Do you see art as an object... something tangible? Music producer and audio engineer Matias Van Order Gonzalez from Cart Music would beg to differ. In this episode we talk about the leap to full time entrepreneurship, recording engineer tips, the role of a producer in a project, and why art is defined by the eye and ear of the beholder.
Matias Van Order González joins us for the first episode of Abstract Essence. Matias recently received his BA in Electronic Music from Bard College. He is a Philadelphia-based music producer recording/mixing engineer, and film composer. He has done recording and mixing for music video sessions, as well as producing for many artists. Listen to learn more about Matias's career beginnings!
When did Matias start?
[01:12]
Matias was 16 years old and a member of his high school band. Matias was blown away when he saw his guitar teacher had a small recording studio set up. At the time, one of the things that drew Matias to the studio was his realization that you don't need to practice all that much to make things sound good, which was not entirely true.
An instrumentalist towards producing & mixing music
[2:08]
Matias has always enjoyed music. But when it came to playing instruments, he never felt particularly gifted, and he never felt he had a good ear for melody. However, he felt as if he had some analytical idea of how things fit together and should fit together, such as sound textures, and it seemed natural to him. It was a lot of fun and inspiring the first few times Matias did it, and it is still every time he does it now.
Cart Music
[2:52]
They do a series of YouTube Live session videos. Cart's concept is for a small group of people who are involved in everything they do to support each other in their music and the scene, particularly in Philadelphia. They had the most success with videos because everyone seems to want to make them. Matias has a lot of fun recording them, and people have told him that they help them book shows etc.
[5:01]
They started doing these at a barn in Vermont. One of Matias' friends, who's the keys and another guitarist in glitter spitter, has this great barn. Matias set up a little studio there out of necessity during the pandemic because they needed a place to meet up in person but without risking COVID.
How much do they charge?
[6:24]
They charged for them in Vermont to fund the studio's construction because that was all they were doing over the summer. They've been doing them in Philly at Matias' house, where most people involved in cart live and they decided to stop charging.
How does Matias define Art
[8:07]
Matias' definition of art is "an experience that you have." Art is not a physical object. People consider a song on the radio and a painting to be works of art. Matias believes they are not art unless experienced with an artistic mindset.
[9:19]
Creating art is an artist experience, and you perceive your own art while creating it.
[10:43]
Matias believes that all art creates an emotional, conceptual, or thought-provoking experience. It is art even when you are in nature or anywhere in your house, even without looking at a painting, just looking at the wall and thinking or with your eyes closed, imagining your own colors, sounds.
[12:38]
Anything you want to be art can be art if you think about it, listen to it, or see it artistically with an artistic mindset.
[16:28]
As a producer, you can figure out what you value about the song and how you want to grow it, and you can also allow that original concept to be as free-spirited and free-flowing as you want. But another job of the producer is to say no when you realize that there are other reasons why someone spends five hours on one little part. Maybe they're afraid of finally putting it out in the world and just want to delay it. A lot of times, it stems from insecurity.
What makes a certain session not feel like an artistic experience?
[19:56]
Matias says that if the artist is happy, he's happy, even if he's not happy. Matias views himself as a facilitator, even though there are some things that he gets artistically attached to.
[21:09]
Matias' strong feelings about how a particular band should be aren't always useful because it's more important how they feel they should be. People are more self-aware than we usually give them credit for. They know what they need to work on and what they're good at, but they may not know how to maximize their potential, which is why people like Matias come in.
Support and check out Matias’ work at https://mativg.com/.
You can also check his work on these sites: