- Words Notion Staff
Multi-faceted artist, Maths Times Joy, chats ahead of the release of his freshest EP, ‘Change’, and creates an exclusive mix for Notion.
The aptly named polymath, Maths Time Joy, has been the production mastermind behind beloved tracks from Mary J Blige, Bebe Rexha, Mahalia, Snakehips, and Kevin Garrett. His collab with Gallant landed the artist a Grammy nomination.
Alongside producing, singing, and writing, the Londoner is also a DJ, creating official remixes of music greats including Ellie Goulding, Bon Iver, Bipolar Sunshine, Submotion Orchestra, Lucas Nord, Azekel, and Mansionair.
Maths Time Joy picked 2020 as the year to push the boat out with a brand-new solo artist project, in August releasing “Real Deal” (featuring Sinead Harnett and J Warner), a slouchy tune that met rave reviews. He followed with “Two Steps” (featuring Kevin Garett) and “Fall Back” (featuring Matt Woods).
Now, the artist has joined forces with Rich Saunders, the New York artist who started his career as one-third of Thirdstory, to offer up his new EP ‘Change’. To create the multi-track project, the pair had solely one meeting. This provided the roots for the demo track “Move”, while the rest were written remotely.
We caught up with Maths Time Joy about the past year, what he’s looking forward to, and the inspiration behind his exclusive mix for Notion. Dive in!
How has the past year been for you? Has your creative process changed much?
It’s been different for sure. Getting used to working remotely was a challenge, and going through periods of no inspiration from being locked inside but I think it’s also showed me the value of taking space to create by myself.
You’ve worked with artists such as Gallant, Mahalia and Sinead Harnett. Who else is on your bucket list?
Anderson Paak and Bon Iver are the two that always come to mind. I love how Bon Iver is always developing his sound and production.
What draws you to work with a particular artist?
Normally it’s pretty instinctive when I hear the music. I think firstly it’s always the voice and if the music moves me, I think there’s also an authenticity you can tell in someone’s music that’s hard to create if it isn’t genuine.
Now you’ve teamed up with Rich for a new collaborative project. Can you tell us more about it and what led you to link up?
I and Rich met in a session in LA. I’d already heard his music with Thirdstory and loved his voice. We worked on a song that day which ended up being on the new project, and just stayed in touch ever since. I think we realized we shared a lot of the same music tastes and influences and it made the music creation flow easily, especially when we were working remotely.
What’s the story behind your unique moniker, Maths Time Joy?
It’s an anagram of my first names, Timothy James.
What are you most looking forward to as the world reopens?
I think being able to travel and create music openly again. I’d been doing a few trips to LA to work and there’s a lot of people out there that I enjoy working with so definitely free movement.
Talk us through your mix – what vibe were you hoping to create and why did you pick these tracks?
I wanted to try and include a wide range of music I love without being confined to one genre, but still making sense as one piece. It’s hard to find new music that I really love but I’ve tried to include a mix of new and old and then some of my own tunes.