Matthew E. White on making albums, starting record labels, and beards

Hear the interview, then get tix to Matthew “E for Excellence” White’s show this Friday at the Broadberry!

November 12, 2015; 11:59 AM • by Susan Howson

Update #1 — November 12, 2015; 11:54 AM

NEVER FORGET! Matthew E. White is playing this Friday at the Broadberry at 9:00 PM, where you can maybe attempt to interview him yourself. Tickets must be gotten! Tomorrow their price goes up! Auughh!

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Original — October 21, 2015

Photo via: Spacebomb

Matthew E. White became somewhat of a phenom when his debut album, Big Inner, got a wildly difficult to achieve 8.1 rating from Pitchfork. Those frustrated music nerds really loved the hell out of this tall, bearded fellow who was largely just trying to get his new label off the ground.

Spacebomb, that very label, has gone onto release his second album, Fresh Blood, and Natalie Prass’s self-titled debut (an 8.8! Gasp!) among others. Richmond’s always been a big music town, but the fascinating rise of Spacebomb, with its unique house-band structure, has taken it to another level.

Plus, he’s a thoughtful guy with a ready smile, and you could talk to him all day, particularly if the conversation revolves around sports.

Matt and RVANews go way, way back. He was one of the original team of writers and idea-generators who worked for almost literally nothing. He came up with the concept for 5 Things, was the first of us to go to cover the Rams in the A-10 tournament, and organized some big event that we all just sort of vaguely remember, but that we know involved No BS! Brass Band.

In this conversation–which was recorded via iPhone due to a last-minute glitch with our better microphone (sorry)–we tried to keep Memory Lane detours to a minimum and focus instead on where Spacebomb came from, what the Richmond music scene was like when it began, and the process of making albums as sort of an accidental touring musician.

But we also got some beard questions in there, don’t worry.

Matthew E. White plays The Broadberry (right here in Richmond) on Friday, November 13th–$12 in advance / $14 day of show. Get your tickets now, it’s his last show of the year!