that magic christmas feeling with matt dorrien
listen: My Christmas Plea
Nostalgic songwriter Matt Dorrien shares new Christmas singles & holiday favorites
In his recent festive release, “Sure Miss Those Days At Christmas,” Matt Dorrien describes his childhood Christmases on Long Island, the innocence of youth, and missing that magic feeling during the holidays. Read our interview below to learn more about what he eats and listens to during the holiday season.
I highly suggest you make my hot buttered blood orange cider recipe as you hunker down with his EP, “My Christmas Plea.” Both are rich and satisfying, and since it’s Christmas you have permission to make your drink as stiff as your heart desires.
Tell us about your music, for those who don’t know you:
Well, I’m Matt Dorrien. I’ve been writing music and releasing records professionally for over a decade now. Prior to my debut Mama Bird release, I recorded and released two albums under the moniker Snowblind Traveler. I think I was still trying to find my voice when recording those records, and though I’m proud of them, only now do I finally feel comfortable with who I am as a songwriter, and I’m writing music that’s true to me. I released my debut album “In The Key of Grey” on Mama Bird Recording Co. in 2018. It’s a collection of songs that pay homage to all of my favorite songwriters in American history: from the Brill Building songwriters of the golden age of songwriting, to Randy Newman, Paul Simon, and the Beatles. I’m currently about to release my holiday EP “My Christmas Plea”, and I’m sitting on another full length album that will be released late spring 2021.
What’s the Mama Bird community like?
I first heard about Mama Bird while I was living in San Francisco over 7 years ago. The label was much smaller then, with a roster of only a few artists, but what attracted me to MB was their adherence to quality, and the preservation of the craft of songwriting. The label has since expanded, and is more renowned than it once was, but I think that is due in part to Vincent and Eric’s maintaining that same focus on quality and craft that first caught my eye, or rather ear. It’s also been quite a journey sharing in Mama Bird’s growth with them. It’s tempting to liken it to Laurel Canyon in the 60’s and 70’s, but I’m sure other vibrant music cities and communities could say the same thing. The label is based in Portland, OR, as are several of us on the roster, so we’ve been lucky enough to collaborate musically and also build lasting friendships in the process. I feel nostalgic now for nights when Haley Heyndrickx, Faustina Masigat, Vikesh Kapoor, Barna Howard, and I were sitting around a fire behind Mississippi Studios after a show we all played, laughing and talking well into the night.
I recently heard one of your songs playing at a Savers thrift store. Have you ever heard yourself out in the wild? That must be a trip.
Wow that’s amazing! Haha. I have yet to hear myself out there. Although, I will say that once, while bartending at my old job in Revolution Hall (the sister venue of Mississippi Studios) one of the owners Jim, a super nice guy who happens to like my album “In the Key of Grey” a lot, came in and put that record on while I was working! It was a little awkward haha, but I appreciated the gesture.
You are often likened to Randy Newman. To what extent is this accurate?
I love Randy Newman. Both he and Paul Simon are probably my favorite songwriters ever. So I guess it feels like a HUGE compliment when I get compared to either of them. I wrote several songs on “In the Key of Grey” specifically with Newman in mind. He has such a wonderful sense of melody and harmony, himself paying homage to early American songwriters, but also he is an expert satirist. He’s able to give mordant political and social commentary in one song, and then turn around and absolutely break your heart in another, all the while deftly using early American harmonic structure. He’s also scored several beloved Pixar and other films, as well as his own albums’ orchestral arrangements. He did the same for a few other artist’s songs as well, one in particular which I’ve been obsessed with lately is “Is That All There Is?” sung by Peggy Lee. It’s a quintessential Randy Newman arrangement. I myself learned notation and scoring in college, and am now finally utilizing it - albeit not as adeptly as Newman - on as many of my recordings as I can afford. I wrote all the string arrangements on “My Christmas Plea” as well as my upcoming full length album. Newman is an expert at building and releasing tension with harmonic dissonance, and it’s something I've been learning from and trying to emulate. He uses chromatic movements reminiscent of the likes of Stephen Foster or Scott Joplin, and early Brill Building writers like Gershwin and Irving Berlin, and the result is something that fully resonates with me as a writer and musician. Yeah, I’m a huge fan haha.
