For months I’ve tried in vain to decode Similes’ immersive qualities, what makes it so peacefully conflicted. And although the obvious answer waving to catch my attention - that the record’s emotional tide exists because of Matthew Cooper’s tireless songwriting efforts – is likely true, I preferred to believe that Eluvium’s latest was endowed with a particular set of circumstances (in the listener as much as in the songwriter) that helped it resonate so. After reading Cooper’s back-story for the Similes track ‘Weird Creatures’, however, I can’t kid myself any longer. Matthew Cooper's genius lies in his awareness of every small, earthly significance; realities that are far greater than our daily concerns. (Photo by Munaf Rayani)
SCQ: Every list-lover's favourite question: what are your top albums of 2010? Feel free to include any older yet worthy records you discovered this year.
MC: - i haven't really had much time to listen to new music this year
and it's getting a little overwhelming
but 3 releases have stood out to me thus far
Owen Pallett's "Heartland"
Arp's "The Soft Wave"
and Wild Nothing's "Gemini"
i wouldn't have expected to like something like the Wild Nothing record - but alas - it was in my car stereo for months.
SCQ: What were you listening to a lot of while recording the excellent Similes?
MC: -- i was pretty much exclusively listening to Similes - when i work on something i generally immerse myself in it.
SCQ: Be cocky for once in your life: what was the finest thing you did all year? That moment where you actually thought "shit, I nailed that..."?
MC: i'm not really a big "shit, i nailed that" kind of guy - some chickadees moved into a birdhouse i put up this past spring - i guess i was pretty pleased with myself about that - not sure why, since the birds did most of the work - - i also beat my wife at ping-pong several times over the summer... that was fun - - "finest" thing really translates to a collective of "finer" things for me - which would include reading on the back porch, riding my bike around town, and just generally soaking in the day.
SCQ: Effect and Cause: Over Easter's long-weekend, some friends and I met up in Montreal and I brought Similes, knowing that it would act as an ideal comedown record when we'd need it. Little did I know that we'd end up playing it front-to-back during the most chaotic hour of our weekend, listening carefully as each note unfurled from the speakers. Your record struck a powerful chord in each of us that night. Okay, your turn: confess a true tale that inspired one of the songs on Similes.
MC: -- there is a large tree that towers over everything across the street from my house - while writing Similes - i spent a lot of time sitting on my front porch looking at it. watching it's leaves flutter in the breeze, i would contemplate much so, eventually losing focus of everything -- usually when this happens to humans, depending on the lighting, these things called "floaters" appear in your vision, or rather, we take notice of them - my father is a neuroscientist, his focus on the eye - and i asked him what they were called - when i learned they were just simply called floaters - i was a little disappointed - i think i was perhaps hoping for something more unique and scientific sounding- i then learned that they aren't actually on the eyes but behind them - for some reason i had always assumed that they were little amoeba living on the vitreous humor or something of that sort - at any rate - this is where the song Weird Creatures was born - the moment of contemplation where you go deep, leave everything behind, and these weird creatures appear before you.
SCQ: If all the reasonable and implausible ideas in your head came to fruition in 2011, what would they be?
MC: --maybe humans would become pure energy, but still retain the ability to consider and recognize it
or otherwise - if that doesn't work out
i would release a few eluvium related albums - start a few other projects outside of eluvium,
and travel the world with my wife (while getting to stay in each place for more than a day)
scoring another full length film would be enjoyable also.
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