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Mat Lazenby: 'You're Beautiful' by Mojave 3
65 Plays8 months ago
A longer and lovely episode for you this week, as we overhear two best friends having the kind of conversation they’ve been having in the pub for a long time already…
Mat Lazenby is the founder and creative director of LazenbyBrown - A branding and web design agency based in York. He is a creative fellow of both the Northern School of Art and York St John University, a past Master of The Guild of Media Arts and Chair of the Selby Creative Drivers. He's built a career helping organisations express their personality through design and brand communication, but otherwise enjoys collecting vinyl, kayaking and walking the studio dog, Steiff. He’s the creator of our beautiful logo and is also Ed's best friend.
Show notes:
Website: www.lazenbybrown.com
Instagram: @mat_lazenby
Help us a grow a community of survival song listeners by joining us on over on Substack:
https://survivalsongs.substack.com/
'You're Beautiful' by Mojave 3 by can be found on our community playlist on Spotify along with our listener’s Survival Songs. Check it out and add your own!
This episode contains small portions of 'You're Beautiful' by Mojave 3 . Survival Songs claims no copyright of this work. This is included as a form of music review and criticism and as a way to celebrate, promote and encourage the listener to seek out the artists work.
Find out more about Mojave 3 here:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4jSYHcSo85heWskYvAULio?si=8gfx8YCRRvqnD3HC5icMhg
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Transcript
Introduction to Survival Songs Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Lydia. I'm Ed. We're friends with a playlist for everything. And it turns out, we both have one called Survival Songs. And it got us thinking, what are other people's Survival Songs? So we thought we'd find out.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Survival Songs. A podcast where each episode our guest tells us about a song that gets them through the best and worst of times. Sensitive topics might be discussed. So look after yourself. The show contains portions of copyrighted material. We'd love for you to support and celebrate the artists by streaming, downloading and buying their brilliant music. And go give our guests a follow on social media.
00:00:38
Speaker
Help us grow the community of Survival Song listeners by joining us over on Substack and add to our public playlist on Spotify. Links are in the show notes. We hope you enjoy the show.
Special Guest: Matt Lazenby
00:00:49
Speaker
Hi, welcome to Survival Songs. This one's a bit of a special one for me because this week we're talking to Matt Lazenby. Matt is the founder and creative director of design agency Lazenby Brown. He's a creative fellow of the Northern School of Art. He's a past master of the Guild of Media Arts and he's the chair of the creative Selby Drivers. That's all very high for looting in his own words because most importantly to me, he's my best friend and has been since we were 13 years old.
00:01:16
Speaker
This week's episode is probably going to run a little bit longer than usual because we've got a lot to talk about. Essentially what you're hearing is a conversation between two friends that's been going on for the past 30 years. So I hope you enjoy it. So after 30 years, I finally find out what Matt's survival song is. And it turns out to be You're Beautiful by Mahavi3.
The Personal Impact of 'You're Beautiful'
00:01:44
Speaker
ducks and dyes into the sea
00:01:54
Speaker
So that was You're Beautiful by Mahavi3, the survival song of today's guest, Mr. Matthew Lazarby. Hello, Matt, you all right? All right, Ed, how are you doing? I'm very well, thank you. Thank you very much for doing this. Oh, you're very welcome. No problem at all. It's been a long time coming. I know. It feels like of all the people to be interviewing, this feels almost the oddest because music has been such a big part of our relationship. To ask you some of these questions feels like like, almost trying to pin down something that's so ephemeral and massive. It feels almost impossible. I was going to say, I feel like we've we've done this, done this podcast maybe, you know, 12,000 times already. and You know, over so many bar tops, it's not even true.
00:02:39
Speaker
yeah I think you're right. So I will ask you ah the yeah the you the first question that we always ask, which is like, um when did you first hit this? When did this record first come into your life? And what was your reaction to it? and so Yeah, i remember I remember feeling with the whole album really um that this was this was something different to what I was used to listening to. and There was instruments on the album that hit me um completely differently to what I was listening to at the time. and and During this period and slightly before it was absolutely expanding my love of Van Morrison, people like Neil Young, um Dylan to an extent as well. but
00:03:21
Speaker
this when this When I first heard this album, it was just it was a real sense of something slightly slightly in the weeds compared to what I was listening to at the time. and I remember just thinking to myself, was this it it just it just felt different um it just felt different to me. It kind of unlocked a slightly even more, if this is possible, sort of pastoral side of my character, um which just felt very rural incredibly rural.
