10 Questions for Matt Flinner

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10 Questions for Matt Flinner
http://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/mandolins_001309.shtml

Matt Flinner pays us a visit and answers our questions in one of our exclusive Mandolin Cafe interviews.

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[drooartz]

Just wanted to say thanks for the great music and inspiration! I caught Matt's most recent Music Du Jour show in SLC recently, and it was a great night of music. A reminder to me that if they can write (and perform) good tunes every day, I should be able to turn out a least something more than once a year!

I had a chance to play a *tiny* bit with Matt at a house concert in Park City, UT a couple years ago (he joined us for one tune) -- and though I'm sure he doesn't remember it, it was a chance for me to meet one of my musical inspirations and something I'll always remember. It's silly, but I can say I traded fours with Matt Flinner.

If you haven't heard him, then you owe it to yourself to get out and do so.

-Drew Frink

[8strings]

Thank you so much Mandolincafe and Matt. What a great interview with one of my favourite mandolin players. Thanks also for the TAB of 'Halfmoon Dog'. What a fantastic tune. A video performance clip can be found on Youtube to make learning the piece a little easier. I just wish that Matt could be encouraged to star on an instructional/motivational DVD produced by the likes of Homespun or AcuTab.

[John McGann]

Great player, great guy, great interview, thanks!

[Stephen Cagle]

Great interview. I really enjoyed it. I love the little clips of them playing. Shows how Great a player he really is. Thanks!
Stephen

[lukmanohnz]

What a great interview! I bought Matt's All Star Bluegrass Jam for Mandolin. As a beginning mandolinist with years of guitar playing under my belt, this book-CD combo was a perfect fit for my needs. I am looking forward to hearing more of Matt's music.

[Aaron Woods]

What a great interview!

MF creates melodies that are so memorable yet fresh and non-cheesy. My favorite living composer.

aw

[John Hill]

Thanks for the interview. What I'm excited to see is the completed Real Bluegrass Fakebook Matt's finishing up, that should be great and I never heard about it until this interview.

[David Horovitz]

Excellent interview. Matt's one of my favorite mandolin players. His compositions are top-notch and he plays with a feeling that's both relaxed and intense at the same time. I'm glad to have seen him perform nearby on several occasions.

[Larry Howe]

Great interview. Anyone who listens to Matt knows how immensely talented he is. His technique is precise and his musical range is really quite something. A listen to Latitudes with electric quartet will surprise those who mostly know his acoustic work.

What isn't as obvious is his discipline. You don't get this good on talent alone. He puts a lot of dedication into both his playing and his composing. I had the pleasure of taking a master class with him, and I recommend it to anyone who has the chance. I learned a lot about discipline in 90 minutes--now if I only had the time to apply some of that knowledge. The Music du Jour project shows a really remarkable sense of disciplined craft that Matt, Eric, and Ross all collaborate on. There may be others out there, but I can't think of any another musician who challenges him or herself in the way that they do with the Music du Jour project. It takes me weeks to frame an idea for a tune, and it's sometimes months before the band gets around to it, and weeks more before we have a handle on it. So I'm in awe of the way that Matt, Ross, and Eric challenge themselves and the beautiful results they produce.

[Jordan Ramsey]

Brilliant interview! Big thanks to Matt and the Cafe.

[SincereCorgi]

I had the pleasure of taking a master class with him, and I recommend it to anyone who has the chance.

I second that- Matt's master class is the best I've ever taken; the handouts are so good that I wish there was a whole method book. He's just a cool, relaxed dude, too.

[Tbone]

Nice. Can't wait for his book of tunes to come out. I spent a lot of time on New Cimarron, fingers crossed that it's included!

[Nick Royal]

Matt comes to Santa Cruz (CA) around every other year or so, both for giving some lessons and doing concerts. He and those with him, have played some great music here.
Nick Royal

[Mike Romkey]

Interesting and inspiring interview. Thanks, Matt, for giving us lots to think about.

[j. condino]

"Saw the trio perform last night for $5 at Jack of the Woods; fantastic show!

[MandoNicity]

Great interview, with well thought out answers. Matt is fantastic!

JR

[Brent Hutto]

Saw the trio perform last night for $5 at Jack of the Woods; fantastic show!

I was there, too. Didn't make it in until around 10.00pm so I missed most of the first set. Sorry I didn't pick your face out the crowd or I'd have said hello.

[Ted Eschliman]

Absolutely love Matt Flinner's genius and his 2003 recording of "Walking on the Moon," still gets frequent rotation in my CD players, though I'm trying to get over how much his picture on the Cafe Front Page resembles Dwight Schrute from "The Office."
Great interview of a highly underrated artist.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Great Interview, great read.

[hank]

Matt's mandolin playing is a wonderful and refreshing break from the ordinary. What a brave and unique way to avoid the mundane with "The Music of the Day" approach to a set list. A truly amazingly talented and resourceful Trio. Again my hat is off to Scott and the Cafe for this caliber of content.

[Mandolin Cafe]

10 years ago today we published a Bill Graham article about Matt entitled Flinner's Made Fresh Daily. So long ago we didn't at that time have the capability of allowing comments on news items. Still a good read.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Noting the anniversary of this interview with Matt we did back in 2011.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Observing the anniversary of this fine interview with Matt.

[Bill Kammerzell]

Took some lessons from Matt at Ashokan last October. Great guy. A real artist. Purchased one of his "Trio" CD's and it's still playing on the Random CD player in my SUV.