Interview: Matt Champion on his debut solo album 'Mika's Laundry'.
Matt Champion is not always what he seems... so he's understanding of your pre-conceived notions. At first glance, you'll recognise the 29-year-old as a beloved member of the now-defunct musical collective Brockhampton (he reminisces on that coming-of-age experience so fondly his eyes light up), but upon closer inspection and further discovery, you'll find a wildly imaginative brain that has not only penned one of this year's best debut albums, but also birthed an extraordinarily curious and complex science-fiction world.
That wise green ogre, Shrek, once said something about onions being multi-layered, and the same is true of Champion. His debut solo album 'Mika's Laundry' (co-produced with Henry Kwapis) delivers traditional moments that are typical of Champion's back-catalogue ('Gbiv' recalls his historic bravado), but where he truly shines is when he's painting a perspective on the atmospheric 'Code Red', or summoning a zestful sparkle for playful numbers like 'Steel' and 'Slug'. Lead single 'Aphid' (featuring Dijon) perfectly bridges Champion's past and present, and the poignant 'Dogfish' is also a highlight. Steeped in flavourful nuance and snapshots of humanity, this is an album sure to age well.
Click here to order our limited-edition CDM x Matt Champion zine (i.e. mini-magazine featuring photos / Q&A from this interview).
Then there's what Champion refers to as "The Writings" - a dystopian adventure that centres around a characterised version of himself (with the same name) and a female protagonist named Sylla, that's set in a different part of his imagined world to the music videos that accompany the album. In 2020, Champion became a regular at the Altadena public library in Los Angeles - diligently pursuing his imagination ("I would start writing just to get stuff out," he explains) amidst a mid-century style indoor courtyard lit by tall free-standing lamps. And until now, entrusting only a handful of people with even the secret of his labour, it's unexpected when Champion agrees to share with me some written extracts (the beginnings of a novel and some scenes from a screenplay), so that I can get the lay of the land. It turns out that Champion is the kind of storyteller who writes like he dreams - breathing life into an unchartered wilderness that is loosely based on our Earth, but mostly of his own design, featuring everything from bounty hunters to a futuristic drug called Pudoclizine ("That's a gel you'd put on your face - a clear, almost sparkle gel, that gives you a face mask and a very sedatives sort of downer," Champion clarifies for me while brunching in Los Angeles recently), and a forest-dwelling 10-year-old sap-hunting puff (some day this will make sense to you when Champion goes public).
Great stories are transportive and although Matt Champion is still pondering the future, this much is unmistakably clear: you can't judge a book by its cover.
Matt wears: vintage Christian Dior hoodie paired with unreleased pink corduroy pants from Friends With Animals.
COUP DE MAIN: Describe to me what your imagined Mika's Laundry club looks like, that you named your album after.
MATT CHAMPION: You slide into it. I picture maroon curtains - a hallway of these curtains and you're walking through linen and different shades of curtain, and then there are different rooms you can go into and pull open curtains into one bigger open space that's a very dimly lit lounge, and a lot of wood. I picture it being very dark, very underground, and soft. Almost amber, dark lighting, and a lot of pillows, and a lot of comfortable seating. And if there's a bar, it's all wood.
CDM: Now that the album is out, do you still feel like you're living in this world? Or do you feel a bit of separation now?
MATT: I definitely feel separation now. Even reading the stuff that I sent over, made me go back to it a little bit, but it was so many years, like doing it for three years, that it feels like it's now transferring over to other people. I finally let it go. So now it's for everyone else, rather than me, because I got to hold on to it for that time.
CDM: Does it feel like an extension of your brain? Or does it feel more like an escape?
MATT: An extension. I love imagination, and what I've held on to from being a child, and keeping that sense of wonder. So, I personally don't feel like I'm escaping. It feels more like expanding or exploring.
CDM: Did the music come first? Or did the imagined world?
MATT: It's kind of both - the world was clear in the beginning, which helps the music for me. I was doing both at the same time, but the world felt clear. The music was still getting figured out and I was tinkering around a lot... I felt like I knew the motion of the world, which then correlated with everything else, and it all kind of meshed.
CDM: Was there a point in time when the world came to you? When was the birth?
MATT: I have always liked sci-fi and fantastical worlds. Around 2020, we would go to the library and I would start writing just to get stuff out - I think that's where it started to formulate. We went to this really cool looking library in Altadena where there's this little centre area and tall standing lights - it's like a mini courtyard in the middle; all indoor though.
