Tallest Man on Earth

Proof that Swedish singer/songwriter Kristian “The Tallest Man on Earth” Matsson is the New Big Deal in music is everywhere, big and bright - tallest proof on earth. Matsson is all suddenly all over the major blogs and websites - videos, album reviews, downloads, news, discussion board bickering. All that. Go to his record label’s website - www.deadoceans.com - and TMoE and his excellent sophomore record, The Wild Hunt, are plastered everywhere you look. 

Remember Bon Iver’s small-to-huge magic trick a couple of years ago? Same thing happening here. Try to set up an interview with the Tall Man, who was virtually unknown just three months ago, and you’ll have trouble. Not because he doesn’t want to talk to American journalists, but because every American journalist wants to talk to the him. The new enigma in town.

I was lucky. Dead Oceans (and Indiana-based label, mind you) scheduled me in for a phoner with Matsson, who was in New York City playing shows at the time. But this was no normal interview. Not only was a press agent on the line, monitoring our every word, but I was briefed beforehand. I was informed, for example, that I was not to mention the name Bob Dylan.

Shucks. My first question, no joke, was going to be about Dylan. Not because I wanted to talk Dylan, who Matsson is often compared to, but because I wanted to try to prompt Matsson to tell me how tired he is of journalists mentioning The Greatest Songwriter on Earth (Dylan).

Truth is, I don’t much care for the likening of early Dylan to Matsson’s first two records. I mean, I get it, but it’s dull talk. To see Matsson on stage - painfully thin (yet not at all tall) with big hair, a tight collared shirt, a big guitar and big presence - is to instantly think of the young, sly Dylan. And to hear how he writes and arranges his songs, at least thus far, is to think of Dylan. Sure thing.

But, for me, that’s where it ends. Matsson’s songs are certainly well written in a folk style, but he doesn’t have Dylan’s Advice-For-the-World ego. Also, Matsson sings and plays guitar much better than a pre-1965 Dylan, The Wild Hunt a more consistent record than anything Dylan did up until Bringing It All Back Home. Both men sound(ed) bigger and wiser beyond their years than anyone else of their time, and thus the boring comparisons.

But enough about Dylan, we’re Talkin’ New Dylan, part 30. We’re talking about the hottest songwriter on the planet at the moment, hyperbole be damned. Kid is good.

Was I excited about interviewing the Tall Kid? Absolutely. Is there a reason that this story doesn’t yet feature a single quote from said interview? Surely.

Here’s the thing: when you put three people (me, TMoE and Press Agent Spy) from three different places with three different accents (and maybe three different cell phone providers) on a conference call … well … it’s hard to hear anything clearly. Also, Matsson is still new to this interview thing, and thus, he’s very careful and protective with words and explanations. Lots of starting and stopping and thinking, which doesn’t work well on cell phone conference calls. A man breaking into the world.

Luckily, I was able to pull out a few bits of info that help paint a stronger picture of the still mysterious 27-year-old artist. For starters, he explained his feelings for New York City, a place with exactly 552 times the population of his hometown of Dalarna. Exactly.

“I’ve been here a bunch of times now over the last couple of years,” he tells me. “My feelings go up and down for it. At first I loved it, but I guess I’ve spent too much time here. It kind of makes me want to get back to the countryside. But I am enjoying it this time.”

Coming from such a small, buried place as Dalarna isn’t easy. Not when your goal is to reach a wide audience. When I ask Matsson about his being “discovered” by American audiences (and thus eventually the rest of the modern music world), he seems somewhat apathetic. He at first makes a joke about it being a very romantic story, then recants. There’s no romance in record deals.

“It’s boring, maybe, to explain,” he says. “Bon Iver and I have the same booking agent. He listened to my first album and thought it was okay or something, and so we toured together.

“And I guess that tour did a whole lot for me. Going around with him, doing sold out shows in nice theaters, was big. I got a lot for free through that,” Matsson explained, still sounding largely indifferent through the conference call fuzz. “Everyone loved Bon Iver, so when I had my own headline tour after that, I had a great tour. There were a lot of people at those shows who saw me on the Bon Iver tour.”

And, soon enough, Matsson found himself with an American record deal with one of the biggest, bestest indie music labels in the world, Dead Oceans.

“[Me and the Dead Oceans guys] just started to talk. Not about record deals or anything,” he mumbles, stating and stopping. Thinking. “We talked for a long time over a year or so.”

Eventually Matsson made his way back to Dalarna, Sweeden, where he would eventually create one of 2010’s most talked about and loved records, The Wild Hunt.

“There’s not much happening in Dalarna at all. The region is very small,” Tall Man said when asked about his hometown. “The biggest nearby city has maybe 50,000 people and the town I’m from has maybe 15,000. So there’s not much going on at all. There aren’t many venues. But where I’m from and why I live there is all about nature. Rolling hills and lakes.”

Doesn’t really sound like the kind of place where giants are born and bred.

“I don’t know. As a kid I loved to whistle,” Matsson said when asked about his history with music. “We had instruments laying around all around the house. My mother played guitar and piano, and I just made noises, I guess.

“Then, when I went to school, I took guitar class. I wasn’t that good back then. When I was 13 or something I started playing in bands. In my early 20s I got into Nick Drake and people like that. I found people who could really play guitar.”

Hey you! Don’t you dare mention Nick Drake!

Kidding. But, really, most artists new to the national scene tend to be very careful when talking about their influences. This in mind, before my 15 minutes are up and Matsson is on to talking to the next writer, I ask him if there are any songwriters or bands he’s into these days.

“Oh, no. Not really,” he says at first. “I really like Nurses, who I’m out on tour with now. I was obsessed with them when I heard their new album last year. So I was really happy when they said they’d come out on tour with me.

Lastly, I ask Matsson about his plan for his sound, which has thus far been very simple. Guitar-and-voice, for the most part.

“I’m happy with how I’m doing things right now. But I try not to plan too much,” he quickly tells me. “I have ideas for things, but I just have to focus on what’s going on right now. I have to focus on playing good shows right now.”

And, with a blast of static fuzz, he’s gone. Off to conquer a Dylan-less world. The great new songwriter.

Written by G. William Locke