SplatterTribe: Tell us a little about yourself and tell us how ELYRYS came about.

Matt: My name is Matt Sargent. I'm 27. I've got a beautiful wife and 3 awesome kids. I make a living as a butcher.

When I was 18 my dad died. After writing a song about the regrets I had in the way I treated him it came time to give it a title...so I named it LRS which are his initials. Later I spelled it out into a word and it became Elyrys. When I became a Christian I quit the band that I was in and about 7 yrs. later I took that song's title as the name of my 1 man band.
 

 

SplatterTribe: I see that your married, kids, as I too am, tell me the difficulties a musician has trying to balance work/family/music/photographer(?)

Matt: I work 40 hours a week so I write lyrics at work. I record in a closet after the kids go to bed....as a 1 man band I can't gig so I don't really have to worry about making time for that. My main problem is spending too much time in my "wish I was a studio" closet.
 

 

SplatterTribe: As I now consider myself a fan, I was wondering if you could give us a little insight into your music. TOGETHER and REVIVE, both very laid back and very easy to listen to, give us a little more?

Matt: Together's lyrics were written by my brother-in-law during a tough time with his wife it was his first and last attempt at writing...he died soon after.

Revive was written in 2 parts. The first is about a writer's block and the second is about living without Christ.
 

 

SplatterTribe:  And POWER CORRUPTS, what's your other than obvious message?

Matt: That song came about when I learned about the relationships between drug companies, media, and the government. I was fired up about the Gardasil vaccine which is killing young girls or resulting in Oxycontin regimens which is absurd and they're lobbying to make it mandatory for school and for boys.
 

SplatterTribe:  I read a small comment you posted, "People too weak to follow their own dreams will find a way to discourage yours", true experience that you've dealt with?

Matt: No. that was a copy/paste that applied to a problem that my wife was dealing with.
 

 

SplatterTribe: As I commented in my opening, the "crunch", tell me your keeping it when you get big, because I'm telling you, I'm a little tired of what seems to have been replaced with a very non low end barrage of double bass.

Matt: Ha. I don't know how big I'll get but I've recently found a sound that I really like. I used to think that my guitar tracks had to be all over the place Petrucci style (not that I'm that good) but I took some advice from my wife and my brother-in-law and calmed down a bit and it's working well for me.
 

SplatterTribe: Being the sole member of the band- how does your writing/composition process begin? What I mean is do you have a method you use or is each song its own experience?

Matt: Last Christmas my uncle bought me a Tascam DP02 bundle and I bought a drum machine. It used to be that each song was born with guitar and vocals then built on, but now I blindly put the drums together as it's own identity then the tracks generally go : guitar, bass, 2nd guitar, vocals, back-up, solos. mix & master burn.
 

SplatterTribe:  This is why I love independent music, its Honesty, not having a label telling you "don't say/sing that" to keep the politically correct values intact that this society seems to regard so highly. Do you find your music influenced by your freedom to do so?

Matt: Absolutely. I've been complaining about this for as long as I've been making music.
 

SplatterTribe: As a fellow southerner, I have always been curious about bands that you and I both grew up listening to, and people not from the south not knowing who were talking about, Dream Theater, Mr. Big, Faith No More, all very non mainstream, and yet very influential in your music, tell us who it is that made you want to become a musician.

Matt: My dad taught me how to play guitar when I was 8. He gave me my first guitar when I was like 4, an old classical Silvertone and I got serious when I was about 11. The first tape I ever had was infinity by Journey when I was 8. At that time it was the first 4 Metallica albums, Iron Maiden, Bad company, and endless classic rock, Which is now oldies. Later was Bela Fleck, Radiohead, muse, Jethro Tull, anything Mike Patton, Dream Theater, jazz, and all the virtuosos.
 

SplatterTribe: I see your a man of faith, how do your beliefs and morals influence your music and do you find it "off-putting" to others who just will not listen to good music- regardless if you subscribe to that particular belief or not?

Matt: I actually did an experiment the other day. since around January I had around 19,000 plays so I stopped pushing my latest demo and talked about Jesus instead. Now I'm getting about 10-20 plays daily. It definitely set me back in the American popularity contest. It's sad to see how ignorant people are.
 

SplatterTribe: When are we going to have a purchasable copy of your music, and where can the fans get it???

Matt: Who knows... that's up to whoever is willing to invest allot of money into Elyrys. I'm busy paying bills now.
 

SplatterTribe:  As always, my last question is reserved for you, tell us what you want us to hear, we don't censor, so please feel free to speak your mind, rant, rave, whatever, we here at SplatterTribe love all points and views.

Matt: My hope is that everyone would seek truth and the only source is in God's word THE BIBLE, Jesus Christ. Just because you don't like it doesn't change the fact that it's true, real, yesterday, today, and forever.