CDM: So you'd just be on your laptop writing?
MATT: Yeah, and I think that's where it came together. But I don't remember being like, 'Oh, this!' - I think it was a slow thing.
CDM: When did you finish?
MATT: I think music-wise: February 2022. Everything else sort of came together in that year, like visuals and videos, but the music was done in 2023. It was almost three years and then what was easier about the visuals was that the world was already being built with it, so then when we got to do it, it wasn't like, 'What's the idea visually?' - there was already momentum in that sense.
CDM: You released 'Aphid' on your birthday. Was that intentional?
MATT: It wasn't intentional. <laughs>
CDM: 'I'll reclaim Valentine's Day and make it all about me!'
MATT: Literally. <laughs> They had a meeting and one of the options was to start it that day. It was funny because around that same timeline, the album was coming out on my girlfriend's birthday, and they didn't know either, and I was like, 'You guys realise you're doing two birthday things?' But no, there wasn't intention. So funny.
CDM: There's a vine being pulled out of you in the music video for 'Aphid' which is harvested by a medical team... what does the vine represent to you?
MATT: That's tough. I don't know if I've ever thought about it specifically representing anything - I think it's a tether to that world.
CDM: Why was 'Aphid' the first song you wanted to share from this album?
MATT: It was one of the first ones we made that we liked. So it's one of the first, like the oldest song - because we made a lot of music during that time. And probably out of 40 songs, the only one that came out of it. And it was literally like 30-45 seconds of it that we kept and then moved along with.
CDM: How many songs did you make during that entire process?
MATT: I don't know... probably 60 to 80. Not all finished songs, but just ideas.
CDM: Why did you decide to open the album with 'Green'?
MATT: We liked 'Green' being first because it just feels really strange. It's a very strange vocal to come in on and I also think it's going to bring people in. Or if it doesn't bring you in, then you're not ready, or the album is not for you. It's what we talked about the other day: there's a lot of expectation with what some people were thinking, and I think 'Green' will just automatically throw you because it's not what you were expecting. And if you like this, then come along on the journey.
CDM: 'Steel' is very romantic. I love the lyric: "Do you like that you fill up space in my mind?" And I'm an over-thinker so I relate to the anxiety of that song. Do you enjoy the rush of trying to read someone's mind? Or would you rather be super familiar with someone?
MATT: I think the rush is definitely exciting, but I think the comfort is better of knowing or being that close with somebody. I think the guessing is more fleeting, it's a good quick hit, rather than solid stability.
CDM: In 'Purify' you make the grand declaration: "I trust you." Is trust the most important element for any kind of relationship?
MATT: Yeah, I think it's really, really important to trust and allow trust - and when you finally truly trust someone, it's another comforting, relaxing feeling because you don't have to feel that stress of feeling the unknown.
CDM: You also say: "I choose you." Do you think love is a feeling or a choice?
MATT: It's definitely a feeling, but it's a choice in the way that it isn't just an easy or simple act you have to make. There are sacrifices and you have to be understanding. There are so many different details and things added on to that. You're working on it, like the classic thing where you have to work on a relationship, but the choice is: I'm going to make this choice for this person or this friend, or to be present or to do those actions.
CDM: I agree: it's a commitment. Is love something you find scary? Or exciting?
MATT: Hmmm... I think it's exciting and interesting. It feels like a lot of learning, constant learning, and exploring. I don't think it scares me much at all.
CDM: What's the hardest thing about communication?
MATT: There are so many different styles of communicating... I think it just depends on the situation or person because sometimes I think you can communicate with somebody who you just met and it becomes very easy, and then other people you have to navigate the way that they communicate. For me, it's very up to gut feeling of what and how to do it. It's just who you click with and it becomes easy to communicate, and other times you have to learn that some people communicate in different ways.
CDM: How did you find communicating when you were making the album in the studio with your collaborators?
MATT: I learned a lot from Brockhampton - how to communicate working while being with that many people, and it also taught me how to enjoy and love making stuff with a group of people, and collaborating. Now bringing it to working on the solo stuff... I love the world-building aspects - trying to bring people into building the world and being a part of and engaging in the world too. Not even necessarily like a narrative specifically, but just the world, or the process of making the music, instead of it feeling more separated like 'we come here from 8 to 2 and then it's just a quick thing' - I love it to feel like there's a collective goal around it.
CDM: Did working with Ciaran/Bearface, Jabari, and Romil on some of this album feel different or similar to the Brockhampton music-making process?
