Jared Mattson solo project embraces minimalism and gibberish

San Diego’s Jared Mattson has a new solo album, Peanut; it represents a bold step away from his work with twin brother Jonathan in Mattson 2. But as Jared testifies, he had to deal with certain legal entanglements first. “When we sold out the Casbah for the first time, we were, like, ‘Okay, we can die happy now.’ Then Jonathan had a fun altercation with a fan. The guy was trying to talk to him while my bro was playing — trolling him, criticizing our music. Jonathan harnessed his Irish strength, pushed the guy away, and threw a drumstick at him. The audience applauded Jonathan. Two of our friends grabbed the guy and escorted him out. He was yelling, ‘I’m a lawyer, I’m a lawyer, get your hands off me!’ Those two friends of ours who grabbed him...were also lawyers.”

Jared and Jonathan arrived into the world at Hillcrest’s Mercy Hospital. After that, “age zero to two, I lived on Melrose behind Juanita’s. All I remember there was spilling root beer on the carpet, and a grubby hermit-type dude who would walk around the block with a snake wrapped around his neck. I also lived in Village Park. Typical suburban working class vibe. I think the house was haunted. Our street had rough older kids who were kinda bullies, but we had other kids our age we’d cruise with. Lots of parks and pools. I think we just wanted to play Mega Man all day. Then we moved to Cardiff near Santa Fe, so we were right next to the barrio. Working class families, very surfy vibes. A few blocks away was the Mexican neighborhood. Lots of epic legendary food and skate spots in that zone. Now I live way out in the bourgeois cut in Rancho Santa Fe. So I’ve had the pleasure of seeing all different vibes.”

Mattson has gone from early gigs at Cardiff’s Miracles Café, when the twins were all of 15, to sharing a stage with Toro Y Moi (whose label in releasing Peanut) at North Park Observatory. The duo met Bono at a wedding in Bel Air. “He was so nice, and he really liked our music. He called us ‘great singers.’ That was significant, since, at that time, we were 100% instrumental. Playing a punk club in Sau Paulo Brazil was incredible. Ravenous fans, as you could imagine. Sold out room. Some fans had to prop their legs on stage to hold Jonathan’s bass drum up. Because our music had no vocals and was pretty diverse, they thought we were Brazilian. Got shot at in El Paso while in the tour van. The bullet entered the passenger mirror and grazed the whole side of the car. Smelled like burnt rubber.”

For Peanut, Jared left Jonathan and almost everyone else behind, recording in his own cabin and overdubbing most of the parts. He’d already gone through different guitar styles, and these sessions found him communing with Aswad, Burning Spear, and Andy Summers’ work with The Police. “Go minimal,” he enthuses. “No thick chords. The guitar should be the farthest thing from importance. Which was an exorcism for me in a way. Don’t get me wrong: there are hero guitar moments. But in so many of my songs, I use three-note sparse chords. In reggae, they’ll use two-note chords super high up. They are masters at separating the mids, highs, and bass. [I used] a drum machine. Strong bass line. Minimal guitar. I wanted it to be really sparse at moments, and really lush” at others.

He generally sings in English, but branched out for the new set. “I sang in Japanese for the track ‘Please Come Here,’ because I love Japan. I got my friend Yusuke Hanai to help make sense of it. At [one] point, where it’s gibberish, the melody and the sonic quality take the power, rather than the lyrical message. I’ve always been more interested in melody and sound than the actual things people are saying.”

“I think this record will keep me busy,” he concludes. “I want to tour a lot for it. I already have another solo record finished. Mattson 2 has a new album that we want to shop around. The music on it excites me so much. Our immediate plans for the future with M2 is to get back on the road and hit all the cities in North America with Paul Cherry.”