{"id":20233,"date":"2020-05-27T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xceed.me\/blog\/?p=20233"},"modified":"2023-05-17T16:12:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T14:12:11","slug":"interview-with-matador-music-finding-its-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xceed.me\/blog\/en\/interview-with-matador-music-finding-its-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Matador: “Some of my music has found a home on the dancefloor, some of it in your living room or in your airplane seat”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gavin Lynch, better known in the industry as Matador<\/a>, is a DJ, music producer and live performer from Dublin, Ireland. He kicked off his career thanks to the residency at Richie Hawtin’s ENTER<\/a> parties in Ibiza and all around the globe, and is now recognized as one of the most innovating live performers of the past decade. He’s also one of the ambassadors of Hawtin’s PLAYdifferently MODEL 1<\/a> mixer, alongside other artists such as Dubfire, Loco Dice, Nicole Moudaber and Paco Osuna. His passion for music leads him to spend much time in his studio, in Dublin, where he creates all the magic that then he brings to the best clubs and events of the world, such as Tomorrowlad, NEOPOP, Space Ibiza and more; and also with RUKUS<\/a>, Matador’s label and showcase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had an e-chat with Gavin who told us more about his past, his passion for the studio and his prolific career; about his relationship with Richie Hawtin and M_nus, his side musical projects, his release on Astralwerks Records and also about his plans for his label and his music, despite the difficult moment the world is in just now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"Xceed-Interview-Matador-Luigi
Image: \u00a9 Luigi Rizzo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n

From Dublin to the world: tell us more about how all this started. Also, we would really like to know the meaning behind the name \u201cMatador\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess my first exposure to electronic music was via the wireless, mostly listening to Radio 1, the Essential Mix<\/a> with Pete Tong and various other shows with Fergie, Judge Jules, John Digweed\u2026..my thirst was then quenched by a series of different mix CDs from Dave Clarke\u2019s \u2018World Service\u2019, to Richie Hawtin\u2019s \u2018909 Decks & FX\u2019 & Carl Cox\u2019s \u2018Fact\u2019 series\u2026 mostly techno now that I think about it. When I was 15, 16 years old I had turntables, a set of Omnitronic belt drives, and learned the basics using them. It was only five or six years later when I realised that If I wanted to play a certain sound (deep dark techno) for a full set, I would have had to start making my own music. At the time, I just couldn\u2019t find enough of what I wanted to play to fill two or three hours. Djing was definitely my first love, and I guess I started producing purely to feed my DJ sets.  As for the name \u201cMatador\u201d, we holidayed in Spain quite a bit when I was growing up, and back then a lot of the bullfights were shown on the TVs in the pubs and bars when we were out at night.  I am totally against bullfighting, but I picked \u201cMatador\u201d because of the performance aspect of the matador in the ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Would you say there are some advantages to your background as a sound engineer? And how is your workplace organized, which of your tools would you refuse to give up in your studio?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I trained as an engineer, and learned quite a lot, from the basics right through to working with world-class acoustic acts. Lots of that experience can be applied to what I do today, be it in the world of electronic music. I have a few different spaces in the house where I work. One of them is acoustically treated and sounds quite true, and this is the room where I finish most of the music. The other locations are creative spaces where I write. I constantly move equipment around, synths, outboard\u2026 but 1 thing I couldn\u2019t live without is a \u2018Roland SH 101<\/a>\u2019, a staple in pretty much all my productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

We know your studio faces the ocean. What does it feel like creating music in such a location? How much does this inspire you, or do you get your inspiration elsewhere?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an incredibly beautiful place to live, very peaceful and calming. As a kid I grew up living beside the sea, so it\u2019s always somewhere I feel at home, and there\u2019s nothing like fresh sea air. It\u2019s quite inspiring actually \u2013 my downtempo album \u2018Tuesday\u2019 was inspired by life along the Irish coast \u2013 the sound of the waves, and indigenous bird song.  But inspiration comes from a lot of places for me; playing around in the studio and stumbling across a riff, or watching something on TV, hearing a sound, and disappearing off upstairs for hours on end.  I could hear something in a car, or in the airport, something could make my ear prick up, and I\u2019ll be in front of a synthesizer or my laptop five minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n