MATT: Similar with them. Because Ciaran was on 'Aphid' which was really early, so that felt normal in the beginning, and then Romil always feels great to work with. It didn't feel any different. It felt natural.
CDM: You have the last word on the final Brockhampton album with the second verse in 'Goodbye' which closes up the 'TM' album. What was running through your mind when you were singing, "This oughta be the best time / The best time of our lives"?
MATT: For me, it was just putting a pin on such a huge part of my life being really formative and really incredible, and something that I want to cherish and appreciate. And I think that was a reminder to pin it as that.
CDM: Why did it feel like time for Brockhampton to break up?
MATT: We had been together for so long and learned so much and made so many great things together, and naturally, I think people look for growth and expansion and want to try different things. I think it was just the time to be okay with that change.
CDM: Do you think Brockhampton will ever reunite?
MATT: I don't know. Maybe? I don't know.
CDM: What is your most treasured Brockhampton memory?
MATT: I remember this really early on when we had our first tour. I think 'Saturation' I and II might have been out, I don't remember, I think we had II out before the first tour, but it was our first show that we really had people coming to rather than just doing a show and trying to win the crowd over. I didn't know what to expect and it was in Denver. We got there and I hadn't really processed it - I was nervous, but I didn't think about what it would feel like because we had done shows before and I thought it was gonna be just another show. But we all went out there and it was such an overwhelming response to have people want to see you live - that was the first time I felt it then, and I think we all sort of felt it at the same time, even though it was very small, probably 300-500 people. I just remember being like: 'Oh, this is why people love performing - they love finally connecting with why people like your music. It's like you finally get to share that same emotional connection.' I will always remember that first show in Denver - I was running out of breath because I have asthma so it was also funny because of the elevation, but yeah it was a really crazy experience.
CDM: What's it like to have gone from playing your role within a larger group to now being master of your own destiny?
MATT: I was so in love with making music in a group and that setting of the moving pieces that I wasn't ever thinking about doing something solo. But then learning that I enjoy making music on the side as well, I think it opens up a lot more to do - writing or to build a world where I can get more lost in it than I was in that way, but I think I love so much about each way of doing it. I did the group way for so long that I have tendencies to want to do, like you're saying, like a group project or to just get people together, but they're very different. They're both good. It's just different routes with each one that you play with, that's fun.
CDM: How did Jennie and Dora Jar featuring on your album come about?
MATT: Jennie, I met here through a friend. We had gone to dinners with friends together and just sort of started hanging out and then we started talking about mutually liking each other's music and then ended up working in the studio when she was here. It was just one of those things where it naturally felt comfortable and clicked, and being able to get to know her away from working made it easier to get that same comfortability and be able to work to make something, rather than it just feeling like an awkward quick situation. We were able to really figure it out.
CDM: Was she quite involved with the writing of that song? Or did she just come into the studio and sing?
MATT: Involved in the writing, yeah!
CDM: And Dora?
MATT: I was a big fan of Dora's music and I had watched this live video in Alaska that I really liked. I've seen her live a couple of times, but I hadn't seen her live at that point, and I really liked it and then just reached out to her and brought up 'Steel'. We already had 'Steel' sort of set up and I just reached out: 'I would love to have you on this.' That one was funny because I didn't know her but she's really great and just so herself and such a wonderful character, but she was only there for 45 minutes. I'd seen her a couple times here and there before that, but that was funny because it was just such a quick thing, but it also felt like a great piece to me.
CDM: What was it like working with Dijon?
MATT: We've been friends since I moved here like 2017 or 2016 maybe, we started hanging out around then, and he's the closest person to the music that's also outside as a friend, so it's really helpful to have him be able to be there as a true opinion. We bounce off each other, and since we did it so much early on, we were making music for no reason - there wasn't an intention. So now, we bounce off of knowing how each other works in that way, and we just learn a lot from each other. He's insanely talented. Beyond talented. He's really an insane mind.
CDM: What was running through your mind while writing 'Code Red'?
MATT: The way we started that song was funny because we all did this thing where we tried for fun to each play something separately. Without listening, it was basically the same thing, but we all weren't hearing what each other were doing. And then we all brought it together and it ended up working. A lot of the writing was in the moment, like I was taking a lot of time with the writing but in a different way than I used to, where I would sit down and try to write/figure things out. I try to figure things out more in the moment and then go off of full feelings, or the way I could inflect my voice - because sometimes you can't get that inflection if you're trying to stick to a regimented line by line - and that one just paints a picture of the world from the sky and the feeling of a cold outdoor view / looking up at the sky. That's what I picture for it.
