Review Fix Exclusive: The Ocean Beneath’s Matt Burnside Talks ‘Setting Sun’ And More

October 15, 2020 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with The Ocean Beneath’s Matt Burnside, who discusses the origin of the band, their creative process and standout work.

Review Fix: How did the project start? 

Matt Burnside: The Ocean Beneath started life as a shared ideal between Rich Blacker and myself, Matt Burnside. We both wanted to create new music moving away from our previous ventures with an 80’s influence and a modern push on the production. We also wanted to bring in as many other people as possible along the way for collaborations so we did just that. We released our debut EP in 2019 and have worked with loads of great artists including Nath Jackson, Fran Minney, Mik Crone and more. In Feb of 2020 Rich wanted to take some time away from the project so now I’m just pushing things forward and doubling down on the collaborations.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like? 

Burnside: Usually tracks start as little pallets of information, a sound from one of the analogue synths or a rhythmical idea jotted down in midi. I must have a 1000 of these on my hard drive, the ones that stand out get turned in to full tracks. Most of them have a feeling attached for me, something I just have to get out in music form.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? 

Burnside: How was it written? ? “Setting Sun” from our debut EP probably means the most to me. We worked with Nath Jackson on this track from the early stages and he helped pull some of it together with the lyrics and melodies. Plus the kick drum on this track sounds absolutely huge!

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2020? 

Burnside: 2020 has of course been a strange year so surviving that is priority. We’ve just launched our new single Skin ft. Fran Minney so pushing that and getting in to peoples ears is the current goal we’re so proud of this collaboration and it took us in some new directions we love. Skin is available now and there’s a great music video for it over on YouTube.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?  

Burnside: I really just want the music to give people a release in whatever way they find it. I listen to so much music and the music I choose usually ties in to the mood I’m in or how I’m feeling, I hope our music can do that for some people too.

Review Fix: What’s next? 

Burnside: We’re working on a full length album at the moment, a collaboration EP and hopefully a lot more into next year but for now go check out Skin ft. Fran Minney.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 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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