A Brief Interview With Mat d

I caught Mathew DeRiso, the "Mat d" of "Mat d and the Profane Saints", at home between earthshattering events. The night before he had opened for Bruce Hornsby in front of a thousand screaming fans at the Sioux City Orpheum. In just a few hours his son would be born.

HW: So if you had to choose between watching "Doctor Zhivago" or "Zombie Strippers"?

MD: Zombie Strippers, definitely.

HW: Tuscan tile or linoleum at home?

MD: Tuscan tile. Molly loves the home decor thing.

HW: Polished copper cookware or aluminum foil?

MD: (Laughs) Aluminum foil. I don't think there's any polished copper in the house.

HW: When would you say you officially "started" in music?

MD: October 2001. I noodled around before that, played in this band or that in high school and college, but nothing serious. Then I picked up a half-price ticket to see Bob Dylan, and it just hit me at that show that this kinda music was the coolest. I mean, his voice was like Howlin Wolf gone bad, but there was all this PASSION.

HW: So are you happy to be doing this, or do you get the feeling that the muse has thrown a monkey wrench into your life?

MD: I love it! I wanna do it more often, really. It has been building, and it just keeps going on and on. Had a frustrating summer and fall, some great gigs that didn't pan out, it just ran real hot or real cold, but I want to continue to put out music and have a good time.

HW: Care to elaborate?

MD: Well, we landed a gig at the 20th anniversary film festival for Dances With Wolves. Kevin Costner was supposed to show up, and we were playing to about 300 film industry people who were just checking their watches and staring at the door. A couple of hot chicks came up to talk to us, asked "So, are you in Kevin's band?" When we said no, they wandered off again. We played our guts out, but nobody applauded. They were just waiting for Kevin Costner to show up. He never did!

After the show we bailed on the room and went to a bar. There were some really cool film people there - the ones who didn't want to hang out waiting for Costner - and we got along fine. Found some great contacts for making a video when we're ready.

As to running hot - we were picked as Band of the Year by a local Heavy Metal station, KSEZ 98, for my song "Ghost of Huddie Ledbetter". That must have pissed a lotta people off! Here there's all these kids in leather, and we show up looking like, I don't know, like Boy Scouts or something.

HW: What is driving you to do this?

MD: I just want everything I do to be better than the last thing I did. I want to make each project different, better.

HW: So over the past eight years, have you ever felt like giving up, getting out?

MD: It's like an apple falling from a tree, never had an inkling of stopping. You make bad choices sometimes, get knocked on your ass. But you say your Hail Marys and move on. As long as there's music in my head, music in my heart, I'll keep doing it. There's this spark that hits. Back in 2007, I hadn't writen anything in awhile, and I got behind a truck with a bumper sticker that read "This Truck Makes More Money After Midnight". I created 10-15 tunes behind that one!

HW: What was your lowest low?

MD: Due to a lot of inexperience, I ruined a few friendships and created a lot of hard feelings. I got caught up in the attention and forgot that there were other people involved who wanted to go in a different direction.

HW: So how's that working out now?

MD:Everyone's getting along now, but it was a tough spot. Hard to see people who were lifelong friends just HATE each other.

HW: You have a new project in the works, "Plank Road Drag". I've heard a few cuts and it sounds like you are going back to proto-music. What's up with that?

MD: I went and saw Dirk Powell and got inspired. I want to explore all aspects of Americana Roots Music, and this is one of those aspects.

HW: What keeps the food on the table for you? Are you doing this fulltime?

MD: (Sad chuckle) I'm still workin' for the man, Jim. I design signs, I'm a commercial artist. A lotta times it kills the fun, but it keeps me creative. Sometimes I forget I have it pretty good where I'm at.

HW: How did you land the Bruce Hornsby gig you played last night?

MD: Some of the staff at the Orpheum heard me play a wedding, playing covers. They were looking for an opener for the Hornsby show, ran my stuff past Bruce, or his people, and I got a 45-minute set approved.

HW: How did that feel?

MD: NEAT. Old, big theater with kind of a Ryman feel. Maybe 1000 people in the room, a great feeling. Bruce's piano is lucky to be standing, looks like it has taken a lot of punishment. But just to be there with that caliber of musician. We got to eat dinner with him. He's a very cool guy, gave the sound man a CD, very nice.

HW: And this other thing goin on tonight. Big night for you, huh?

MD: Very excited, My son is being born tonight! I already have a 13-year old daughter and a 3-year old daughter. Gonna be happy with three kids! Right now I'm sitting in the nursery, last quiet night around the house for about eighteen years!

HW: So when is "Plank Road Drag" gonna get released?

MD: Spring of 2010. Already been working on it for a year. Want it to be more edgy, more Gothic.

HW: So that is how you'd describe your sound? Dark and Gothic?

MD: Dark, Gothic happiness, yeah.

HW Note: A few hours after our conversation, Mat's son Egan Daniel deRiso, "The Bobcat" came howling into the world. All things considered, Mat's been having a good month.