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matthew joel
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Y57 Media presents: Coffee Shop Series Part 2
06 Dec 2011 by Y57Media / No Comments
Craving some quality live music after exams and before the Christmas rush?  Then come out to part two of our Coffee Shop Series featuring a night of live music by amazing local youth artists!
When: Thursday, December 15, 2011 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
Where: The Wired Monk Coffee Bistro (Kitsilano – 2610 West 4th ave)
Who: Local artists Matthew Joel, Terra Nova Bay and Connor Roff
Tickets: $5.00 per person – also includes one tall latte or cappuccino! Available at the door and online. Click here to buy!
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Local Artist Interview: Bank Heist
11 Nov 2011 by Sonia Sophia / No Comments
Bank Heist is the musical moniker of local musician Matthew Joel who creates electronic music heavily laden with deep bass lines, robust synth melodies and pounding dance beats. Below is a short interview done with the musician providing some insight into his project.
Could you tell us something about yourself and how Bank Heist started? Is it still a side-project for you or has it taken a much more prominent role?
My name is Matthew, I’m in my twenties, and from the Vancouver area. I started making Bank Heist tracks while I was still in highschool. I had already been making music for a while at that point and was looking for something a little more lighthearted and fun to pour myself into. Back then Bank Heist was just a joke, but it’s been slowly developing into something that has a bit more character.
Under Bank Heist, what genre or sound do you associate the project with and why have you decided to make music in that vein or aesthetic?
Especially when Bank Heist started I used it as a vehicle to carry my love for comics, space, and science fiction. It still has some of those nerdy qualities, but lately, probably marked by the release of Salvation, I’ve been focusing more on using that spacey sound to tell well developed stories.
On your Facebook page for Bank Heist, you say that it is a project for when you “don’t care”, but when you “try to care” you make music under your personal eponymous project. Could you elaborate on this point of view or how you would differentiate between the projects besides the genre difference?
I put that in there a long time ago when, as far as Bank Heist goes, I really didn’t care. My love is shared a little more evenly between my two projects now.
In terms of major influences, who or what moves you to make the music you make?
I’m moved to make music when I hear music that moves me. This has been true for almost every song I’ve ever written.
The Kingdom which you released earlier this year appears to be the closest thing to a full release, could you elaborate on the process of making that album or what is embodied in that album for you?I went tree planting for a summer two years ago. Which for those of you who don’t know consists of living in the bush in northern BC for two and a half months climbing over logs in clear cuts, getting bitten by bugs, rained on, and well, planting trees. My crew and I listened to a lot of really cheesy European house that summer in our truck and when I got home I had this over whelming inspiration from that experience and put it all into The Kingdom.
Would you say that your music or songwriting has changed or grown since you first started?
When I first started to try and write songs back in middle school I would try to write break up songs about girls, because that’s what all the emo bands I listened to back then did. I later realized that this was not the subject matter for me, mostly because as a tween I had never even dated a girl, let alone been broken up with anyways. Now I just write songs about what I care about. If someone wanted to know what I care about, the music I’ve been does a pretty good job outlining that.
Has the Bank Heist project ever been translated into a live setup or performance before? If not, is it something that you want to work towards?
It has, and it will! My good friend Simon Bridgefoot of The Parish of Little Clifton and I have done Bank Heist live sets a grand total of two times. It was a total blast and we’re hoping to do it again in the future with the release of my new album.
You just recently released a new track, “This is War” as a sample off of an upcoming release. What background information can you give about the track and what can you tell us about the upcoming release in terms of concept or direction?This track is from right in the middle of the new album I’m working on. On the Kingdom I only sang on one track, but for this new album people can expect a lot more like this one.
What are your future plans with this project?
I’m working on a new album right now that I’m really excited about. It’s a concept record about a post apocalyptic human civilization that’s been at war for decades. Compared to The Kingdom Its going to have a lot less four-on-the-floor house beats, but it will be twice as epic, and a lot more human.
You can find Bank Heist’s music over at his Bandcamp and connect with him through Facebook.
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