As a way of validating his ‘nerd’ credentials in an epic manner, for the title of his latest album (and seventh as a solo artist) the delightfully enigmatic, refreshingly mercurial, but always brilliant Canadian musician/songwriter Matthew Good chose a term from the world of Dungeons and Dragons – Chaotic Neutral.
According to our pals at Wikipedia, Chaotic Neutral is an alignment, or personality, of a character.
“A Chaotic Neutral character is an individualist who follows his or her own heart and generally shirks rules and traditions. Although Chaotic Neutral characters promote the ideals of freedom, it is their own freedom that comes first; good and evil comes second to their need to be free,” says the definition.
“A Chaotic Neutral character does not have to be an aimless wanderer; it may have a specific goal in mind, but its methods of achieving that goal are often disorganized, unorthodox or entirely unpredictable.”
Fictional film characters such as Capt. Jack Sparrow and Escape from New York’s Snake Plissken are cited as archetypal Chaotic Neutrals. Not only could this describe the tone and tenor of the new album, but perhaps Good himself. For he certainly took and unorthodox and entirely unpredictable route to completely Chaotic Neutral.
“The title is based kind of on the idea of what that alignment is. I decided to call the record that before I wrote this new material. I had written other material that I ended up scrapping that was really kind of ‘out there’ and I thought the title really fit the description of the alignment a lot more. When I started this newer stuff, there was a lot of ebb and flow to the record. You go from a song like Girls in Black to the song Cold Water and it’s a real change in tone and feel. So there is still a bit of a schizophrenic nature to the record, which is why I kept the title,” he said, explaining why he scrapped the earlier material.
“I actually put a lot of work into the other album. There were a lot of things that I had been toying around with for a long time – including a 21-minute song and a whole bunch of kind of bizarre experimental stuff. The 21-minute thing was the only one I actually finished. Tiger By the Tale was the only thing that survived from that first go at it and it’s on the new record,” he said.
“The album was creative, but it was all over the map and I was finding it difficult to complete songs. In a case where I had just written music, I would try to go back and work on melody but I couldn’t. There were a couple of songs where I couldn’t come up with a frickin’ melody that I liked because I was working at it from so many different angles. So I basically just got rid of it all and started again and ended up with the material that you’re hearing now. It was one of those things too where I had to look at it pragmatically and realistically and say to myself, ‘a 21-minute song, that’s like three weeks in the studio alone.’ And I don’t have that kind of time. So I ditched it all, I totally cleansed my palate for this record.”
Album name aside, there still is a definite cohesiveness to Chaotic Neutral and it is also undeniably an example of Matthew Good
at his best and his most inimitable. The songs are emotionally evocative, the tone heightened by Good’s distinctive and almost plaintive voice. And they’re songs wherein their author always has something of depth and profundity to say – they always leave the listener feeling ‘something’ even after one hearing.
The song Army of Lions is a raucous and rockin’ piss-take on social media’s intrusiveness and the credibility it has seemingly accrued in our society – even though so much of what appears on FaceTwit [author’s humorously derogatory term] and the like is filled with mistruths, missteps and misinformation.
“It’s about how people will rely on throwing things out into a mass chasm and thinking that it’s actionable, whereas in most cases it just gets lost. I think that people’s inner strength with regards to just dealing in reality with their lives and relationships and the rest of it is a vastly more powerful force than whatever this social media phenomena represents,” Good explained.
The song Moment features Good once again talking about the issue of mental illness – a topic for which he has often been bravely open and outspoken over the years, including discussing his own ongoing struggles.
“My wife was doing a photo shoot for this family and the son suffered from mental illness and was a big fan of my music. He asked if he could send me a letter and some of his poetry and he did. I was really struck by the letter and it inspired this song. I thought to myself, ‘you have written songs about mental illness and your own struggles with them that are dour.’ And I guess reading what he wrote and the way he put things, I decided I wanted to write something that was positive about it. And that’s basically how that song came to pass.”
Chaotic Neutral sees Good back working with his friend of two decades and producer Warne Livesey, but in a different capacity. Livesey is the sole producer credited on the album, marking the first time in his seven-album solo career that good has let go of those reins.
