Matthew 10 men interview

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Interview 10 MEN

MATTALEXANDER !

Gina Laamaim

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HE IS SO MORROCAN-ROLL Matt Alexander is a half British half Moroccan singer/songwriter who is taking Newcastle by storm with his musical talents. I had the pleasure of his company and in this interview he reveals all.

I met up with Matt in a cool, swanky Coffee Shop in an alley way in an arty part of Town.

Very rock & roll.

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GINA LAAMAIM: “How do you take your Coffee? Black? White? Naughty?”

MATT ALEXANDER: “To be honest I prefer my Coffee with a kick. Definitely naughty.

(Whilst Matt was answering this question he pulled out a hip flask, Silver, the name Katie engraved on it.”

GINA LAAMAIM: “What kind of Guitar is that?”

MATT ALEXANDER: Yamaha CPX 500, I got her from a mate of mine who also plays

Guitar, Paid him £200 for the beauty.”

GINA LAAMAIM: “When did you start playing the Guitar.”

MATT ALEXANDER: “Many moons ago (he chortled to himself) I was 17, unsure of what I

wanted to do with my life but knew I adored music, all different types, Rock, Indie, Hip-Hop. My mother brought us listening to Motown, she would listen to Aretha [Franklin] whilst doing the cleaning.

GINA LAAMAIM: “Did you have any lessons?”

MATT ALEXANDER: “I had 1 lesson, would not call it a lesson though, my teacher was an

absolute ‘doosh’ (‘doosh’ means fool, twat, bit of a prick) he only taught me 1 chord, he was useless and uninspiring, just say that I said I taught myself, because I basically did.”

GINA LAAMAIM: “What chord did the ‘doosh’ teach you?”

MATT ALEXANDER: A7 I think (Matt demonstrated what an a7 chord sounded like) he

looked like a retired, bored music teacher clinging on to a hobby which died years ago.”

GINA LAAMAIM: “So you taught yourself all the other chords? Exactly how many do you know?”

Gina Laamaim

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MATT ALEXANDER: “I am quite embarrassed to say …”

GINA LAAMAIM: “Why? Do you know a lot?”

MATT ALEXANDER: (Matt lets out a loud laugh) “No I don’t know loads just enough to get

by. Root chords, power chords, I play chords people have not even heard, I make up my own chords, if it sounds good then who’s to say it isn’t a chord?”

GINA LAAMAIM: “You currently gig at weekends in a band called Zephyr, what’s the usual track list?”

MATT ALEXANDER: “We do songs from the Rolling Stones, Muse, songs which get people

up and rocking!”

GINA LAAMAIM: “You gig at some really nice country pubs.I’ve been to a gig where you have played and I left wasted and slightly deaf. Do you ever get complaints or do you change your style of music?”

MATT ALEXANDER: [laughs] Yes, you were wasted Gina! Not really, but sometimes there is

little kids in the pubs, and there staring up at me, so I try my hardest and refrain from saying ‘fuck’ a lot.

GINA LAAMAIM: “That is an interesting piece of Jewellery around your neck. What kind of necklace is that?”

MATT ALEXANDER: “It is a Celtic cross and its purpose is to protect me from the daemons

that hunt me down. (Think that third Irish coffee is kicking in).

GINA LAAMAIM: “Oh Ireland is lovely, why were you visiting?”

MATT ALEXANDER: “Celebrating St Paddy’s day, I never miss it! My girlfriend is Irish too,

but she lives in Newcastle with me. Every now and then we go to Ireland to visit her folks and have a good piss up!”

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Gina Laamaim

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EDITORIAL ANALYSIS 10 MEN !

10 MEN magazine is an über cool, edgy fashion publication. It has a sister publication called 10. 10 MENS’ target audience is men 40+. All the advertisements have male models showcasing high end designer clothing as a posed to female orientated publications like Vogue who advertise using female models. The editor, Anthony Miles’ letter appears in the magazine 25-30 pages in to the publication. Bad words are not frowned upon in this publication, the editors letter is the first introduction of text to the reader and the opening sentence is “Thank fuck the holidays are over and it’s back to work” also Anthony Miles talks about his sexuality … “The theme of this issue is youth.

And don’t get any ideas, i’m not into young. I like MEN, not boys”.

10 MEN has a clean and simple layout, they follow a three grid system and they have a black and white rule with a large margin. The font is very bold and stands out, it is always either black on white or white on black. Very clean and crisp, very simplistic and minimal, compared to company magazine or any of the glossy high street mags it is the opposite. 10 MEN lets the articles do all the talking and compliments them with very high quality, real, photography.

This publication, since working with men, do not need to overly photoshop, the photography looks as though it has been touched up a little bit however they do not look as though they have made a model larger or smaller or changed a persons skin tone, which other magazines do. A lot. The photography is also very cool, imagery no bright colours or tones, very easy on the eye.

The contents page is 30-35 pages in and is dedicated to one page which has 10 CONTENTS at the top of the page and the page number accompanied with TEN MEN alongside it. There are a few photographs linked to articles in the publication. The contents page starts off with the page number that the editors letter is on, it never starts at 1 due to the advertisements in between.

The articles are always by different writers and are always very well written with an interesting story to tell. 10 MEN articles usually have a witty headline summarising the article with a black box containing white text as an

Gina Laamaim

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Gina Laamaim

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Gina Laamaim