Matisyahu: The Fire of Freedom
A new EP unleashes the tiger inside the celebrated reggae crossover artist
Calling from a tour stop in Florida, Matisyahu is in a good mood. It’s February 2 – the day he is releasing his new EP, Hold the Fire.
“It’s an exciting moment,” he says, even though this is far from the first time the celebrated reggae/hip hop/alternative rock artist has gone through this process since he began his career nearly a quarter of a century ago.
In the hypercompetitive music business, it’s relatively rare for any artist to last that long and still be thriving, and it is this determination to succeed that inspired Matisyahu on Hold the Fire.
“It’s about stamina – endurance as an artist,” he says.
The EP’s title came from a memorable dream he had about a decade ago: “The dream was, I was praying in a synagogue somewhere in the Middle East in some ancient time, and I was playing with a tiger. Then the mother tiger had a fire shooting out of her eyes, and I was engulfed in flames – and then, when I looked down at my hand, I realized it was made out of water and I wasn’t burning. And so I related that to this idea of the burning bush, which is like a fire that doesn’t consume itself.” In that way, he came up with the concept of “the balance between water and fire, and the idea of holding the fire – staying inspired and keeping the candle burning, but not being burned up or engulfed in your own flames.”
The five tracks on this EP are drawn from an epic recording session last year, in which Matisyahu recorded about 40 songs. He plans to release all of them – eventually. He decided to put out the first batch as an EP, instead of a full-length album, so that each individual song will have more of a chance to get proper attention.
He’s already optimistic about the reception the material is receiving – even before this release date, he could see audiences connecting with the new songs during his recent concerts.
“When I’m singing these songs live and I’m connecting with the audience, then I start to see which ones pop out,” he says. “It’s interesting to see which ones are going to stick – I’m already getting a sense of which songs are going to be really strong live, like the [new] song ‘Lifeline.’ It’s really powerful.”
AUDIO: Matisyahu “Lifeline”
This is the fulfillment of a dream Matisyahu had starting at an early age. Growing up as Matthew Paul Miller in White Plains, New York, there was never a time when he didn’t gravitate to music – a habit he picked up from his similarly minded parents. He took his first stab at writing his own material when he was in the 4th grade. “For Martin Luther King Day, we had an assembly [at school], and I had my best friend Charlie Jones, who lived with me for a certain period of time,” he says. “And me and him, we did a rap about racism for that. I think that was the first rap that I ever wrote.”
From there, he began listening to Jamaican artists such as Bob Marley and Sizzla, who he says “were really influential for me, in terms of making Old Testament references, direct quotations from the Psalms or the Old Testament. A lot of reggae music does that.”
He soon realized that he could do the same thing, incorporating his strong Jewish faith into his own songs. This urge to blend myriad musical styles with deep spirituality intensified as the years went on.
“I had some kind of mystical experiences around the age of 14, 15, 16, 17, that had to do with music and psychedelics,” he says. “It really made me feel that I was meant to do [music], and it was my destiny to do it.
“To me, music and spirituality always were linked up,” he continues. “From the first Phish concert I went to at Worcester, Massachusetts, I was 16 years old and I took LSD, and from that point on, music became about something very holy to me, very special.”
His drug intake prompted his family to send him to a drug rehabilitation program in Oregon, and it was there that he took his first big step in actually undertaking a musical career. “The first song that I ever made was called ‘Jumping Mouse.’ I was in this wilderness treatment program for young people. Someone came and told this Native American story about a mouse that becomes an eagle, a transformational story.” Later, he turned that story into a song. “Then when I came off that trip, I was living in Bend, Oregon, and I met some friends who had a studio, and I recorded it. I presented it as my final project for my [treatment] program.”
During the late 1990s, he also became fascinated with rap, a genre that he liked for its focus on lyrics and freestyling. He knew that he could do the same thing, only from his own unique perspective.
“I started writing about what I would see around me,” he says. He started simply, drawing on observations as he took a train ride or sat in a park. “And then over time, I started learning the philosophy of it, and mysticism and all that kind of stuff. It’s just became this whole wealth of really evocative and beautiful ideas and imagery that I started to use in my lyrics.”
As his songwriting evolved, he increasingly say the connections between all these seemingly disparate genres.
“I always saw the crossover in between different styles of music,” he explains. “I could see how that dancehall music I was listening to was a crossover of hip-hop op and reggae that kind of borrowed from the Old Testament, and was made in Jamaica. Music in itself, and even genres, are blends of different genres and different things. So I pride myself as someone who’s very tapped into that.”
By his early twenties, he had taken on the name “Matisyahu” (a Hebrew version of his given name) and had developed an arresting and unique musical style that incorporated all of those diverse early influences. His appearance had also become equally striking: by now, he was deeply immersed in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish faith, so he wore traditional Hasidic garments and grew a full beard and sidecurls. When he released his breakthrough album, Live at Stubb’s (2005), and released a video for the hit single “King Without a Crown,” the contrast between his music and his look drew much attention.
VIDEO: Matisyahu “King Without A Crown”
Then, about a decade into his career, Matisyahu underwent a radical change: he stopped wearing a yarmulke and shaved off his beard. This prompted an outcry among a significant contingent of his fans, and he admits that negativity profoundly affected him. “I would get really upset by people’s expectations, or what they thought of me and how that didn’t line up with who I was or what I was trying to do. It really got to me,” he says.
Eventually, though, “I got to a place where I really stopped paying attention to those kinds of things,” he says, explaining that he resisted the pressure to revert to his former ways because he wanted to be completely honest in the way he conducted himself. “I was just going through different things, and I would just be really authentic and express them on stage. It wasn’t always the most uplifting thing. Sometimes it could get a little heavy. But I was real.”
Nowadays, he adds, “I have certain fans that are thankful for that because they were like, ‘Thank you for showing us that you’re really going through it with us, and we went through it with you. It kind of came out the other side. I think a lot of people have had pain in their life, or had some kind of moment that the music somehow kicks in and helps [them] through those moments. That’s what music always was for me, and that was always the music that I’m aiming to try to make for people.”
He maintains this close bond with his audiences via frequent live shows, which have been captured on five live albums (he’s also released seven studio albums and, including Hold the Fire, six EPs).
As Matisyahu tours the world, he sees how his decision to stay true to himself continues to resonate with fans: “I’m seeing all those people that really kind of believe in me and believe in the music, and being with them nightly is pretty powerful.” And his audience is, he notes, “not any one type of person, which very interesting. Men, women, different ages, different races, different religion, into different styles of music, even. It’s nice to see that.”
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March 18, 2020
