By MacKenzie Reagan
Herndon transplant Crys Matthews brings her blues-tinged folk-rock stylings to Jammin’ Java Feb 28. We called her up to get the inside scoop on how she landed in NoVA and how she made music her full-time gig.
Tell me a little about how you got your start.
I was a freshman at Appalachian State University [in North Carolina]. My roommate at the time in the school of music played drums and was in a band, and she needed a keyboard player for the night. As music education majors, we have to be fairly proficient in most instruments, so I played keys fairly well, so I said, “OK, no problem, I’ll fill in.” We played this one random gig and had the absolute best, most phenomenal time. I’m a classically trained clarinetist, [but I thought] “This is so much fun.” I went home and took out my keyboard and wrote a song. A few weeks after that, we were having a campus talent show, and on a whim I thought I’d enter this one random song that I’ve written, just to see, and I won first place. I just kept writing and writing and realized it was easier to travel with a guitar than a keyboard, so I taught myself guitar and kept writing and performing and got to make this singer-songwriter thing a full-time gig.
You’re from North Carolina. When did you first come to Virginia?
I’ve lived in Herndon for about six years now. I moved to Virginia for love, and I’ve lived here ever since. I played a show up in D.C., and I saw this girl [my now-wife, Elizabeth] sitting there looking so sad, so I went over to her and tried to cheer her up. We just chatted briefly. She found my on Myspace after the fact. A couple months after that, I was playing in Stafford. Elizabeth came up to me after the show [and we hit it off]. A few months later, I need someone to watch my dog, and no one could do it, and Elizabeth [offered]. So I drove up from North Carolina to Virginia to my now-in-laws’ [to drop off my dog], and I’ve lived in Virginia ever since. We got married in 2013.
How would you describe your sound?
I like to say it’s a folk-blues fusion. It’s kind of like Tracy Chapman, but not quite so sad—I don’t have as many sad stories to tell. Kind of in that vein.
What themes do you write about?
I’m more of an organic songwriter—I don’t really follow prompts. I write about my day-to-day experiences, the state of the world. In the past couple of years, it has gotten very, very political in tone. [I’m influenced by] people like Chapman, Irma Thomas, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin.
You had a Kickstarter for your last album.
It’s great, because fans and friends and family help you reach your goals. Some people get awkward about crowdsourcing. On one hand, it’s really just people preordering your album, but a lot of people are more generous than that. They really believe in you; they believe in your message, in your music. So for people like that, it gives them an outlet to do more. Kickstarter is a cool resource because it gives a tangible way for [people] to help.
What do you want people to take away from your show?
As a songwriter, all I ever hope is that my music is reaching somebody. Maybe someone will hear a song about something like a Confederate flag and think about that a little bit differently than they did before, or [they’ll] hear a song about love and realize that song feels very personal and familiar to them, even though both of our loves look a little different from one another, but that feeling feels the exact same, something they can relate to. As a songwriter, that’s all any of us ever hope for.
Crys Matthews at Jammin’ Java
Feb 28, 7 p.m.
227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna
$15