00:03:50
Speaker
and incredibly um simplistic and and and all the more beautiful because of
Defining a 'Survival Song'
00:03:56
Speaker
it. Do you remember sort of when that was? like Well, yeah, i think I think looking back, it was 1999 probably,
00:04:03
Speaker
um you know maybe maybe the summer and autumn of that ah that year where ah first I first came across the album, um and then this song in particular is a real standout for that.
00:04:15
Speaker
What makes it a survival song for you? like because you know ah of I think survival is is a really... chair We'll come on to talk about what that means, but like in terms of wife why is it a survival song for you personally? and ah think I think because it's such a portal, it's a real... A lot of music for me is like kind of time travel.
00:04:38
Speaker
But this one in particular takes me back to a part of my life um where things were really kind of coming together and that sense of a kind of survival kit. um you know I've thought a lot about this this to the terminology around this idea of the podcast, um this idea of survival ah and and and like like thinking of it as like a survival kit that has kind of basic human needs in it. um And also an element an element of of comfort as well. um So it's it's really it's really it really reminds me of a period in my life where um me and and my wife Deb, we bought our first house and it was it was just it was just right for us. um Things were what kind of slotting into place.
00:05:29
Speaker
And this particular song is something that, you know, me and you had been out for a drink in York because we really enjoyed still. and yeah and and And it was that beautiful period where you just like right, you know, been out for a few drinks, came back and, you know, you're on the sofa and you put a song on.
00:05:50
Speaker
And I put this on in particular, and everything was just exactly right. And I just ah just remember, and I was in that absolutely that that kind of that twilight state of absolutely drunk a bit too much, absolutely feeling full of the kind of joys of life. And um and just on the edge of probably sleep really. you know but But I do remember an absolutely piercing, vivid recollection of feeling that I had absolutely everything around me that I needed. um you know Deb was there, the house, you were there. um Our beautiful little dog, Squeak, was there. and It was just it was just this this sense of me stepping into my a state of mind that hasn't really left me.
Music and Memory: A Journey Through Adulthood
00:06:40
Speaker
um Since so it's a it's a you know it's it's it's it's one of those kind of spooky evenings and and a particular a particular point in time and this song absolutely takes me back to that to that to that that that very specific moment. What's really weird is that I absolutely remember that evening as well like. Joking inside me and you have been out a thousand times and drank a thousand beers and listened to a thousand records together and talked about, you know, all the songs, you know, and obviously not all of them, but, you know, we've talked about so much music in our lives, all the good ones. We've talked about so much music in our lives.
00:07:21
Speaker
But that particular memory, I absolutely you remember you playing this record. and I absolutely remember where I was in your flat in inside your house, and your and I've been sat on that sofa facing the window, and you used to have your record player under the stairs, and you're putting this record on. and mean and At that point, me and you were listening to like loads of hip-hop, loads of instrumental stuff, loads of left field kind of beats, like what would be called electronica, I suppose. We were really getting into that kind of stuff.
00:07:50
Speaker
i'm and But this has been really such a different palette of the stuff we were listening to and it just flooring me. I remember it flooring me and like wanting to know exactly who my Harvey 3 were. i and Weirdly enough, I remember me playing it and and it turned out that my Harvey 3 had a new album coming out and I remember getting it on vinyl and again hearing that record and that record just listen to endlessly and um Harvey 3 just becoming and such an intrinsic sort of part of my soundtrack. Would that be exclusives for travellers?
00:08:25
Speaker
Yeah, Excuse for Travels was amazing. Got My Sunshine, Just Still is one of my all-time favorite records. perfect Perfect album. Yeah, it was amazing. I remember me and you listening to that um ah that one record when we drove over to the Holy Island. i in there ah theyre like It was like getting really dark and we put that record on as we drove over in the basically the pitch black over there yes it goes the road to the Holy Island. It was in like a note.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah, funny, funny times, man. Yeah. But that I know you mean that time where things felt like kind of innocent, but like, but right. And, you know, enough to have quite a lot of those memories with you, but like, yeah, those, that.
00:09:06
Speaker
That was a really special moment when you played this record. i suppose ah because it Obviously it's a beautiful memory and like and and for us it's a beautiful shared memory as well, and which we're lucky enough to have lots of. What makes it survival and what does survival mean to you?
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think i think it is um it's that it's that idea of surrounding myself with the things that I've i've been lucky enough to encounter in my life um and and that you know that that is absolutely people i'm and its place ah and and it's and it's having music around me which connects me directly to to memories which um are just as vivid today. and and and are definitely have I found it very difficult to to locate an individual song. I definitely have a lot. um But that but that that that's what that's what connects it to survival to me. it's it's the
00:10:10
Speaker
it's It's to do with that that sense of... um it's it's It's nourishing, it's sustaining. It's ah it's a song which which kind of alters my state of mind. am it's a It's a song I can play and be and be and be taken somewhere else. And I think that's that's why it is it is a survival song for me.
