Matt FX, DJ / Producer / TV Host / Music Supervisor
Matt FX, DJ / Producer / TV Host / Music Supervisor
💭 Thoughts on Shep Gordon, e-biking across the city, and Jeremy Allen White’s Calvin Klein ad.
Thought Enthusiast is an AdHoc Project where we chat with fascinating thought leaders across various facets of music, tech, and culture whose work we admire, simply asking “what’s on your mind?” and “why do you care?” 💭
Matt FX is a born and raised New Yorker, known to many as a DJ and record producer, some as a food personality (Food Network, VICE News, etc) and others as the music supervisor of the seminal 2010's comedy Broad City.
🎯 Current focus
I'm one of those idiots who chose to weaponize every hobby into a different facet of their career, so sometimes it can be a bit difficult for me to distinguish between the two. That said, for the last couple years I've been working on two very different projects that I truly believe might just see the light of day in 2024!!!
The first one up is my debut full length album as Matt FX - something of an 11 track dreamworld odyssey grounded in my reflection of 4x4 dance music, made here in the city as well as on trips upstate to my production partner's studio in Highland, New York.
Secondly - I've been developing a new hybrid food / talk show and we just recently locked in our pitching team, including an extremely exciting executive producer. I wish I could say more, but unfortunately it's still quite early in the pilot stage!
🪩 Mexican Dark Disco / Indie Dance
This is kind of cheating as it's more of a scene than a song, but I just got back from Mexico and the deeper I get into the world of Mexican Dark Disco / Indie Dance, the further and further I fall in love with an extremely special period of dance music that I don't think enough people outside of the region know about.
Let me start by saying that I am by no means an actual authority on this and that my knowledge is certainly in no way definitive.
That said, for the last 15 or so years, the folks down there have been releasing a truly incredible breadth of music with SUCH an iconic sound; think italo disco but dirtier, trading that classic italian vocal cheese for a snarlier spanish punk irreverence without losing any of italo's signature cheek, with sequenced and arpeggiated basslines on a 1-4-5 blues scale, flashes of synth madness that call to mind the most deranged accordions-gone-techno, and even occasional moments of middle eastern influence that I would argue are as authentic to Mexico's musical fabric as the Lebanese-imported al pastor is to their culinary tradition.
A few tracks that have blown my mind over the past couple years:
Dan Solo - El Ojo que todo lo ve
Theus Mago, Mijo, Rocco Desentis - Pebbles Mind Horrors
El Columpio Asesino - Toro (Andre VII Remix)
Alejandro Paz - Duro <- this one is technically cheating as he's from Chile but honestly I'm pretty sure this sound has touched the entirety of Latin America in one way or another.
📺 Only Connect
My favorite show right now is Only Connect, because they finally put new episodes back up on youtube. This is, unequivocally, the most difficult and esoteric trivia show of all time. Yes, it's from the UK, and yes, 1/4 of the questions are indiscernibly British, but right when you think it'll be a UK based answer is when you'll be mortified to find out it was actually “US States in the Pacific Northwest descending from Washington.”
✍️ Brangelina Fanfiction
Honestly, the lyrics for the song “Brangelina Fanfiction” by Fiona Fiasco & Melodiesinfonie are pretty much the only mantra I think anyone in this modern life could possibly ever need.
🐐 Shep Gordon the legend
This is again quite broad, but anyone who knows me knows how much I look up to Shep Gordon, who is an absolute trailblazer in the world of music, film, and food. God, what a legend.
(If you don't know who that is - I BEG YOU - do not google his name and instead just rent the documentary Supermensch. Don't even read the synopsis. The blinder the better. enjoy!)
🧳 Traveling around Southeast Asia
So.. I am currently working on pulling off a very ambitious Spring Asia DJ tour, likely by the skin of my teeth.
I have both a reason to go, and a reason to stay: a dear friend of mine is getting married in India at the end of February, and my mother is returning to China for the first time in years at the top of April.
So, my girlfriend and I are attempting to spend March bumming around SE Asia, visiting a bunch of places that have been on our dream list - and a big part of making it possible is hopefully finding the gigs that will help subsidize it. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, maybe Indonesia or the Phillipines, definitely Mainland China.. what an absolute dream if we can manage to pull it off!
That said, we're leaving in a week and we've literally only booked a single flight so far. I don't even have a working passport at the moment - my last one conveniently expired last week. Definitely going to be one of these trips where we're flying by the seat of our pants... terrifying.
Anyway, if you're reading this and know someone in the region I should get in touch with…
🫦 Jeremy Allen White’s Calvin Klein ad
JEREMY ALLEN WHITE BABY!!! When was the last time everyone got so worked up over someone who actually and truly deserved it? I suppose that's a bit subjective - I'm a big fan.
🚲 E-biking across the city with a basket full of stuff
I’m a big fan of going long distances (bushwick to grand central for instance) on the ebike with a ton of stuff (suitcase or giant bags etc) bungee corded to the basket... you can do anything with a bungee cord and a dream!!!