Mateo & Matos: A 5 Mag Mix #28

They’ve been dubbed “House legends” and you’re not going to find many that disagree. Mateo & Matos are back and in the mix for vol 28 of A 5 Mag Mix.

Mateo & Matos: The 5 Mag Mix

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Mateo & Matos: The 5 Mag Interview

Welcome back! I know you’ve still been around, but for the last twenty years everyone was conditioned to see new material from you boys constantly. Where have you been?

The House Music industry and especially Soulful Funky House changed immensely from a financial perspective. You could make a living from receiving advances on tracks you would sell to record labels. You would also see nice royalty checks from additional sales and licensing deals. Nowadays you get next to nothing or sign a contract that works off of consignment and you usually see nothing. DJing is where people are making some money but not enough, so we had to find other means to make a living.

You’ve been together longer than most partnerships I can think of off the top of my head. You’ve definitely outlasted some marriages! What’s the secret of holding together a two-decade long collaboration?

Probably because of the way we produce just about all of our tracks. Eddie would start with the drums, then John would add the bassline, keys and solo(s), Ed would arrange it and then both of us would mix it. We really didn’t get in each others way. We would literally walk out the studio when the other was doing his thing.

I understand you’re on the road again for our friends at Housepitality. Any other gigs lined up?

At the time of this interview, no but we’re looking into possibly hooking up another city or two while we are on the West Coast. We just did Cielo in NY and an outdoor gig at the amphitheater in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

How many tracks would you say you’ve produced? At one point you were doing an album per year, and that was on vinyl. The EPs – you’ve probably done about 50+, right?

Yes 50+, we’ve lost count. We go to discogs ourselves to look at our discography.

We did four albums on Glasgow underground as well as two compilations and two albums on King Street. The record labels we worked with most were Large Records, Glasgow Underground, King Street/Nite Grooves, Henry Street/4th Floor and Spiritual Life.

You’ve had a couple of “greatest hits” compilations in the last couple of years (on King Street and another on Glasgow Underground). Did you have any role in them and were you satisfied with the selections?

Yes we had a role in them and were happy with the selections.

If I’m twenty again and I’m going through your records to discover you for the first time after reading and hearing this, which one(s) should I start with? Was there a single release in there that for you kind of said, “Okay, that’s M&M — that’s what we do and that’s what we are”?

We would have to pick two, only because Mateo & Matos has two signature sounds. One would be our disco sample-infused tracks and that track would be “Salsoul Rainbow.”

The other sound was our deeper tracks and that would probably be “Idris Rises” with “N.Y. Style” being a close second.

Ok that makes three tracks…

Are we going to start seeing some new records again??

We hope to have some new tunes soon. It’s a bit different nowadays for us to get a collaborative production. Although we send many files via the Internet when producing tracks, we have quite a bit distance between us now. We still need that collaboration at the end of the production. Back in the days we lived practically across the street from each other…

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Mateo & Matos are playing at Housepitality in San Francisco on October 12 2016.

mateoandmatos.org
facebook.com/eddie.matos.77
facebook.com/djjohnmateo