CDM: "I wanna be a part of your world," you say in 'Aren't You Excited'. Someone once told me that one of the hardest things about relationships is the syncing/uniting of two people's very different worlds. Do you agree or disagree with that?
MATT: Yeah, I think it can be hard, but I'm on both... I think sometimes people will--
CDM: Because you also don't want to be codependent.
MATT: Yeah it can be hard, I think it depends on each person's way of adapting or allowing themselves to drift into the other person's world or vice versa, it just depends on each person's commitment to making that work. I think if one or the other doesn't then it will be dramatically harder. It depends so much on how much you're willing to drift back and forth.
CDM: Are you a person who needs alone time? Or does it make you feel more energised being around people that you care about?
MATT: I think I feel better around people I care about - I definitely like alone time, but I'm not somebody who needs to fully isolate and be antisocial.
CDM: The use of slug as a metaphor in 'Slug' is really unique. What inspired that?
MATT: That was another one that just came out that way and then it felt like it would make sense exactly. Everybody's going to experience all the songs differently than the way that I would experience 'Code Red' for instance - like I don't know if I could describe it to somebody. I could build another sub-story in the world in the song, but if I tried to describe it to somebody, they might not understand that. 'Slug' feels so of the world to me - and using slugs just felt like it tied into the strangeness and what I liked about it.
CDM: Did you have fun learning the choreography for the 'Slug' video?
MATT: I did have fun - a lot of fun, yeah.
CDM: So more dancing in your future?
MATT: I hope so. I love dancing. It's really hard though. We worked with the same choreographer on a Brockhampton thing that we did for 'Roadrunner', so it was fun to see him again and work together because he's so good. He has very abrupt and emotional movement ideas, that I think are really nice.
CDM: What is the man searching for in the 'Tracer' teaser video?
MATT: People. Like me.
CDM: Was it a deliberate decision to end the album with the lyrics: "I’ll never need another thing"? Does that feel representative of the album as a whole? Or as a closing statement?
MATT: I don't believe it would be a closing statement, but I think it was another note to myself - maybe I didn't mean for it to be like that - to be more present. Subconsciously, a lot of the stuff, I'll listen to it, or you will bring up something like that and I wouldn't have caught it. There's so many moments where I would listen back and then be like, 'Oh, that's what I was talking about,' or in-the-moment intention that even I'm learning two days later being like: 'Oh, I know exactly what I'm talking about.'
CDM: Have you started thinking about another album? Or what's next from here?
MATT: I want to feel that same thing from the Denver show, so I want to figure out how to put together a show that I really enjoy. I'm still figuring it out, but yeah, just how to bring the album into the live setting. And always, yeah there's little hints of what's coming in my head, but I think just focusing on a show now.
CDM: How linked or un-linked is your album to your written world?
MATT: There's a lot of that in the album but it wasn't supposed to be a theme - there are just hints of it everywhere throughout.
CDM: So it's not the soundtrack of the world?
MATT: No.
CDM: Would it be music that the characters listen to in the written world?
MATT: Maybe. It's also like painting the world. I don't know what view it's from. It's almost like a view from the net world of the world.
CDM: Why did you choose to share a written paragraph about the character Slint publicly?
MATT: The visual world showed a certain side and I also wanted to hint that there's a different side of the world. That isn't necessarily bringing you all the way into it, but it's giving you a window into what else the world is.
CDM: Ultimately, what's your goal here? You sent me both chapters of a book and also some scenes from a screenplay.
MATT: I don't really have a plan, I just enjoyed writing it. And I have it all here, which is the issue, so I want to get it out. I started writing in different styles just to test out ways to imagine it.
CDM: Are you writing a novel or something to be filmed?
MATT: It's such a new thing for me to write in that way that I don't know what would fit the best. I know I like writing in a more written book style because it gives them more space. I think I just need to write it out and give it space and see what it's like. I have no plan for it. It's just an exercise. And if it comes out; great. If not; I just had a fun time doing it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Photos by: Ashlan Grey
Styling & Grooming by: Tavia Bonetti
Matt wears in this shoot: Uniqlo, Friends With Animals, Brain Dead, vintage Christian Dior, Golden Goose.
Polaroids by: Coup De Main
Matt Champion's debut solo album 'Mika's Laundry' is out now.
Watch the 'Slug' music video below...
