A few months ago if someone said I was to come across an artiste in 2011 who would collectively remind me of George Clinton and Stevie Wonder and that same artiste would cite Chopin and D’Angelo as strong musical influences; I would unequivocally think that the individual was being rather fanciful. That was until I came across this artiste and my  vision became peripheral. Introducing to you the gifted Matti Roots...

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and sought after producer, as the name suggests Matti firmly has roots embedded in rich musical soil. The piano aged three, clarinet aged seven, Jazz ensembles aged thirteen and at the time when most teenagers were optimally making use of fake IDs, the aspiring musician was already a recipient of the Daily Telegraph’s Young Jazz Musician of the Year Award.

Classically trained at the Royal College of Music and Guildhall, Roots has produced for the likes of Ms Dynamite, Wiley, Smujji, Master Shortie and has remixed for Justin Timberlake.The producer has a number of TV and advertising credits to his name and has been teaching music to children for almost a decade. His all encompassing love for music had one facet remaining; until now. Consolidated, the musical mirror ball is ready to rotate and sparkle casting its shimmer on all that believe in GOOD music. The musician is finally taking centre stage, launching his own solo career to the unbridled delight of many.

Matti Roots’ debut album ‘BeatRoot’ shall be releasing next month and one can expect nothing less than excellence from the consummate artiste. The album is ‘Prelude in E-minor’ meets ‘Atomic Dog’, ‘Part Time Lover’ meets ‘Brown Sugar’. Each and every track features live instrumentation and there is stellar collaborative track  with Susaye Green, former backing singer for Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and the last member of The Supremes. Roots’ songs are raw, soulful, funky, technically superb masterpieces encapsulating transitional periods in relationships and all the emotional catharsis that ensues. Lust, love, passion, obsession, elation, dismay, trepidation and hope, Roots infectious soulful voice narrates trials and tribulations and life's dynamic viscosity with poise and wit. 

The music maverick speaks to me about his solo foray into music...

MOBO: Tell us about your childhood...

Matti: I was born and raised in a corner of North West London. My parents were really good role models and instilled in me a healthy balance of hard work, love and having fun. I'm the youngest of four boys so obviously I could do no wrong.. But I paid the price in bruises! I did ok in school but music was my ultimate love.

MOBO: What made you gravitate towards a career in the music industry?

Matti: I started learning piano aged three, clarinet aged seven, sang in the school choir, was involved in Jazz groups from thirteen, won the Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Musician of the Year. When I was around seventeen, I bought an EMU ESI-32 sampler and lots of records and started sampling and making dance music and weird noises! When I was eighteen I went to the Royal College of Music but only did that for a year ‘cause I didn't want to be a classical musician. I continued studying music at university and studied more Jazz at the Guildhall School of Music. So by this point, I was knee deep in music and there really was only one choice!

MOBO: Who have been your musical influences?

Matti: We would be here for weeks seriously but I'll try and be as brief as possible... Bach, Chopin, Stravinsky, Gershwin, Steve Reich, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Sun Ra, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Prince, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Lee Scratch Perry, Luther Vandross, Quincy Jones, Steely Dan, John Martyn, Lewis Taylor, Kirk Franklin, Tribe Called Quest, Jay Dilla, Biggy, The Neptunes, Dre, Timbaland, Kanye West, D’Angelo, Areetha Franklin, Nina Simone, The Beatles. I also love a lot of Dance music producers from Photek to Flying Lotus to ... Are you still awake!? Hahaha!

MOBO: You are a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has worked with the likes of Terri Walker, Ms Dynamite, Wiley and Master Shortie. Was the transition into a credible solo artiste natural for you?

Matti: I guess so... I never forced it, I just started writing songs and singing them myself, for fun at first. When other people started telling me I sounded good, I kind of grew into the role... But for me it's always been more about creating new and engaging stories through music.

MOBO: Your track ‘OCD’ has lived up to its name, I have personally had it on repeat all evening and am most intrigued about your forthcoming album ‘BeatRoot’. What can listeners expect?

Matti: Aww thanks... All the tracks that are on the album are written for very special reasons and usually in relation to me dealing with something, a sort of turning point or some sort of transition or some sort of emotional catharsis I guess. So a lot of them are relationship based one of them is kind of about religion, my overall thoughts on that. There’s another one about addiction ha-ha. I’ve described it to some people as a musical relationship handbook. So you’ve got some tracks that deal with make ups, break ups, relationships with yourself, the newness of a relationship when you first meet someone, the kind of sadness of a relationship gone wrong, the bitterness of a relationship gone wrong, the obsession of an unbalanced relationship, so I’ve sadly been through all different kinds of relationships! I guess it’s a musical representation of all the stages of a relationships tinged with joy, optimism, soul and funk!

