Story & Lesson Highlights with Matthew Parisi of Brighton (UK)

We recently had the chance to connect with Matthew Parisi and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Integrity… every time. I’ve met plenty of intelligent people who do stupid things and often with a lot of energy. I’d rather surround myself with people with integrity. Even if they believe strongly about things I don’t agree with… or actually better to be around people with completely different beliefs. I like to be challenged. I can be pretty stubborn if I’ve made my mind up about something.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a musician from the South East of England. I run a music production business called Studio Chimp working with loads of alternative and independent artist from across the world. Studio Chimp has been going a while and honestly, I’m constantly counting my lucky stars that it’s still running. It’s not always been easy.

Since we last spoke I feel like the world has changed drastically, and probably not for the better. We’ve had Covid, a huge change in political discourse as well as AI, all of which has made our already tough industry even tougher. But I suppose we’ve all got tougher for it.

Honestly, I sometimes think I’m only still doing this because I’m so stubborn, I won’t do anything else. That and I’m not sure I really can.

But more positively, in that time I’ve had an incredible ride. I’ve been working closely with an artist called Nobody’s Wolf Child. She’s super talented and we align a lot musically. That project has allowed me to play across the UK and Europe to some amazing crowds. It’s also given me confidence to really concentrate on working with musicians and artists in a narrower selection of genres instead of being a bit of an everyman. The problem with being open to everything is that you never become anyones first choice.

Since managing that project, I’ve had lots of other artists ask me to help with their promotion and management, and so Studio Chimp is really developing into this hub for dark and alternative artists to not only find their sound, but also find their audience. It’s early days and so we’re still figuring out how we really make it effective, but I’ve managed to help artists get over 27 million streams, sell out headline shows and play some huge festival slots… so far!

In a way it harks back to the old days of independent labels. It’s got a bit of punk DIY vibe and I hope not to lose that. I’ve always thought that the Producer should be the first important person you meet in the music industry, so I’m just trying to be useful to people.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
I always struggled with other people as a kid. I felt very other to everyone and I was always the outsider, even in my own friendship groups. At least that’s what I thought. I felt like the strange kid that everyone tolerated. I would catch people pulling some kind of face when I was speaking that would let me know I had probably just said something else weird or inappropriate.

I learned to hide all of that, but it probably accounts for my taste in music. I always felt more akin to those more outrageous artists that were telling me it was completely ok to be different, even though I wasn’t that outrageous as a person. In my teen years I used to dress in heavy goth make up, big boots and grew my hair out. I felt happy to be bullied for something I had control over as opposed to just being bullied for being a bit odd. In some ways, I was more accepted and found a world that I belonged in.

As an adult I found out that I’m autistic but was masking so heavily it had largely gone unnoticed. That and it was the 90s and the worlds view of what meant was very different. Finding that out meant I could drop the shame I felt every time I saw that look in someone’s eye that told me my mask was slipping, those tedious conversations weren’t my fault and when I’m being too blunt, I can at least understand that most people don’t like that level of honesty.

So I guess as an adult I no longer believe I’m that weird kid, I know I am, and that’s fine. I’ve met lot’s of people who were the weird kids and we get to make music together and tour the world.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Absolutely! I was going to give up a music career when I turned 25. I had been working in music studios in some way or other since I was 14 and the opportunities to do this had come easy. It helped that at the age of 14 I didn’t need to be paid and whilst at University, I was studying music, made a lot of friends and could record in a local studio for very cheap.

When I left University I was tired of being broke and there were no jobs I could just jump into in the music industry so I took a job as a corporate head hunter. It was a high pressure job but in my mind it was only temporary. However, I could see it potentially becoming my career and I hated the job. I quit and told myself that I had until I was 25 to get a career in the music industry. If it didn’t work out, I would retrain as a software engineer.

It was getting close to my 25th birthday and I hadn’t had any luck whatsoever. I was close to getting some investment which would launch a new production company, but that was starting to fall apart. The cracks were showing themselves. It was about two weeks out from my 25th birthday and I had resigned myself to quitting music as a career when I got an email from my University. Mike Stock was looking for an engineer.

I had already met Mike Stock previously and had his personal email address so instead of going through the Uni I emailed him directly. He invited me to come into his studio during a recording session with Nicki French on 20th of March… my birthday.

I watched the recording session, got to look around his recording studio which honestly, was way beyond my capability to run and he offered me the job that day. I spent the next three months with my heart in my mouth, waiting to fired as I studied all the manuals, butchered through recording sessions and gave him some dodgy mixes. That was well over a decade ago now and I’m still creating music for a living.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
Talent rises to the top.

This is absolutely not true in any way.

It used to be that work ethic would be the deciding factor. Now I think it’s down to financial support. I see young producers with synths costing more than my car and running desks that cost more than my house in a large country manor without any real credits to their name. Good for them, but everything in my studio has been hard won.

The same goes for artists. We tell ourselves that we live in the best time to be artist because we can access the eyes and ears of millions of people for pennies, but getting a venue to pay artists in any way that covers costs and creating records that stand out in the sea of music that is being released daily takes a lot of financial investment. I try to keep my costs low, but I understand even with that how much the artists that work with are sacrificing.

That’s not to say it isn’t possible. It is, but it’s becoming too expensive even for the lower middle class to be musicians.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
I think that’s the entire job of the music producer.

I’ve read interviews with artists I’ve worked with where they’re getting the praise for musical arrangements, the sound design and even sometimes the record itself. Some artists are gracious enough to throw some praise my way, but I know the deal. I’m the silent partner, even if I’ve written every word and melody on that record.

I think that’s why as a music producer you have to absolutely love the artists you’re working with. You’re the parent or coach on the sidelines watching someone run with everything you’ve done for them. Watching them succeed is the goal.

Ultimately, they are the talent. They’re the concept creators. I just help them bring that concept into reality. I’m more than happy to stand in a crowd of people watching an artist perform songs I’ve created, and the whole crowd singing them back to the artist whilst no-one knows that brought that song to life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.StudioChimp.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiochimp/

Image Credits
Live Shots – Bryan Taylor