Matthew Paul Miller might be a name of no significance for many people, but shout out the name Matisyahu in a room and its very likely someone will recognize it (especially if anyone in the room is Jewish).
Miller, more widely recognized by his Hebrew and stage name Matisyahu, is a Jewish reggae artist who has been impressively evolving musically since he launched onto the music scene in 2004.
His first album Shake of the Dust ... Arise flew under the radar compared to 2006's Youth which helped catapult Matisyahu onto the reggae scene with his single "King Without a Crown." His songs have a strong Rasta sound - not surprising since most of his music can be grouped into the reggae genre - but it is the thematically Jewish content that sets it apart from others. Think a little bit Sublime, and a little bit Jew de Maccabi.
Recently, The News-Letter had a chance to talk with Matisyahu, who described his song writing process as a collaborative effort.
"I had different people that came in and worked with me in the studio, in the writing process. For example, one was Trevor Hall, who's a guitar player and he would come and start playing. He would play a guitar line and I would beatbox behind it and then start writing lyrics for it."
He also mentions beatboxing while others play the guitar, recording the jam session and then, he said, "we would go back and we would listen to what we did and we would find little sections that we liked and sometimes build songs out of that."
"So that's part of the way songs get written and kind of like, then we start adding on. Then we bring in different people to do different things to the song and then bring it to the producer. And then we re-tape my vocals and find different people to play on it. We would have this guitar player or that guitar player play different sections of it and build it like that."
His most recent album, Light, certainly retains elements similar to his previous work, but it also veers into uncharted territory for Matisyahu.
The ever-hopeful, solidly reggae jam "One Day" was the first single off the album and on repeat play for a lot of alternative radio stations in the summer months.
Light was most influenced by a man called Rabbi Nachman, according to Matisyahu.
"There were two things that chiefly influenced the record: One was the dream that [Nachman] had that was recorded and the other is a story called The Seven Beggars which is kind of his most well-known story. I would say that those two things were a big influence, including all of his teachings and ideas."
The different sounds from Light and Youth are certainly a result of the different creative process. "With the album Youth, basically it was made with one band and we went into the studio and made the record in a relatively short amount of time," he said. "With [Light] it was kind of made over a longer period of time, close to a year and like I said, it was made with lots of different musicians, producers, writers, people. It was more of a collaborative process."
Matisyahu does not pick one sound and stay the course. Instead, he continues to change things up, propelling his ever-evolving musical sound, which will involve more collaboration with fellow band members Rob Marscher and Aaron Dugan.
Regardless of the directions Matisyahu takes musically, he will continue to remain true to the topics that affect him most.
Infusing timeless themes into a blend of soulful reggae, rap and alternative styles, it is unlikely that Matisyahu will drop off good music radar anytime soon.
Matisyahu will perform on Saturday, Nov. 21 at Sonar at 7 p.m. Tickets and more information can be found at Sonar.
