Dead Flowers Interviews Matt from Foreign Born

Matt Popieluch is the lead singer in Foreign Born, one of Los Angeles' very best bands. In the group, he's complimented by Ariel Rechtshaid's melodic bass playing, Lewis Pesacov's distinctive effects-laden guitar, and Garrett Ray's innovative drumming. They have had one proper release, the "In the Remote Woods" EP on Startime, and have had their debut LP "On the Wing Now" available to buy at shows for the past few months.

I got in contact with Matt because "On the Wing Now" is the best LP I've heard in years, an unusually confident mix of rock influences that never retreats into nostalgia. While "In the Remote Woods" showed promise, "On the Wing Now" realizes the band's potential on songs like "In the Shape" and "Letter of Inclusion".

Matt also performs solo under the moniker Big Search. Big Search's debut "Mysticism vs Classicism" was released in 2003.


Dead Flowers: As I understand it, you recorded "On the Wing Now" without label support, and then shopped it around. Can you talk about the process of finding the right label?

Matt Popieluch: It's been a little exhausting to be honest. It's turned into a dream-like state where we're walking in a dark field. not much is real anymore.. I guess the "right label" for us would be one that has a bit of a spine and that doesn't wait for other labels to get interested before they do. We've encountered a lot of this behavior and it's been lame as the hills. There are a few things happening right now, and I believe one way or another the record will be coming out in early June. Even if we have to strap it to our backs! We have a lot of material brewing for the next record and we want to get on with the show. On the plus side, we have gotten to know the local Kinko's staff pretty well, making the booklets for all our self released - releases.

I remember driving on tour this last fall in our van running on vegetable oil, with our recycled album covers and zero tour support realizing that we were the most D.I.Y., punk rock band that we knew! Hand stamping every CD, jumping into barrels of grease behind the club for fuel! And it was all kind of by accident! So this whole experience of being without a label has forced us to be both resourceful and creative, and broke! But we never stopped to consider not doing it.

DF: Are the details of the album's proper release now set in stone?

MP: If the stone could be crushed by a child, then yes.

DF: One of Foreign Born's signatures is your almost hyperactive acoustic guitar. How did that come about?

MP: Well, I got this acoustic guitar you see... An old Martin that channels all of my energy. I walk around the house with it, and unfortunately it gets banged up against the hallways and doorways. People yell at me for treating it with such abandon, but it's really just an extension of me at this point. I write all my songs on this guitar, and it carries quite a rhythm when strummed like hell.

I think the acoustic adds a unique texture to the band. I switch between an amplifier and the house p.a., sometimes in the middle of a song, just for that extra push over the cliff. It adds a warmth and an intensity that I would be hard-pressed to achieve in a different light. It feels like a direct line into the audience through which I can "up the ante" if you will, accentuate rhythms or just straight up mess with other members of the band.

"Remote Woods" Live:

DF: Along those lines, percussion seems to be a very important aspect of your music. There's a genuine understanding of how it can make a song more exciting. For example, the second half of "In the Shape"...

MP: Yes, we are percussion enthusiasts! Lewis (guitar player) is an avid collector of percussive things. He has a large collection of goat claws! Those come in handy when you least expect it..

"In the Shape" is a good example of a rhythmic upheaval, it really just lifts the song to another level. A quickly strummed, dry, distorted guitar, a million shakers, and the rhythmic background vocals just really make it drive.

Listen to "In the Shape":

[Download the MP3 Here]

DF: There's such a rich musical tradition being mined with Foreign Born that it's sometimes hard to peg your influences. Personally, seeing you live, I always thought of the sort of west coast bands heard on the "Nuggets" compilation. Is that just me?

MP: That is just you, unfortunately, but it's a nice compliment. I would imagine it's the song "Into Your Dream" that coaxes the comparison. It does sound like a sixties, garage rock riff, and um.. like a Fall riff we know.. but you didn't hear that from us. Other influences include John Lennon, Roy Orbison, Fleetwood Mac and Roxy Music

DF: Your solo project Big Search has a song called "Oh Gypsy Davy", who also gets a mention in Dylan's "Tombstone Blues". How much would you say Dylan has influenced you?

MP: Hmmm, the influence of Dylan. The "Gypsy Davy" concept was lifted from a Woody Guthrie song, and we all know who else lifted things from Guthrie.. Dylan has always been a huge influence for me, it didn't occur to me with this song, but it's unavoidably underneath a lot of what I do, being a dude who plays guitar and sings lyrics at the same time. Otherwise I'm not currently in a place where Dylan is looming very large on my horizon. That particular song was recorded almost five years ago..

Listen to "You'll Often Change" by Big Search:

[Download the MP3 Here]

DF: The members of Foreign Born are pretty busy with side projects. Does that ever create tension within the band?

MP: Not much. Foreign Born's been the main focus for quite sometime now. It gets a little hectic when a different band's show happens during the same week as another, which always seems to happen somehow...but it's cool. Lewis has a new band with Luke Top called "Fool's Gold". It has a heavy African influence, and involves incense, Luke free-styling in Hebrew, robes and lots of people on percusion and many guitars! Including me. It's really fun. We're just trying to make as much music as we can, and different combinations of people yield different results.

DF: You have an incredible drummer in Garrett Ray. Does that affect your songwriting process?

MP: Yeah. The dude's a one man drum circle. When we write, we look forward to our wildest dreams coming true.. We write in different ways. Sometimes the songs are brought to rehearsal with strong ideas of how they should go down, and other times with out them.

The best part of the process is how the songs evolve as we play them live. For instance - Garrett and I instinctively working out little synchronized fills where the acoustic guitar and drums mirror eachother, just for a second! Its very cool! We never talk about it, it just comes about. He's also got some pipes on him when he's singing harmonies! He does a mean Michael MacDonald!

"Letter of Inclusion":

DF: This is sort of an obvious point, but in an age of mid-tempo bands, it's refreshing to hear FB playing fast and slow songs. Tempo has as much effect on the mood of a song as anything. Would you agree?

MP: That's the damn truth! Its a statement! Speed it up or slow it down!
Accept the music for what it is. If it's really slow, then be patient and calm the hell down. If it's fast, then get ready for hell on Earth!

Thanks to Matt for sitting down with Dead Flowers. Watch this space for Foreign Born updates. To get your hands on any of the music mentioned in the interview, contact the band through the links below.

[Foreign Born Website]
[Foreign Born Myspace]
[Big Search Myspace]
[Grand Gallop Records]