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| downtowncrowd.com
Photo courtesy of Matisyahu
Matisyahu
Talks Music Career, Touring & Cultural Identity by Nicole Willis
widely for tracks such as King Without a Crown and One Day. Born Matthew Paul Miller, Matisyahu is Miller’s stage name under which he has built a lengthy career spanning multiple genres.
Matisyahu is most known for his fusion of reggae, hip-hop and rock sounds that create a distinctly bold style unique to him. For nearly two decades, he’s kept his creative spirit aflame by evolving his sound, melding genres and testing the limits of the musical traditions that have inspired him. He outwardly embraces both the spirit of reggae and his roots in Judaism through his lyricism and music. Many of Matisyahu’s songs explore spiritual themes, drawn from his own spiritual experiences growing up in and around Jewish culture. Dowtown Crowd had the opportunity to catch up with Matisyahu and talk about his upcoming tour in support of his forthcoming EP, Hold The Fire, which is set to be released on February 2. Matisyahu will kick off his latest tour at Vinyl Music Hall in downtown Pensacola on January 31. Tickets start at $33.50 and can be purchased online at vinylmusichall.com. To learn more about Matisyahu and his work, check out @Matisyahu on Facebook and Instagram. DTC: You have experimented with a variety of genres throughout your career. What artists or specific influences have helped to inspire you and your music? Matisyahu: At the current moment, the music most inspiring to me has been Afropop artists. Black Sheriff has been an influential artist for me over the last couple of years in terms of some of the music that I’m going to be releasing now. In terms of live music, Phish is always one of my top inspirations. They’re one of the only bands that I actually go watch for fun. In terms of other inspiration, I mean, what’s going on
right now. Israel is pretty inspirational in the sense that it’s important and affects my music in the sense that my Jewish identity kind of brings me back to the beginning of my career. DTC: Can you tell me more about the origin of your name? Matisyahu: Matisyahu is the character in the story of Hanukkah. He is the high priest and has a family of sons called the Maccabee soldiers. They are led by Judah Maccabee and defeat the Syrian army, which infiltrated Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and fought off the destruction for a few more years until the Second Temple was destroyed. So yeah, it’s [the name of] a biblical character. Photo by Juliana Ronderos
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atisyahu is a reggae, hip-hop and alternative artist known