00:10:35
Speaker
it's It connects to a part of me that I'm incredibly protective and proud of. So I think just for those reasons alone, it's it's um and that's and that absolutely is survival to me. it's It's living a life that's worth living, that feels like mine, um which is you know something that i've I've built with the people around me. That's that's what it it means to me.
00:11:00
Speaker
It's an interesting thing isn't it because so survival sometimes feels like it's pushing against things and it's ah and it's and which is for some people it absolutely is. it Survival is literally in the immediate and it's it it's what helps you get through the the absolute moment. yeah And sometimes you need those those songs or that whatever it is that gets you through that immediacy. But what you're talking about is literally a holistic survival, like ah kind of a like ah kind of like having a like a meal almost in front of you that's going to kind of like feed everything for you.
00:11:35
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it did definitely definitely is. kind of it's It's nourishing. It's something that feels i'm it's something that that that moves from from living, surviving, you know it's it's like beyond existence. you know so Survival is akin to existence. and Obviously, you know so so i'm i'm um so i'm I'm pushing the envelope a bit, but what I'm thinking about is what makes life worth living? What other what are the moments that connect us all that make the that that join up these memories and make um
00:12:14
Speaker
and make life something that feels i rich and deep and full of um full of interest and individual experience. and its and it's the you know It could be poems or paintings or plays or music. and In this case, that absolutely is something that that I can say, right, that song is is is like a portal. It's a window, and it's and it's something that I stepped through, and I've never looked back since I did. you know So it's it's um that that's a that's an important moment in my life, and there'll be many others to come, but it was it's something that's really it's really kind of lasted. It's one of those songs that's really lasted with me.
00:13:01
Speaker
I suppose as well for us, like and you know ah ah oddly, this one's so personal that I think for both, because we're both the same age, is that we felt, I think at that point, I remember we felt kind of gro like we were grown-ups. Because you're out of the house and you know I was working and you know and I was renting a flat. and you know it's so like We had the kind of like trappings of grown-up hood, but we were kind of still had all that.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's a threshold thing, isn't it? Threshold, yeah yeah, yeah. Dwelling on the threshold. Dwelling as Van Morrison would say, yeah, yeah, absolutely. yeah but you But you are, you kind of like, you you sort of like get to a point in in in what you might perceive to be adulthood. And and and and yeah, to this day, um you know, just come past my 48th birthday, ah I think the joy of it is that music like this and all music in your life does take you back. and and I think there's a real interesting analogy around um were around music connecting you to youth or to to previous times, and that being an unhealthy connection in so in some and some cases. and I think it's really interesting that that the the awareness it brought me and the way that I reflect on memories in my life actually just made me
00:14:26
Speaker
make me feel that what are just an act and a show, adulthood, supposed adulthood is. you know And I think once that veil falls away, it's incredibly empowering, exciting. um It's an incredible feeling to think, oh, actually, there's no grownups.
The Enduring Influence of Music
00:14:48
Speaker
That isn't a real thing. That's not a thing. You talk to any person into their 80s or 90s,
00:14:53
Speaker
And they all feel like the same 26 year old that they all, that we all feel like, you know, normally it's around 26, you know, you know, obviously it all varies. and Sure, people get old and they get there and and they they get weird. you know We all do. but i but but the but But actually, the myth of the add adult is really interesting. It's really it's really a fascinating subject. um and um and As someone who's managed to get to this ridiculously old age and still feel viscerally connected,
00:15:25
Speaker
on a daily basis to what is kind of music culture and and and and and not in any kind of throwback way, just because it's part of of who I am and it's part of what gets me out of bed, it's part of what what makes me a good designer, it's part of what connects me to to emerging culture.
00:15:43
Speaker
it's um It's like massively important to me. not not Not just because it's it's a throwback memory, but because it's it's um hey it's it's it's part of the stuff of life. it's it's it's why It's why I'm here to receive that stuff, make sense of it, process it. um It's it's what it's what um what it's all about for me.
