Matthew Smith on Art, Sound Museum & plans for the future

InterviewsWritten by Daniel Aagentah on

One guy bringing so much exposure to the scene. Visual artist & Label owner Matthew Smith tells us all about his journey so far.

So you’ve done a bunch of artwork for the scene and it’s really impressive, how long have you been creating visuals?

“Hey thanks man! I’ve been making visual art for about 9 years now, ive been in the industry for 2-3 years now“

How did you get to where you are now?

“Well I guess it honestly really started the summer I got in touch with the owner of Saturate (Bios) he needed a ride to Shambhala and I told him id take him there and back, after the festival some time went by and I sent him some tunes, he enjoyed the style but he was more intrigued by my artwork. After that I started doing the Mondaze artwork and wow that was my first really big opportunity at one of my favourite labels its crazy to think how far ive come since then. I will always be thankful to him for picking me up honestly love you tom. After a season or so of doing the Mondaze artwork my homie Crimes hit me up one day and asked if I wanted to do his 20/20 LDN EP art. Big up chris. But yeah that was the first solo album art I ever did which was so legendary for the first one ever!“

“But yeah that’s when I got in touch with Ivy Lab and most of the 20/20 crew over the past year or so and have done tour posters and things like that for Shield & Fixate. After that I got to do the album art for the last ever Mark Instinct album out on saturate that was so sick being able to work with mark he’s one of the dopest dudes I've ever met! After that crimes had another release he got me to do art for on vandal a really tight label out in France, love those dudes. After that I got in touch with digital ethos and we have been developing a new concept over the last 3-5 months for merch, new logo and stuff like that, so that will be coming soon! “

“Next i did art for Holly/Chee/Crimes/Yunis on LA90, that tune was honestly fun to watch being made from start to finish it was interesting how the 4 of them co produced it. Anyway though, after that I got in touch with Sleeper (the owner of Crucial Recordings) in the UK and have been doing small things like podcast art and I got to do the artwork for hebbe’s vinyl on there which was sick big up to the crucial team for picking me up! And now most recently I got onto Slit jockey a label ran by Starkey and Dev79 to do art for Korostyle. But yeah that’s a very quick snapshot of how I got to where I am.“

You’re creative style is quite glitchy, what kind of programs/techniques do you use for this?

“Thank you! I use a mix of processing and Photoshop nothing to crazy, it’s not what you got its how you use it!“

I suppose this bodes well with the fact that you are co-running Sound Museum. What plans do you guys have for the label in the future?

“Yeah honestly ive been developing the idea of museum for the past 3 years and when tom hit me up to start it I already had thousands of ideas stacked away so it worked out my ideas meshing well with his and then we got Marc on to help with the design side and motion graphics and curating it, but yeah between me, Bios and Marc we have quite a far reach into all parts of the scene so us working together just made sense from the get go.“

“We have so much planned its not even funny...“

“Things I can talk about though are the compilation coming in September that no one is even ready for ?? I’m mad stoked for that to start rolling out ive asked quite a few bigger producers to come and release on the comp along side our roster of artists that have released so far.“

“As well our 1 year anniversary is coming up and we have one big artist dropping an EP for that so stay tuned on that as well! Next up for Sound Museum we have Abstrakt Sonance and Colt Cuts dropping a magnificent ep so stoked to unveil that to you guys soon!“

What are your favourite recent halftime/beats tracks?

  • Oh man this is gunna be a tough one there is way too many!
  • New Ivy lab LP is bonkers I enjoy the whole thing couldn’t give you one fav out of it
  • New Shades LP is amazing
  • Razat’s release on Saturate, that just came out is so sick I’m excited to get my vinyl!
  • New Noer the boy on Division is pretty wild too
  • The new Little Snake on Brainfeeder is wild i’ve heard the whole thing live definitely some wild tunes on there
  • New Mad Zach on alpha pup is wild shit I love zach’s music
  • Oh and Ive had a glimpse of Nohidea’s new release coming out on Alpha Pup... no one is ready for that either
  • Rendah Mag is a creative UK-based outlet, primarily focused on exploring the nexus of experimental music, art, and technology.

    Explore what we offer through our Subscription