“Every time Warne and I make a record we come up with one element that we’re going to do differently. For this one I said to him, ‘instead of you sitting at the board and we’re laying something down and we’re both hemming and hawing about it asking each other what we think of it, let’s leave those decisions in your hands.’ I told him I would just sit in the back of the control room and munch on carrots or something,” Good said.
“I mean, I demoed the whole album and I know what we’re after overall. And we both knew what guitar sounds were going to work in each area. But after that once we were in the studio, my input was pretty minimal outside of laying down the parts. Listen, when you work with someone for 18 years, you fucking trust them. So it was a no-brainer really to go this route, and I really enjoyed the process.”
It’s also the first Matthew Good album to feature prominent guest arts in significant roles. As examples, there are some truly inspired guitar parts contributed by Sam Goldberg Jr. of Broken Social Scene, and some breathtakingly riveting vocals from long-time pal Holly McNarland. Bones Hillman of Midnight Oil also plays bass on the record.
“It was fun to do. Having Sam come in and play guitar was special. I am credited on the record with playing guitar on both the songs he played on but the reality is that the amount of guitar I played is so infinitesimal I almost wish I wasn’t credited with it. On Girls in Black and No Liars, he reinvented those parts,” Good explained.
“He just laid down all this stuff and it was phenomenal. It changed the song completely – for the better. I was outside later that night having a cigarette and he came out and I said ‘hey man, you just got writing credit on that song.’ And he deserved it.
“As far as Holly is concerned, that too was a no-brainer. I have known Holly for 20 years. She was in town and I wanted a strong female vocalist on some parts and as far as I am concerned when that’s what you’re looking for, she is the only phone call you need to make.”
Good also took the risk of placing a cover song on the album, and not just any cover, but the favourite song on his favourite album by one of his favourite artists, Kate Bush – Cloudbusting. It is the song on which McNarland is featured most prominently, and to stunning effect.
“The Hounds of Love album was hugely influential for me and a lot of other musicians too. And my favourite song on it is Cloudbusting. When I started to demo it I had no inclination to put it on the record because I don’t believe you cover Kate Bush – it’s kind of sacrilege. I did it as more of a personal homage. So I altered a few things, a couple of chord progressions and made it vastly shorter. When Warne and my management heard it they said I should give it a go and record it. I said I would but if it doesn’t pan out, it’s not going on the record. I am not doing that because you just don’t do that to a Kate Bush song,” he said.
“It ended up turning out well, so at the end of the day I was very much for it. And as far as Holly was concerned, she came in to sing it and she not only sang the parts I wanted, but had some great harmony ideas too. When Warne was fooling around with the levels of where she would be in the mix I kept saying to turn her up, to the point where I changed the accreditation on the song to ‘featuring Holly McNarland.’ It basically became close to a duet, and I am glad it turned out that way because she brings something special to it.”
With the album coming out on Sept. 25, Good has orchestrated a pretty extensive tour of the Great White North. Starting Nov. 6 in Victoria, BC, it finishes up with a show in Peterborough on Dec. 12, at Showplace Theatre. Other Ontario dates include Nov. 26 in Ottawa, Nov. 27 in Barrie, Nov. 30 in Sarnia, Dec. 2 in Waterloo, as well as Dec. 4 and 5 at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto.
“I love touring, and I find it a lot less stressful than it used to be. You kind of do your thing, go out and play and that’s all it entails. You’re not running around all day doing press and shit like it was back in the day. I get that all out of the way beforehand. With touring, I know some people try to perfect things and create a routine and a comfort zone. But I like to go out of my comfort zone a little bit,” he said.
“Performing is why I got into this business. I love the writing, the recording and the playing. I don’t really mind the travelling. I sleep perfectly well on a tour bus. I could live on one like Willie Nelson does. Plus it’s great to see different cities and different audiences each night.”
In other words, returning to the theme of the album and this article, it’s a little chaotic, a little unorthodox and a little unpredictable – just the way Matthew Good, and his legions of fans, like it.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMm0eyf4GWs
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