00:16:08
Speaker
so it's like I think like music allows you to rather than drown in adulthood, it allows you to float on top of it. It's sort of like, I think, ah you know, being grown up can sometimes drown us, right? We can, we can get drown in the kind of, yeah show you know, all that, all the stuff of, you know, whether it be the kind of the, the kind of macro politics, you know, and yeah, it's a wrap.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's a rasp they kind of keep and stops us thinking into it. Yeah, and that's what in in a way that is kind of surviving because it's he's allowing us to kind of flow above, ah ah ah to allow us yeah not to be just drowned by adulthood and actually hang on to those things that that in a way like you know because there's nothing more boring than meeting people of our age and then and how many men have you met of our age who are like music shit now music yeah yeah music doesn't matter to its kids anymore which is it' scar me yeah yeah it's the it's the kind of like you know
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah, the the the consigning your love and and passion for music into your past. you You do that at your peril, really,
Resonance of Neil Holstead's Vocals
00:17:20
Speaker
don't you? yeah You know, it's um it's something that you have to keep step with. um and you need to be able to You're not going to feel the same way about it as you did back then, but your emotional vocabulary is way more advanced now. That's why. You know it's like you've you just got a lot more nuance in in how you're able to encounter things. It's not because it's diminished. It's because you have a totally new set of receptors. you know i mean it's it's um and that's a that's an incredible thing you know it's um That's an incredible thing to experience. so
00:17:53
Speaker
and it and And it helps you, the more you spend time with it, the more you you accept that actually that that feel the way you felt about it in the past, um you're going to feel differently about it. it's not it's it's But it's just as powerful, it's just as resonant, it's just as life-changing. But it's it's not something you used to do. you know Music shouldn't be something you used to do.
00:18:15
Speaker
and actually what's interesting is relating it back to this and the moment of hearing this record and us having that that kind of that moment of hearing this and i'm both remembering it so vividly is that actually it's not forgetting that moment and what it meant and we can still um can still have that moment but still do you know and I think yeah been open still been able to feel like that when you hear a new record that makes you survive right yeah yeah it does it does Yeah, it does. And it makes the survival more than survival. It makes the survival of joy. and and it and it um And that's what that's why it's all about. you know that's why That's why we keep going on. There's that great phrase um about a game being worth a candle, you and i mean in terms of like, well, okay,
00:19:03
Speaker
We're playing a game of cards, but we know who's going to win. So is this game worth the candle? Do you know what I mean? It's like, is it actually worth us leaving the candle on? You know what I mean? And it's a lovely thing because life has, even at our incredible old age, life has so much to teach us and there's so many more songs that are going to leave us in tears in the car. It's really why we get out here every day to get amongst that stuff.
00:19:32
Speaker
um so um So yeah, you know it's it's amazing that that you and I have done this. platform which literally focus on that focuses on that exact point. ah so Back to this record in particular, yes is there is there a moment in this song which makes you go, oh my God, that's we always talk about the moment in a song. yeah Is there a moment? Yeah. there is i think i and It's all about Neil Holstead's vocal delivery. um i can't You can probably place this better than me, but he seems to be singing through the roof of his mouth in a way that
00:20:09
Speaker
is really akin to humming so when you listen to this song i say if you're in another room it literally sounds like someone is humming loudly the entire thing so all the kind of ranges are very kind of like in in the middle and um and whenever i listen to it or try and sing it it literally feels like it's happening right in the center of my head um and um And there's something about the way you know that that the get them the guitar links with the... when where When the vocal first comes in, on top of that incredible guitar, it just completely blows my mind.
00:21:05
Speaker
And it is something to do with resonance and range. it's It sounds like it's inside your head. And ah yeah, Neil Halstead has that kind of voice that just like, there's just a softness to it and a delicacy. It always sounds like he's going to break, right? Yeah. It's whispered, but it's yeah but it's not wispy. It's like, no you know, it's like, it's really, there's a lot of weight behind it and that weight.
00:21:29
Speaker
The way is you receive it is like vibration. It sounds like mid-range vibration. um And on this song, it's like more powerful than on others, I think. um On other albums, he got a little bit more light and shade.
00:21:45
Speaker
But on this one, there's a drone-like quality to it, which is like really soporific and really kind of like, yeah, after a few pints of whatever, but it feels hazy, it feels out of focus. um and um And I think that's a yeah that's that's that's a wonderful quality to the what they
Closing Thoughts and Future Connections
00:22:05
Speaker
do.
00:22:05
Speaker
Matt, thank you for joining us. ah Before you leave, can you tell us where people can find you and find information about you? Should they wish to? Yeah, of course. Should you wish to be found? yeah Yeah, no, I do. I do wish to be found. um I run a company called Lazenby Brown based on the Shambles. We're a design company. So you can find us at LazenbyBrown.com. um My Instagram is Matt underscore LB. um So you can find us there.
00:22:33
Speaker
Thanks for joining us Matt. I will no doubt see you very soon over a couple of ales to put the world to right and talk more about music. Absolutely, yeah. Wonderful to see you. Yeah, you too. Lots of love. Take care man.
00:22:54
Speaker
We really hope you enjoyed the episode. If you want to support the podcast further you can choose to upgrade your subscription on Substack, but most of all we'd just love it if you told your friends about what we're up to. Thanks for listening.