m really excited about it!

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Matas: Pretty much looking to book some tours, record some music, make some music videos, maybe learn how to scuba dive, and conquer any debilitating self-doubt that might get in the way. I’m sure it will all work out!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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