Matt Shea is a freelance journalist currently based in Brisbane, Australia. His work has been published in or on triple j mag, Elle Australia, The Big Issue, Tiger Tales, TheVine, Mess+Noise, AskMen, FasterLouder, Ideas at the House and Everguide, as well as syndicated to a bunch of newspapers that are a big deal down this way but you probably don't give a shit about. Matt has also written copy for various shady, two-timing characters. He accepts money for his work. Weiss pays him in factory second Nicaraguan 45"s better used as drink coasters. (Though, who uses drink coasters these days?) Matt was born in New Zealand, but asks you not hold that against him.
Currently Listening:
Rochelle Jordan - 1021
---------------------------
Currently Watching:
Jodorowsky's Dune
---------------------------
Currently Reading:
Mango Country by John Van Tiggelen| A Long Lost Interview With Ishmael Butler of Shabazz Palaces | February 28, 2019 |
Around the release of Black Up, Matt Shea spoke with the Shabazz Palaces frontman about his creative process, his chemistry with instrumentalist and musical partner Tendai Maraire, and signing to Sub Pop.
| Aussie Rules: The Malaysian Indie Scene | April 10, 2015 |
Taking it to the Bassment for his new column, Matt Shea begins his journey in Malaysia
| Google Sleeps on Australia’s Left. | October 22, 2014 |
Matt Shea believes sleep is the cousin of death. The best bands are the hardest to Google. Try finding Left. on the Internet. Good fucking luck, pal. The Sydney two-piece are plugged directly into the powerpoint of Australia’s rapidly growing rap scene. They frequently work with members of One Day Crew and their music’s immaculate production […]
| Aussie Rules: Radical Son “Human Behaviour” | October 7, 2014 |
Matt Shea will self-identify as “gnarly”, “tubular”, and “bitchin'” There’s nothing new about Radical Son’s musical canvas, reggae and dub having become immensely popular in Australia and New Zealand since the turn of the millennium. But the dude’s voice — a sustained sweetness typical of Polynesian soul underwritten by an invitingly dusty timbre — […]
| The Aussie Rules: Moodie “Show Me” | July 14, 2014 |
Matt Shea holds it down, with or without the four pound You haven’t heard of Milly Moodie (that counts for the Australians who read this site). And good luck finding out any more about her because she’s swinging one of those really great but really annoying monikers that’s almost impossible to Google search. Jesus I […]
Matt Shea wants a caravan fer his ma, in perrywinkle blue We’ve ridden for Philadelphia’s Wrecking Crew for a long time now (and, full disclosure, both Zilla Rocca and Has-Lo occasionally write for this site), which is odd because for a long time they seemed to almost be reluctant to describe themselves as a crew. […]
| The Aussie Rules: Tim Shiel “Duet Duets” | May 15, 2014 |
Matt Shea is a boss. He ain’t dealing with you middle men. Probably the biggest eye-opener in the press surrounding Tim Shiel’s superb Duet iOS soundtrack was that the Australian producer completed the guts of the recordings in a little over half a day. Listening to the album back in October, it had a collection […]
| Tim Shiel’s Solo “Duet” | November 4, 2013 |
Matt Shea is relieved. Tim Shiel has spent most of the last two years roaming the world sharing drinks carts with Gotye, as Wally De Backer’s “Making Mirrors” went viral, international, number one and everything else. So when producer and multi-instrumentalist Shiel returned to his Faux Pas project late last year with a series of […]
| Question in the Form of An Answer: An Interview With Calexico | October 31, 2013 |
“So excellent they’re almost tiresome.” Those are the words an editor of mine used to describe Calexico, the Tucson Tex-Mex collective semi-permanently gathered around singer-guitarist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino. He had a point. When a new Calexico album comes out you almost look to avoid it, simply because you know the music will […]
| Question in the Form of an Answer: Thundercat | June 11, 2013 |
As an Australian-based journalist, it’s a little rare to interview an American artist on the verge of an album release. But not as rare as it used to be: independent musicians now make the majority of their money touring, and that includes touring internationally. Sometimes the timing gets a little awkward. I caught up with […]
