Matías MORA

Matías, 32, music producer

What is it about music producing that makes you want to do it?

I feel like from experiencing live music, what makes me want to keep doing it is those “click” moments - the flow state moment, where everyone is playing together, like really playing together. Those moments can also happen in the studio, at the end of the day when you write the last line of the chorus - it’s that “click” moment. Everything just lines up. When you hear the last line of a song and you are like “yes, that is it!” That happens at concerts too, everyone is just in the same moment and it feels like there is an alignment. It’s chasing that alignment or click that is addicting. 

Where do you get your faith from to keep creating?

In the Bible the word that is used for faith is Pistis, which is the greek word. A lot of time we contribute the word faith to life or any societal understanding of the word faith but Pistis means to put your faith into something that has shown to be trustworthy. I feel like music, because it exists in physics and requires things to line up, it is trustworthy. Even if my relationship hasn’t always been consistent with it, I feel like because it is math, it has shown itself to be true over and over and over again. It is worth trusting. 

What is the drive behind your work? 

It changes all the time, I have been doing music for so long that I am good at different facets of it. So at first it was just playing the guitar, or writing songs, or getting the right sound to come out of the speakers and then it was like a musicology approach - ok where did this music come from? The cool thing about music is it is so dimensional, you can pick one piece and explore it if you get bored. That’s the only reason I am still here too because there are so many pieces that it intersects with. It’s like turning a diamond, you turn the face and it reflects the light differently. I keep turning the diamond. I get bored quickly, but that helps. 

What is your process like as a creative? 

Reckless abandon into controlling that chaos - that’s kind of my thing. And maybe it's from church and letting go and then being like that was a little too let go! (laughs). Someone said, sometimes you build the marble block first and then your chip away the sculpture. Sometimes you don't always know what it is but you just need something to mess with. It is a lot at first but the ideas get shaped. There is this Skrillex quote that is something you like “you just put out an idea and then you build confidence.” I think that can really help you get over like blank page syndrome. Collaboration has really helped with that. Even just to have someone tell you that it’s a good idea and to keep going. Anything that helps me look at something from a different perspective. There is also this Time article that I read about how we arrive at new ideas. It was like, we ‘bend, blend, or break.’ So we take a previously existing thing and bend it into a new shape, we will take two things and blend them together or we will take something and break it into parts and make something new. 

I think that is so abstract and applicable to any creative career. And it kind of also helps with blank page syndrome, you just need something on the page. Then you can start working. Sometimes it is just flinging yourself at the piece of paper. Also we are more responsible for the second thing that we do, the first thing is usually the response but then the autonomy comes after the second move. Like if you tattoo someone you mess up, now what? Or like you emotionally dump on someone, now what? It requires self-forgiveness. 

What advice would you tell your younger self? 

That where I am at any given moment is enough for that moment and that careers are built over time of doing the same thing every day. I feel like when I was younger, I was like I need to be at this level of greatness right now. And then I would start living in the future in my head and that creates a lot of anxiety. Now I am kind of more chilled out about my progress because I know that it is inherently going to happen. If you just do the same thing over and over again in anything, you get better at it. That is the patience, trust, faith thing of it all. I am not going to be as good as I am tomorrow as I am today, so I just have to do today. 

What is your biggest failure as a creative and what did you learn from that? 

To drop momentum. Like momentum is a snowball and when it happens it can move really fast, doors unlock, it’s an inertia thing that is happening, that can freak you out a little bit. Just being cognizant of letting go when the inertia is happening because you can self-sabotage and it takes a lot of work to get the ball rolling but once it is rolling it is really powerful. I think there have been a few times I have felt that and the momentum freaks you out. People work to that point and think that is the end goal but that is where it starts. 

Why don't you quit? 

Because I have no other marketable skills (laughs). I guess I still think I can do it. And I guess if I come to a point where I think I can do it then, I'll stop. I think I feel like I got the stuff. 

You have got the secret sauce. 

Sometimes! Sometimes it is debilitating. Like I feel like such an imposter, but I think there are enough moments where I am like, if they can do it, then I can do it. Maybe it’s competitiveness, which is interesting. I don’t know. I think I am still trying to prove to myself. I started this thing called Noom, which is like a weight loss thing and it basically asks you “why?” And then “why that,” and then “why that.” And after asking myself a million times why, it came down to that I wanted to show myself that I could do it. So maybe it’s the same answer. 

I feel the same way, sometimes I am like if I don’t do it, that’s on me. 

Yeah! And even though that is not totally true because the world is way more complex than that. 

Of course.

Everything is multifactorial, right? But that one factor, maybe in a bad way I am convinced that I have control of, even though sometimes we don’t have control of ourselves. 

I like knowing that I did everything in my control that I possibly could to do it. 

Yeah, that’s it. You don’t want to let yourself down. I am not okay knowing that I didn’t try everything. And I feel like I haven’t tried everything yet. And there have been moments where I am like, okay, I have tried everything, but then the chaos of life happens and something changes and you have to move or you go through a breakup and life chaos happens and then you have a new little glimmer and with those new ingredients you can make it. I trust that chaos a lot, and maybe that is left over from religious days. You know in the Bible, it mentions the fear of God, you can also change that to the fear of Chaos. Respect the chaos. I think I do. There is alot of hope in it. The ingredients are different. Suddenly out of nowhere. 

What do you hope to create that will continue to repeat? 

Hope. I met this person that studies art in Latin America and they were talking about how hope is the purpose in a lot of things like, when people are protesting things or that music is always designed for hope. My favorite songs always leave a little comma. That has become increasingly important to me. Even if it is like a mad song or a sad song, there is still hope. I think like with my hardcore band, which is like very angry, scream-y lyrics, the hope is the release. At least I am getting it out. Sometimes it is like, maybe I will fall in love again, or maybe getting out is the hope. I really think that that is important. My friend Cary always says, ‘One for me, one for them.’ 

What are you on the verge of? 

I am on the verge of being in a position where I have to do my job at a way higher level. I am on the verge of leveling up, like my skills, abilities and consistency. Consistency is really important to me - how do you execute high level art everyday? I think that is through being prolific. I think I know I am on the edge of leveling up because I don’t like anything that I am working on. And that means that my taste got better. My ability is not matching my taste right now and I really don’t like what I am making, so that means I am about to change and make something better. 

Oh, I feel that way. 

That means you are about to be so much better. 

Being creative  is exhausting, why can’t I be a doctor?

Being a doctor is exhausting too. There is that quote where it is like, doctors help people be alive, but the arts give people a reason to keep being alive. There is a social utility to what we are doing. I think sometimes artists forget that we are making gasoline for people.

Have you seen Barbie? It reminded me of why we make movies. Everyone is experiencing everything together at the same time. 

It is the click moment! It is the collective flow state.