“Love is such an over-used topic in music, but I’ve never written love songs much. I’m interested in seeing if there is a way to do it that will result in something different,” says prolific Timecard main man Matt Medeiros about his latest endeavor.
“The stage it’s at right now is [that] I have a ton of dark-sounding instrumentals, and I want to combine it with some upbeat love lyrics. It’s like the inverse of a lot of indie bands, who use really catchy music to express more serious lyrics.”
Medeiros started out in garage bands as a teenager before moving to Washington, D.C. for college. He played with several bands there before migrating to the Valley in pursuit of a master’s degree.
Timecard—his working title for all musical projects—has already spawned Vacation, an album of experimental pop songs. As with most of his projects, Medeiros began by creating instrumental sketches, working quickly and intuitively, and building from there. He says he used to write autobiographical lyrics, but now chooses a central concept on which to hinge a suite of songs.
“For the Vacation album, I came up with a list of things to do on vacation, and started fleshing out lyrical ideas over the instrumentals I had,” says Medeiros. “The results can range from really ridiculous to encyclopedia-style explanations. Like the song ‘Gonna Go Eat’ is a really ridiculous sketch about eating breakfast, wanting soy cream, and choking.”
Timecard tunes are filled with sonic layers: vocals, guitar, programmed beats, melodica, stylophone, thumb piano, toy piano—whatever strikes his, or the project’s, mood.
Last year he created an instrumental album for the walking tour portion of local artist Burns Maxey’s Project Elements Easthampton: Earth, and recently completed a series of compositions to accompany her latest installation, “Water.”
For “Water,” Medeiros and Maxey chose instruments and a sound palette. Medeiros then created musical sketches and sent them to Maxey (pictured with Medeiros), who tweaked and remixed the pieces. Letting go of some of the process was a new experience for him.
“It was unusual to give up control of that mixing and production aspect, because I always do that myself,” he says. “It felt sort of like creating line drawings, and then letting someone else paint them with color. But I think the results have a nice cinematic feel that complements the videos in her installation.”
Medeiros is working on a series of multimedia shows of his own. “I don’t have a band per se, as much of [Vacation] is the result of collaborations with some friends who live far from Western Mass,” he says. “So I came up with the idea to combine live music with a movie and some costuming.”
He created a DVD of videos for all the songs on Vacation, and projects them while he and Maxey play music live in interesting getups. “It’s meant to create a really visual show,” he says, “and hopefully will inspire people to come and check it out.””
Timecard appears at Sierra Grille in Northampton July 8 at 10 p.m. with Thrillpillow and Eggseggs. For shows, DVD information, and a ton of free downloadable songs, visit: www.timecardrocks.com.
