Boduf Songs

Interviewed By: Eric Stein

Date: 2008-10-09

There is a specific feeling of isolated dreariness wrought throughout the recordings of Boduf Songs that seem to speak directly from an old farm house in the country-side of England. The rolling hills, the quiet and simple lifestyle has a warm and calming feeling but at the same time shares an underlying sense of lonely dreariness. Through his recordings as Boduf Songs, Mat Sweet paints a picture of such an existence once prevalent in his homeland England. The listener is made aware of a certain beauty in the simplicity of rural nature and simultaneously to the utter detachment and a lurking uncertainty of what lies beyond the shadows in the forest. The compositions follow the same trend, a carefully plucked guitar over Sweet’s hushed voice lulls one into a day-dream while he speaks of things mysterious and discerning.

His recordings are much his own, there is little to be used as a musical benchmark outside a seeming connection to folk ballads of old. Sweet recorded several entirely home made demos for Kranky records in early 2005, making minimal but impactful use of acoustic guitar, cymbals, violin bow, a toy piano, manipulated field recordings and some computer mixing. The result is exactly what you hear on the full length record. Kranky were so floored with the incredible sound and feeling of the Boduf Songs demos they released them as they lie, without any re-recording. Having such confidence in the natural abilities of an artist is rare in the industry, especially when it comes to inaugural releases, but in the case of Boduf Songs little is left to doubt.

Sweet broadened his palette of gold and grey shades for his next group of recordings. Under Kranky again Boduf Songs released Lion Devours The Sun, a complete full length recorded with a 4 track featuring the characteristic compositions that venture into the darker territories of psychedelia. This cant be easily pigeon holed as folk music, and for good reason, because it isn’t. There are landmarks you may hear along the way, but you ultimately are unsure of where you came from and where you are going when listening to these songs. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Boduf Songs is the fact that these records seem dark and dreary and yet they are as warm as the blood pumping through your heart. The interaction between emotions and an uneasy, desperate feeling are beautifully played out in the music of Boduf Songs.

Found In the Margins was able to get some time with Mat Sweet and get to know the man and his music a little more through a conversation on his reading habits. Sometimes interaction with artists taken out of their context as musicians can shed some light on aspects of their music you had not noticed before. For me, this seems to have been one of those cases.

Growing up Sweet’s first encounter with written stories came, as it does many of us, by way of super heroes and evil villains. “My first serious encounter with literature was through the medium of the comic book. At first this was fairly all-encompassing – anything that combined words and pictures in panel form was of some interest, and then a deep affection for the Marvel universe specifically developed courtesy of my local newsagents, which kept a comprehensive stock of current issues.”

Perhaps some insight into an artists mindset can be found in the themes that resonated with him over time, “I’d always been seriously into superheroes, probably since a very formative visit to the cinema to see Superman II combined with a disposition towards the type of revenge fantasies that are the sole proclivity of shy, lonely children, but the comics were a revelation, so much more developed than cartoon portrayals.”

Identifying with character flaws and personal demons is something not all kids get out of battles between good and evil, but Sweet outlines how they added to the depth of the stories being told,  “Peter Parker had major issues with guilt and responsibility, and Ben Grimm felt trapped in his role as a loveable tough guy. There was so much more he had to give! Naturally these things can look kind of silly now, and I stopped reading them many years ago; like old friends we grew apart. Did they help me grow? Doubtless they nourished my desire for escapism, and it seems that’s still with me. However, I no longer fantasise about having the ability to throw cars at people.”

Over all his years of reading I asked Sweet which books had stuck with him overtime and captured his mind in just that right way. He responds with a favourite pair, “Two books I generally recommend to people kind enough to ask are Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle and Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch. Re-reading the latter at the moment, as my memory is absolutely terrible, and my current situation lends itself to an agreeable reading. My ailing mind affords me the small advantage of knowing that certain things are great, and enjoying them almost afresh once again.”

Getting the sense that he was a serious reader, not just in what he reads but how he reads and what he seemingly takes away from it, I was curious to see if there were themes in his reading that seep into his music. “Lovecraft is fast becoming a painfully tired cliché in certain music circles, but I can’t deny the influence. There’s a palpable sense of dread and despair and misanthropy there that appeals in a lot of ways to a lot of people involved in making music that might be described as ‘dark’, but for me personally it’s the crushing sense of detachment and cosmic alienation that speaks loudest. That’s something that I, again personally, see in the music I make - whether other people see that or not is another matter. There are a lot of themes that attract me in both reading and writing, most of which tend to be widely considered unhealthy to dwell upon.”

With some resonating themes in the music he creates evident and some seeming connections to the stories he enjoys, I asked Sweet if there are particular subject matters he finds himself drawn to. I learned that the reader doesn’t always choose the book. “For books which I seek out, see above. There are also those which seem to seek me, and working in a university library, a huge assortment of titles pass through my hands everyday. I often just start reading something and get drawn in, whether it’s a psychology journal discussing whether hunger affects the type of women that men are attracted to (apparently it does) or an 18th century book of German hymnals.”

When it comes to writing songs however, these sources do not always act as a haven for ideas, as Sweet put it, “the sources of lyrical inspiration are either dreams or deeply clandestine.”

Intrigued by the harrowing undertones of his lyrics and compositions, I had to ask if these uneasy feelings were something he liked in his literature. “I’m generally drawn to fiction with heavy themes – I have a background in philosophy so I like to dwell on fairly useless unanswerable questions. Some books go some way to exploring these issues more effectively than academic treatises, e.g. Immortality by Milan Kundera, recommended to anyone troubled by the pointless of existence, particularly in relation to creativity. Likewise Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus, in fact. I appreciate that I may have said too much at this point.”

Despite the connotations to the dark side of things in his music, Sweet holds a genuine sense of good humour and ease when it comes to life. What then is he reading at the current moment? “Having said all that angsty business, I’m currently engrossed in The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung, 1899, which details the misadventures of Raffles, gentleman thief, debonair cricketer and charming bastion of the elite classes by day, cunning cat burglar by night. Victoriana has its own magical appeal, something about the language, something about the entirely pompous “British gentleman” thing, cads and bounders, monocles and ear trumpets.”

All stories and fiction aside, I finished by asking him what kind of non-fiction he enjoys reading. Generally this is a change to gain some practical information on one’s interests, or simply find out something new. “Whatever presents itself as useful at the time I guess. I’m currently ploughing through an epic history of cinema in preparation for a Film Studies M.A. I’ll be starting next year. Recently finished reading Chris Ware’s second Date Book, which is a kind of diary/sketch book, very beautiful/hilarious/saddening. The uninitiated would probably fare better by starting with Jimmy Corrigan or The Acme Novelty Library which are both quite exquisite works by the same gentleman.“

All Boduf Songs recordings, merchandise and information available at www.bodufsongs.com

Purchase Books
You can purchase the books recommended by Boduf Songs here.

Links:
http://www.bodufsongs.com