MOBO: How would you describe your sound in one sentence?

Matti: One of my good friends once described it as a collection of influences... I think that works well for me!

MOBO: Justin Timberlake, Slum Village and Natasha Bedingfield have all had tracks remixed by you. Is the creative process of remixing just as enriching as that of producing your own solo material?

Matti: Yes absolutely... It's different in a lot of ways but still has the element of creating something new. There's more of 'me' in my solo stuff I guess but I love the art of sculpting sound and that applies whether I'm making music for a TV ad , doing a remix or writing something for myself.

MOBO: Are you simultaneously producing for other artistes?

Matti: I’m so ridiculously busy doing so many things at the same time. Sometimes I find it hard to sort of catch my breath. I am producing for a couple of different artistes and writing with a number of people and obviously kind of working on new material for myself aswell. I’ve got material ready for a second album but am figuring out how I want to treat that and which musical direction I want to go with in. I’ve got the songs but it’s a matter of treatment now. I’ve been listening to a lot of new stuff and getting re-inspired and re-engaged with people’s ears in a sense so there’s a couple of things. There’s a band called Everything Everything and been listening to a lot of Dubstep and James Blake and more experimental stuff and just thinking about changing it up, I don’t like to stick in one place hence my album, fifteen relationships ha-ha.

MOBO: So which artistes are on your radar at the moment?

Matti: Like I said, that band Everything Everything I think they’re pretty cool, I quite like James Blake’s stuff, Dubstep producers like Joy Orbison and Ramadanman. Even the more commercial stuff like Rusko and if I listen to the production values of Chase and Status or Pendulum, from a sonic point of view, that’s some serious knowledge and effort that’s gone into that. I’m always dipping into my old stuff; I can never get enough of that. I just recently went to see Fela the musical which if you get a chance, I don’t know if it’ll be on when you get back but that was so good! One of the best stage productions I’ve ever seen.

MOBO: What are your sources of inspiration other than music or relationships?

Matti: Ha-ha... I love reading, I love exercise, I love running, I do yoga- I just started doing it and getting my Warrior Three on ha-ha. I like cooking, I like food, I like socialising, I like talking ha-ha... Erm, so yeah a combination. I recently read this book called ‘Thirteen Things That Don’t Make Sense’ which is about all the new kind of concepts in the world we’re dealing with, in the universe where we’re up to with Physics not that I profess to understand this stuff but I try. Stuff about the placebo effect and homeopathy. I’m just interested in stuff basically and I just go through phases of having this desire to know everything and then I kind of give up and write a song like ‘Don’t Worry’ ha-ha!

MOBO: Are there any plans to tour the UK this year?

Matti: Yes definitely, I'm just in the process of organising something at the moment. I’m planning to do Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and some others.

MOBO: If you had the power to create THE musical artiste, which artistes from the past and present would you use as building blocks and why?

Matti: I guess the harmonic prowess of Bach, the voice of Marvin Gaye, the drumming of Clyde Stubblefield, the bass playing of Pino Palledino, the guitar playing of Prince, the piano playing of Herbie Hancock, the dancing of James Brown, the orchestration skills of Quincy Jones and the otherworldliness of Sun Ra.

MOBO: What does music mean to you?

Matti: It's as essential as air and water!

MOBO: What does 2011 hold for Matti Roots?

Matti: Ha! I hope big things! But we shall see.....

This weekend, Roots is set to perform at one of my all time favourite venues- Jazz Cafe. Dueting with a childhood friend to 'Lately' as Jon B thoroughly enthralled us to being spellbound by Van Hunt, over the years I have had the pleasure of seeing a significant number of fantastic artistes perform at the UK institution. Currently in another continent,  if I was in London this weekend, friends and I would be at Parkway up there in the front row of Jazz belting out tracks from 'BeetRoot' like we were on an episode of legendary Soul Train; glistening under Roots' musical mirror ball as the maestro brings Soul and Funk into the 21st century. We would most certainly start a Soul Train line if space permitted and see the crowd Locking and Popping to the "hippest trip" this side of the Atlantic with fervour reminiscent of that surrounding Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield when they took the stage.

Funk and Soul flow through Matti Roots' veins and this chap is the real musical deal. Phenomenally talented, Roots is here to blow your mind and all there is left for me to say is go represent, get your groove on to him and in the words of Cornelius, "As we part, we wish you love, peace and Soul!" 

Matti Roots is performing at UK Soul Jam, Jazz Cafe on 06.02.11.

For more information on Matti Roots please click here.

 Reema Kumari Jadeja ©