Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: I grew up in a house where music was always welcome. My parents were huge fans of folk music. A lot of families spend their life around the television set. When I was growing up, we spent countless evenings playing board games while my parents would DJ music like John Denver, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Billy Joel. My mom played guitar and would play songs for me and my sister. Stuff like “Puff the Magic Dragon” and “Blowin in the Wind”. When music classes were offered in 4th grade, I chose to learn upright bass. My parents tried to negotiate me down to a smaller instrument but I couldn’t be persuaded. So for the next 10 years, they carted me and my upright bass around in a minivan.
Q: How are you planning on growing your fan base and sharing your music with the world? What message do you have for anyone who is about to discover “Matt Krahula and Nightmare River Band”?
A: Moments like these, where outlets like Bored City show an interest and help me get the word out are a big part of how we share our music. Every day, around 120,000 songs are released on Spotify. It’s hard to stand out in a market that’s so saturated. But it’s still possible to find fans through all the noise. I perform close to 300 nights a year and I feel like I walk away after most performances with a few new friends of my music.
Q: Who is the most inspiring artist for you right now? And where do you find inspiration for making music?
A: Right now, I’d say the person getting the most spins at my house is Margo Cilker. Her songwriting is on the highest level and the arrangements and production with Sera Cahoone on her first album are absolutely incredible. As far as inspiration, I find it everywhere. Love and loss were a big part of what went into “Last Goodbye”. I find myself inspired by life experiences. When I was writing “Last Goodbye”, I was saying goodbye to people and relationships. 11 years later and recently engaged, I find myself writing from a much more positive place.
Q: Can you tell us about the story or message behind the song, “Last Goodbye”?
A: Last Goodbye was written in memory of my grandfather. He passed away and I wrote it a couple days later. We were quite close. When I first got my drivers license, I used to pick him up and we’d go golfing, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes I’d pick up a few of his friends. I used to joke about who was going to win and he would always answer that we weren’t competing against each other, we were playing against ourselves and par. When I released Last Goodbye, a lot of people who knew him, had a hard time listening to the track without shedding a few tears. I hope that in the long term, it helped everyone cope with the loss. The one lyric that everyone always gets a kick out of is “nieces and nephews remembering all of your stories and rhymes”. He used to tell these longs poems but he could never remember them all the way through so a lot of times you wouldn’t get the ending or you’d be missing a crucial part of the middle.
Q: How would you describe your sound in one word for potential listeners?
A: Honest
Q: Did you face any challenges while writing or recording “Last Goodbye 11”?
A: Since Last Goodbye 11 is a more or less a tribute album, the main challenge was wrangling all the musicians to meet their deadlines. It’s 11 songs, remade by 11 artists, 11 years after the original album dropped. To give you an idea of how hard it is to organize that many creatives, the original title for this album was supposed to be “Last Goodbye 10”.
Q: What is the message of your music? And what are your goals as an artist?
A: My goal as a musician is to create a meaningful experience for the listener. I’ve spent years performing and writing and I want people to hear my music, and find themselves humming it later. I used to say I wanted people to leave my shows knowing they had a fun time. Fun can mean a lot of different things. Dancing and singing along can be fun, but being moved by music on an emotional level can also be fun. Sometimes we can combine all of that for a really great evening.
Q: Who is your dream artist to collaborate with? (dead or alive)
A: I’m pretty fortunate because on this current album, I got to collaborate with 11 of my absolute favorite artists. If I had to pick someone beyond that, The Avett Brothers would be a huge dream collaboration for me. I fell in love with their music when I was in college. It feels like a continuation of the stuff I grew up listening to. I’ve seen them play a bunch of times and and they always bring it. They seem to really enjoy playing music and being around each other and the music is just very sincere. I’d put Margo Cilker and Sera Cahoone on that list too! It would be a dream to collaborate with either of them.
Q: What is your advice for people interested in pursuing music as a career or for those trying to enter the industry?
A: Go be an architect. There are 120,00 songs released every day on Spotify. Just kidding. My advice would be never stop believing in what you do. Whether you work full time as a musician or release songs for fun, your art is important and can have a huge impact on the world we live in.
Q: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some words of wisdom, what would they be?
A: Make beautiful music that you believe in and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.
