Rising electronic producer Matt Ryder creates an exclusive mix for Notion, chats about his upcoming project, getting into Detroit techno, and why Peggy Gou is the coolest person ever.

Burgeoning multi-instrumentalist and producer, Matt Ryder, is creating an evolving sonic expanse with his ambient electronic music.

 

The Birmingham artist may have only been releasing music since 2019, but he has already founded his own label EC30 for the music he writes, sings, plays and produces himself, an even more impressive feat considering he is just 18.

 

Matt is a testament to the vulnerability and often personal nature of electronic music – a genre that is often overlooked for its openness – and excavates his own experiences for his art. Creating songs with a strong visual element in mind, he also draws on fashion, photography, and current political affairs.

 

Now, Matt Ryder has created an exclusive mix for Notion, and told us all about his key musical inspirations, forthcoming project ‘Escape’, and his dreams for the next few years.

Peggy Gou and George Fitzgerald are two of your current inspirations. What is it about their music and artistry that you admire particularly?

I genuinely think both these artists are two of the coolest people. Ever. The music, the visuals, the attitude. I think for me, they proved that no matter what direction you take you can be heard. George takes such cool music and makes it cooler with his clean-cut but gurney aesthetic and design and then Peggy is just like the coolest person ever, not to mention how bangin’ her music is. In general, these two artists influenced me both musically and visually with their boldness and confidence.

Your upcoming project ‘Escape’ sees your atmospheric electronica take a more experimental turn. Was it your interest in the Detroit techno scene that influenced this shift?

I think it was a combination of things that began my shift into more experimental music, I began the project at the start of lockdown and held a lot of confusion, anger, and sadness. I was lost in my own mind and couldn’t write music, this ended up forcing me to listen to all different types of music from 2 step to Detroit techno. I began to discover new sounds and new ideas of what music can be. The idea that a 7-minute track could be held up and remain engaging with no lyrics was amazing to me, I took this idea and began focussing on my production, and from that the project was born, I changed up the way I worked and ended up discovering that I could write music and create music that was truly different to anything I’d heard before, so to answer your question, yes massively.

How did you choose which tracks to select for your mix? What vibe were you hoping to create?

The tracks were actually chosen from songs I’d heard over weeks of listening to techno and old school house tunes, either from club sets in Tottenham or playlists my mates had put together over Spotify and shared, I found one of my favourite tunes ‘The Resistance’ by Scan 7 on my discover weekly and was immediately obsessed, this track remains to be my favourite in the mix, closely followed by ‘Knights Of The Jaguar’ by DJ Rolando. I essentially made the mix with my favourite music in mind, I asked myself ‘What would my dream mini mix be on a night out?’.
Birmingham, My home town, has a very small dance scene from what I’ve experienced and my friends at the time were not massive on dance tunes so my first clubbing experiences were based of bars that played Miley Cyrus and T swift, not knocking them its just not my ideal sound at 2AM on a Sunday morning. Hence this mix was born as I thought into the tunes I’d heard in some of my favourite clubs and online from some of my favourite sets.

What’s the ideal listening experience for this mix? What situation would you like people to be in when they hear it?

That’s a great question, and to be truthful I have no idea and I don’t really mind. I feel like you could listen to this mix in so many different settings depending on how into the tunes you are. For me, I would listen to it before a night out as a lil’ pre-drinks vibe. One time me and my friends were on the way to The Cause in Tottenham, the taxi driver threw me the aux and shouted for me to put something hype on. Obviously me being the shameless plugger I am, I whacked on the mix and we were vibin’ straight to the club door aha, how cringe lol.
But obviously, my dream situation for people to hear this is me playing it at 2am on the best sound system ever 🙂
Where would you like to be in the next few years?

Honestly, that’s a massive question, I think there are so many things I wish to have achieved in a few years’ time but I’d hate to jinx anything. I just hope that people are hearing my music and it’s helping them get through their daily lives as much as making the music has helped me.

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