I understand that you grew up in a highly conservative, Evangelical setting. How did you end up here, writing songs about whiskey and heartbreak?
As is the case with all families, there were many environmental factors that contributed to my development, but yes I think that one of main ones has to be our conservative, Evangelical upbringing. I think my parents were, and still are, bandaging a lot of repressed childhood damage with religion. And I think, sadly, they’ve merely perpetuated the damage with us. Their rigid, conservative discipline and guidance, or lack thereof, gave me a lot of existential dread at an early age. I was always questioning it, and continue to fight against dogmatic and un-empathetic religions to this day - especially Evangelicalism. Without disparaging my parents too much though, because I love them and think they did the best they could considering their own upbringing, I will say that religion was only a part of a myriad of things that contributed to my malaise and sense of displacement, and ultimately influenced my songwriting.
How has quarantine/2020 impacted your music? What sort of writing has come out of it?
Well, like many Americans I was laid off for half of the pandemic. I was super productive when we first quarantined, and for the next several months I worked diligently on finishing unfinished songs, and writing string arrangements for my holiday EP, and my upcoming album. If it weren’t for having all the free time to write and record I don’t think I would’ve gotten both my EP, Yuletide Special, and album finished.
As far as the writing I’ve been doing, I would say that the tone has shifted slightly to be more uplifting. One song in particular has an overtly gospel vibe.
You do holiday music so well. How did you get started with this genre?
Thank you! That’s a huge compliment! I think that has a lot to do with how special Christmas was for me growing up. It was usually the one time of year my parents didn’t constantly fight, but also my dad really loved the holidays when he was a kid and wanted them to be special for us. So Christmas has a very warm, nostalgic place in my heart. But also, we listened to all of the Christmas music classics growing up. I’m actually currently reading a book called White Christmas: The Story of an American Song by Jody Rosen right now, and it’s about the origin of Irving Berlin’s song White Christmas, Tin Pan Alley and the Golden Age of Songwriting, and the influence Jewish Americans had on American music and culture. Most of the original Christmas classics that we know of (the good ones) were written during this Golden Age, and by mostly Jewish writers like Berlin, the Gershwins, Rogers and Hart, etc who themselves were influenced by African American Jazz musicians and writers like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. From that you get this wonderful amalgamation of popular song sensibility with beautiful jazz inspired musicality. And most importantly you get the influence of these marginalized peoples, the contribution being a sense of sadness and longing in the music that is comforting and relatable. The book goes into more detail than I can right now, but I will give this little anecdote - Bing Crosby said that when he performed White Christmas for the troops during WWII they would inevitably always break down and cry.
Let’s hear about your holiday release.
I just released my EP, “My Christmas Plea” and it’s a homage to these writers and their classic Christmas songs, but also to my childhood nostalgia surrounding Christmas.
Can you share some of your go-to holiday music?
Hmm, there’s a lot, but the main ones are Frank Sinatra’s “A Jolly Christmas,” Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song.” There’s also both of Ramsey Lewis Trio’s Christmas albums, Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite (so good), and Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas releases. And then there’s the choral and chamber music that might be less palatable to the modern ear haha: “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols,” by Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and all of John Rutter’s Christmas albums.
Do you have a favorite holiday appetizer, drink, or dessert?
We used to make Christmas Stollen growing up, but the recipe was really complicated, and I no longer have it with me. I used to love it though!
What’s coming up for you in the new year?
I’ve released my EP “My Christmas Plea” and will be airing my Yuletide Special once again Christmas Eve and Day! A have a full length album coming out late spring as well.
Where can we hear your music?
I’m on bandcamp and all of the streaming platforms, ie. Spotify, Apple Music, etc.
I’m also on IG: @mattdorrien
Websites: http://www.mamabirdrecordingco.com/matt-dorrien & https://www.mattdorrien.com/
*All photos courtesy of Matt Dorrien