Moving forward with our Sound Of The Hustle Series we’re on to the next of fresh in independent DJ’s and producers. We’ve got the hook on an exclusive and originally produced mix from Matthew Philpott – Jones AKA PocketRocks.
Bridging hip hop influences and acid washed timbres he’s created a warm bodied approach to well cut melody and vertigo laced depth. As a Denver native Matt has been an integral piece of upward movement and created PocketRocks as a way to grab onto a more emotional and directed experience within his productions. With previous success in the Denver dub scene via his solo project DMVU and as one part of Valac, Matt is no stranger to constant bookings via Submission Dubstep and high visibility releases. We caught up with Matt to ask him some questions about his new project, latest mixtape, and dug in on some of the sonic pleasantries you can find embedded below or download at the Indie Hustle Soundcloud.
Who Are You, What’s Your Hustle?
My names Matthew, I’m 21 years old, i live in Colorado, and I make music. I wish there was more to say but i spend well over 8 hours of each day producing, and the rest of it being out somewhere and wishing that i was at home making beats.
The finger wants to waiver over an underlying emotional tone for these song selections. What is the message behind these tunes and how do you want people to feel when they hear them?
One of the main reasons i make instrumental music is because it is so open ended as far as what a person can or will feel when listening, and i think that’s one of the major tones of my music. Being able to take what you need out of a song, and while you may see it as melancholy or gloomy, another may see it as uplifting or romantic. SO i really suppose you could say i want people to feel however they are feeling that day but amplified. i want my music to be a reflection of who the listener is.
As a producer with a variety of different projects and diverse sounds what was your inspiration to create Pocket Rocks? What’s your goal for the project?
The main goal behind Pocket Rocks is to really let myself be more emotional with music. I love making club oriented music , and i will never stop making music for dance floors and sound systems, but with this new project pocket rocks, the goal isn’t to rock a club. I just wanted to make music for all the in between times. When you are waiting for a bus, or cooling out at the park, whatever it maybe. Pocket rocks is my soundtrack for the complexity that everyday things seem to have.
You have an elegant way of mingling the weird and wonky with an eloquent and classy aesthetic. What do you attribute those vibes to?
A lot of the weird and wonky is really based out of feeling. A lot of people write happy songs, sad songs, love songs, but i there is such a broader range of emotion out there, and some of them are weird and intimidating, so i try my hardest to convey that through the music. I love using things people try to brush off as aesthetically wrong or out of place. Everything has a place.
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This mix has heavy tones of acid washed psychedelia with the texture and grit of sampled records and grooves. What influences musically or in life moved you toward this crossroads?
Texture is really one of the most pleasing things about music for me. It really helps sets the tone for a song. When i hear things with a lot of crispy static, white noise, so on, it really makes me feel like i am in that moment. It helps pick up on a lot of the detail of that time and place and makes for amazing moods in a track. Listening to older records i was always especially fond of tracks that had that dusty, smokey feel. It paints such a vivid picture in my head.
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You’ve been unleashed into a record store to dig for your next score of sampling material. What are you looking for, and what’s your strategy.
I really really love soul music. I mean i listen to a lot of jazz and funk and symphonic pieces, but soul music really has a special place in my heart. The passion and feeling in it is something i have trouble finding in such magnitude in other types of music. Artists like Sam Cooke and Mahalia Jackson are some of my favorite for sample cutting. Rhodes pianos are also essentially my favorite sound, so people like Herby Hancock, Ahmed Jamal, Stan Getz, all wonderful for capturing the feeling and vibe.
Check PocketRocks On SoundCloud
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