Some artists seem to have been working the circuit so hard for so long, that by the time they get around to releasing their first album, much of the material is familiar enough to give it the feel of a Best of...
You could be forgiven for assuming, at first glance, that singer/songwriter Matt Goodman - better known as Matti Roots - thinks he’s too cool for school. We’re sitting in one of the many eateries that dot the plush new shopping plaza in London’s Victoria. Sporting shades, a number one, designer stubble and a cucumber demeanour, Roots looks quite the archetypal Blues man.
The dark glasses stay on for the duration of our interview, Matti only removing them momentarily to reveal large hazel eyes with cow-lashes. Still, although he might look the part he thankfully doesn’t have the Rock’n’Roll ego. Relaxed whilst tucking into Wasabi peas (after first offering me some), Matti turns out to be quite the easy-going conversationalist, seasoning his anecdotes with cheeky wit and pearly-white smiles.
A classically trained pianist since the tender age of three he later picked up his brother’s saxophone at 12, eventually mastering that too. Neither of his parents were music aficionados according to Roots and he was raised on a pop diet of the Beatles, Elton John and Neil Diamond as well as the classical music he discovered learning the piano. It was at secondary school that he was introduced to Jazz greats such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and John Coltrane and his appetite for the genre grew. This must have come in handy when Matti went on to compose instrumentals for Big Bands. Dalliance with more contemporary production came with the '90s DnB and Garage crazes.
"I used to sit at the computer making tunes," he tells SoulCulture.