photo by wayne cresser, 2008

If all we knew about Matt Jennings came from listening to his recorded music, we’d be certain of two things.  One, Jennings can play the guitar---as they say, he’s got chops.  And two, he’s got a global outlook.  The songs on his two albums are foreign, exotic, and well, cozy too.

Jennings’ music feels worldly and that doesn’t come by accident.  After studying Spanish in Mexico, he went on to teach English in China and Thailand.  He’s played in international, as well as stateside bands, incorporating the sounds and rhythms he’s embraced during his travels.

Lyrically, Jennings uses Jazz and folk phrasings to create a soft-spoken tension.  On his second full-length record, Todavia, he sings in Spanish and English.  On the guitar, he’s a wizard, going from Latin-style acoustic riffs, to classically-inspired Spanish flamenco guitar runs. 

In support of the new record, Jennings is touring with Australia’s Beautiful Girls through the beginning of May.  shaking caught up to him recently at Harper’s Ferry in Boston and Matt was gracious enough to answer a slew/a few/some questions about the impulses and machinations behind his writing.  Naturally, being bookish nerds dressed in rock ‘n’ roll garb, we couldn’t resist asking him about books, specifically those that have informed his work to date.

Shaking: Are there books that
have influenced you as a songwriter?

MJ: The Old Man and The Sea by
Hemingway had an effect on my
writing because it was short and
simple, concerning mostly two
characters with a straightforward
story line that managed to encompass
universal themes and encapsulate the
human condition. In my songs I like to
use as few words as possible to say as
much as I can.

Shaking: Does reading literature continue to help you write music?

MJ: The haiku poem form has had a great impact on my writing for this reason as well. What has drawn me to music is that melodies also affect the meanings of sentences or statements. Melodies alone are like sentences.

Shaking: Can you talk a little bit about your writing method? How do you view songwriting as an art form when placed beside poetry, fiction and other genres of writing?

MJ: I usually write from a catch phrase. Trying to fit words into melodies usually is more difficult, but I do write from both directions. Usually I have a feeling or idea and just sit down and write the song. It's like a zone you enter. My song “Slow-Motion” came from a dream I had about being on a medieval battlefield. I woke up and wrote the song.

Songwriting is a lot like writing poetry or fiction or even non-fiction. But it's words AND music, so it's two different forms of communication combined. So in some ways it's more difficult to fit certain phrases into melodies, but in other ways the music can help embellish meaning. That's one of the main reasons I write songs in Spanish, because Spanish allows certain phrases to sound romantic while in English they would come across as cheesy. There's a freedom in writing in multiple languages.

Shaking: What are you reading right now? Are you writing any new material?

MJ: I just finished reading Watership Down. That was a pretty epic adventure book. Very detail oriented and meticulous. But that's what made it exciting and lasting. I write whenever I have a feeling like I should. Then I just edit constantly.

For more information on Matt Jennings, visit his sites at www.mattjenningsmusic.com, and myspace.com/mattjenningsmusica.  Both of the albums are available at cdbaby and itunes, which are linked to his myspace page.