HIGHLY RECOMMENDED W/ MATTHEW FREDERICK
* Providing the A's to the 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Q's today is Matthew Frederick — a singer-songer out of the UK who recently dropped a lovely album called ‘Fragments’ (and you can catch the album track ‘Dust Cloud’ on the HI54 Mix CD ‘DO YOU ¿ YOGA’).
#1 - WHAT IS THE ONE ALBUM (OR EP OR SONG) THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE THE VERY NEXT MUSICAL THING THAT EVERYONE PRESSES PLAY ON THE NEXT TIME THEY FIND THEMSELVES THINKING “WHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NOW”?
Ideally, it would be ‘Fragments’ by Matthew Frederick, but assuming that you can’t nominate your own album, I’ll go for Erin Rae’s ‘Putting On Airs’, which I’ve been listening to quite a bit on the record player in the kitchen over the last couple of months.
It’s an absolutely beautiful album, and probably the soundtrack to my 2020 so far – although it came out in 2018, so I’m a couple of years behind...
#2 - WHAT IS THE ONE MOVIE OR TV SHOW THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE NEXT IN EVERYBODY’S NETFLIX QUEUE (OK, DOESN’T HAVE TO BE NETFLIX, WE’RE ALL INTERNET ADULTS HERE AND KNOW HOW TO FIND ANYTHING ONLINE, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER)?
I’ve never been much of an avid film-watcher, so I’m using Lockdown to catch up on some of the big-hitters that I’ve somehow managed to avoid (think ‘Goodfellas’, ‘The Godfather’ and the like). However, I stumbled across the 2015 film ‘Room’ – not to be confused with last year’s ‘The Room’ – a couple of weeks ago on Amazon Prime (free trial) and it’s the best film I’ve seen for a good couple of years.
It’s not often I recommend films, but this one is definitely worth a watch, and based on a true story, which always adds an extra dimension, I think.
#3. I (AND BY “I” I MEAN “THE PERSON THAT IS READING THIS”) AM GOING TO THE LOCAL BOOK STORE (OK, MAYBE THE LOCAL LIBRARY FIRST) TO FIND THE VERY NEXT BOOK THAT I WILL BE PUTTING SOME EXTREMELY VALUABLE ‘ME-TIME' ASIDE FOR. WHICH BOOK WOULD YOU GET, IF YOU WERE ME (AND, I SUPPOSE, YOU HADN’T ALREADY READ WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO SUGGEST)?
Speaking of true stories, I tend to find myself reading autobiographies, journals and travelogues rather than fiction these days. I’m currently on the final chapter of Adam Kay’s ‘This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor’, which is hilarious, heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, and am about to move on to Raynor Winn’s ‘The Salt Path’, which I’ve borrowed from a friend who recommends it very highly, so if you don’t like it, blame her.
#4 - WHAT IS THE ONE WEBSITE (OR JUST ANY OLD INTERNET THING: APP, GIF, SERVICE, WHATEVER) THAT YOU WOULD GET REALLY DOWN IN THE DUMPS ABOUT IF IT WERE TO SUDDENLY GO AWAY?
If it didn’t play such an integral role in the way artists communicate with their fanbase, I’d happily live in a world without social media. However, I often get sad when I think about the rapid decline of Myspace. And MSN Messenger, come to think of it. I was at just the right age to fully appreciate both, in what seemed like a slightly more innocent age in the development of the internet.
MSN Messenger has long gone, but I managed to find my old Myspace profile recently, still captured in time in the graveyard of the internet.
#5 - AND FINALLY… PLEASE GIVE ONE COMPLETELY UNAIDED RECOMMENDATION THAT YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD START DOING / USING / WATCHING / EATING / THINKING / QUITTING / ETC-ING TO MAKE THEIR LIVES A LITTLE BIT MORE BETTER AND/OR BEARABLE.
I’ve recently dug out my Mother’s old typewriter, so have been playing about with that for the last couple of days. I’m a big fan of obsolete technology in general (at one point I owned ten record players, although I think I’m down to about seven or eight now), which probably explains why I put out my recent album on tape, and much like the satisfying whirl of a cassette, or the warming crackle of a record, I’ve really missed the thump and clatter of an old typewriter.
It also adds an air of professionalism to your writing, even if it’s absolute gibberish.
OK folks, there you have it. Things that Matthew Frederick thinks you should consider incorporating into your day/life. Before you log off and go try tweeting from a typewriter, make sure to follow Matthew on the Facebook / Instagram / Twitter and then also give ‘Dust Cloud’ a listen below…
