Since they first burst onto the music scene in 2014 dance music collective Mashd N Kutcher have released a steady stream of singles and been a popular act always guaranteed to bring a party vibe.
Now the band is heading into a new era with new single Across the Tracks, and their debut album is waiting in the wings. The new music comes after founder Matt James shared in 2023 that he’d been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
OUTinPerth’s Graeme Watson caught up with Matt James to hear more about the group’s latest adventures, challenges and triumphs.
Mashd N Kutcher has been around for a long time, so I was surprised to discover this will be your first album.
Over the past few years of the project we’ve put out a lot of remixes, and we’re kind of known for remixing things and putting a spin on songs people already know.
This felt like a really good time to step up and move into that world of putting out our own album, and putting out some original music, the time felt right for that.
Do you take a different approach when putting together music which you have to make from scratch?
Over the years I’ve heard a lot of really well known artists talk about ‘finding your sound’ and I heard people say that and never really understood how to do that myself.
It’s been discovering that and just listening to myself and figuring out what I can bring as a perspective, and a fresh take on things based on, I guess my lived experiences, and all the music that’s imprinted on me over the years.
Growing up I was someone who listened to a lot of different music. I was into everything from classic rock to hip hop to disco. I’m like an open book when it comes to music, so I guess the music on the album is a bit of a melting pot of that, packaged into a high energy dance record.
Whenever my Mum would give me some pocket money I’d be down at K-Mart or Big W on the weekend buying the latest album. I bought all sorts of stuff, I’d be getting Regurgitator but also Britney Spears and Aqua, and all sorts of fun stuff.
When you’re walking through the world are you constantly hearing sounds and thinking “I can use that”.
It’s a bit of a blessing and a curse that one. I grew up studying classical music and music theory all through my childhood years. So I’ve got a very analytical brain when it comes to music, so I hear sounds and music in almost everything.
It’s especially frustrating when I’m in a big shopping centre because when I walk out of a shop and into the mall I hear both songs that are playing at the same time, and my brain will start doing the maths on how to remix them together. It’s an interesting thing to have going on in your head, but sometimes silence would be lovely.
Across the Tracks is our first taste of the upcoming album, is it a reflection of the sound we’ll hear across the record?
It’s the first single of the record, and we’ve got a bunch of singles coming off the album very soon.
Across the Tracks is a lot of fun. It’s about that mindset of being in your town and having ambition and wanting to break out of that and sort of make across the tracks, to the big smoke, the big time.
I think a lot of people can take their own thing from that in their own way. It’s a motivator, it fires you up.
When you were growing up what was your ambition?
I think I just wanted to create, I just wanted to make things. I’m the kind of person who has always just wanted to reach for big ideas, and I was always motivated to just do things that I hadn’t seen other people do.
Music has always been my outlet for that, for some people its technology, for others its engineering, for me its always been music. I’m always trying to do things that I haven’t heard of other people doing before.
Last year you shared your health challenges after you were diagnosed with the rare and incurable multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. What effect has that had on your musical output?
I’m an open book when it comes to what I’ve gone through with my health, I think music has really given me something to lean into and focus on, and something that has been a real motivator for me, it’s positive and it’s fun.
The music you’ll hear on this album is a reflection of my mindset during that process. It’s my outlet, it’s fun, it’s high energy music. I’m not making down tempo.
I’ve got to say I wondered if there was a secret ambient album that you made at the same time.
I’m not making down tempo, and for want of a better word, sad songs, because that’s not where my head space is at.
I am a pretty relentless person, so I feel like I always tend to do my best when my back’s against the wall. And for me, the health challenge is no different, in a completely different type of challenge.
I don’t know how it works, but I think you know, when my back’s against the wall, I do good things, and if I share that with other people, hopefully, if people are going through some shit times as well, then it might just help them dig deep and find the same energy as well.
I’m in the process of learning the fine art of focusing on only what’s within your control and and letting go of the things that are out of your control. I’ve had close friends and people say that to me over the years, but I’ve never, it’s never really sunk in.
I think now having essentially a life threatening health situation and the gravity of that, it’s really taught me to focus on what I can control. And for me, that’s music.
How does it feel knowing that soon people will get to hear all this music you’ve been working on?
I’m really excited for people to hear it. It’s like buying someone a really cool birthday present or Christmas present and having it, and you know that it’s going to be an awesome thing to give it to them, and they don’t know about it yet. That’s kind of cool.
Music is subjective, so I really love these records, but it’s high energy dance stuff. I know that’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
Across the Tracks is available now.
