Matt Dusk
Matt Dusk was doing a promo show at an extremely small club, hence this interview. I think there were at least twenty potential buyers for all 125 tickets. Heard it was a good show. Didn't make it.
August, 2004
Matt Dusk is on the road to Espanola. It sounds like a lyric from the kind of barroom ballad Dusk excels in but in fact it’s the mundane reality of this late August evening. Dusk is en route to his gig an hour down the road and he’s upbeat and happy as he talks over the sometimes shaky cell connection. “Its very overwhelming” he chuckles lightly “but its all excellent. Its non stop action. There's always something going on, there’s always something to do.”
Matt Dusk has had a very good year. His major label debut ‘Two Shots’ is number 3 on the jazz charts and as Dusk notes during the conversation ‘about fifteen thousand copies from going gold’. His role as the singer in the hit reality show ‘The Casino’ has given him a profile most musicians would gladly pay for. Oh yes and then there’s the theme to the show, Dusk’s recording of a U2 B-side that Bono gave his blessing to. The song is ‘Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad’ but so far its all of the former and none of the latter for Dusk. “Even today I have to pinch myself because every night I get to sing ‘Two Shots’ at every gig. It still gets to me, its hilarious!”
Dusk may appear to have come out of nowhere but in fact he’s recorded four independent releases and been haunting Toronto clubs since he was seventeen, a whole eight years ago. And even though things have changed with the heightened profile that The Casino brings he takes it in stride. “It definitely has been different because I can't walk into a grocery store or a coffee shop without someone going ‘Oh are you that guy from the TV show?’ or ‘I’ve heard your music’. But it doesn't really faze me very much”. He laughs and then adds ”It basically makes it a lot easier to meet chicks!”
Dusk has heard the Sinatra talk and is too ‘aw shucks’ to take exception to the comparisons but he’s respectful of it. “I hold Sinatra in such esteem that to be compared or even mentioned in the same sentence is an honour’ he says quietly. “At the same time it can be a curse because people can say ‘you’re imitating him’. That’s not true. I never try to imitate him. I just came from the same school of training that Sinatra came from. That’s where the curse lies.”
The other curse is that Dusk’s music which wanders comfortably between jazz and old fashioned (ie Fourties) crooning gets very little radio airplay. “We knew that if we were going to drive albums sales it would have to be based on a TV and film based approach because this music for some odd reason does not get played on radio as much as we think it should.”
Yet audiences respond to Dusk’s music in much the same way they did the classic crooners. “I think it appeals to such a wide age group” Dusk observes.
”The older people enjoy seeing the younger people do it because it makes them feel young. And the younger people come because you’re a younger performer and they can relate to you. Its really cool how you get the blend of people.”
That blend of people will be apparent to any who can snag a ticket to Matt Dusk’s two shows at the London Music Club. Its part of a small tour of clubs that Dusk is doing for the noblest of reasons: he likes to play small rooms. “When we play smaller venues it gives us a chance to really meet the people we’re performing to” he notes. “And I think that’s the best part. As a performer if you didn’t have an audience to listen to you, you wouldn’t be anywhere. It’s a chance to get some good positive feedback and just hang out with the crew. You get a chance to meet some really great people on the road when you’re signing autographs after the show.”
After this short jaunt through Ontario and environs, Matt Dusk will be heading to the United States to promote the record there. “We’ve got quite a number of places to tour.” he says. “I don’t think the next record will be out until maybe November of next year or 2006. We’ve got the whole eastern seaboard, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.” He pauses for a breath and exhales. “Still a lot of work to do!”
August, 2004
Matt Dusk is on the road to Espanola. It sounds like a lyric from the kind of barroom ballad Dusk excels in but in fact it’s the mundane reality of this late August evening. Dusk is en route to his gig an hour down the road and he’s upbeat and happy as he talks over the sometimes shaky cell connection. “Its very overwhelming” he chuckles lightly “but its all excellent. Its non stop action. There's always something going on, there’s always something to do.”
Matt Dusk has had a very good year. His major label debut ‘Two Shots’ is number 3 on the jazz charts and as Dusk notes during the conversation ‘about fifteen thousand copies from going gold’. His role as the singer in the hit reality show ‘The Casino’ has given him a profile most musicians would gladly pay for. Oh yes and then there’s the theme to the show, Dusk’s recording of a U2 B-side that Bono gave his blessing to. The song is ‘Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad’ but so far its all of the former and none of the latter for Dusk. “Even today I have to pinch myself because every night I get to sing ‘Two Shots’ at every gig. It still gets to me, its hilarious!”
Dusk may appear to have come out of nowhere but in fact he’s recorded four independent releases and been haunting Toronto clubs since he was seventeen, a whole eight years ago. And even though things have changed with the heightened profile that The Casino brings he takes it in stride. “It definitely has been different because I can't walk into a grocery store or a coffee shop without someone going ‘Oh are you that guy from the TV show?’ or ‘I’ve heard your music’. But it doesn't really faze me very much”. He laughs and then adds ”It basically makes it a lot easier to meet chicks!”
Dusk has heard the Sinatra talk and is too ‘aw shucks’ to take exception to the comparisons but he’s respectful of it. “I hold Sinatra in such esteem that to be compared or even mentioned in the same sentence is an honour’ he says quietly. “At the same time it can be a curse because people can say ‘you’re imitating him’. That’s not true. I never try to imitate him. I just came from the same school of training that Sinatra came from. That’s where the curse lies.”
The other curse is that Dusk’s music which wanders comfortably between jazz and old fashioned (ie Fourties) crooning gets very little radio airplay. “We knew that if we were going to drive albums sales it would have to be based on a TV and film based approach because this music for some odd reason does not get played on radio as much as we think it should.”
Yet audiences respond to Dusk’s music in much the same way they did the classic crooners. “I think it appeals to such a wide age group” Dusk observes.
”The older people enjoy seeing the younger people do it because it makes them feel young. And the younger people come because you’re a younger performer and they can relate to you. Its really cool how you get the blend of people.”
That blend of people will be apparent to any who can snag a ticket to Matt Dusk’s two shows at the London Music Club. Its part of a small tour of clubs that Dusk is doing for the noblest of reasons: he likes to play small rooms. “When we play smaller venues it gives us a chance to really meet the people we’re performing to” he notes. “And I think that’s the best part. As a performer if you didn’t have an audience to listen to you, you wouldn’t be anywhere. It’s a chance to get some good positive feedback and just hang out with the crew. You get a chance to meet some really great people on the road when you’re signing autographs after the show.”
After this short jaunt through Ontario and environs, Matt Dusk will be heading to the United States to promote the record there. “We’ve got quite a number of places to tour.” he says. “I don’t think the next record will be out until maybe November of next year or 2006. We’ve got the whole eastern seaboard, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.” He pauses for a breath and exhales. “Still a lot of work to do!”
posted by bk @ 10:55 PM
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