Few artists are prepped for innovation, recognition, and growth the way Matt DiMona is. His SoundCloud overflows with love and affection from fans – who’ve given well over 3,000,000+ plays on this channel alone – astounded at what they hear.His music explores the greater capabilities of how chill and melodic sounds are made and released.
In a nutshell, DiMona focuses on top 40 sounds, blanketing them with an array of effects that not only compliments the integrity of the originals, but picks you up and takes you on a journey of pure satisfaction as you take in catchy verse after catchy verse.
From his remix of Maroon 5’s “She will be Loved” to Niykee Heaton’s “Bad Intentions,” DiMona captures amazing, ultra-infectious moments through his signature sound.
It’s not just fans that are buzzing about Dimona, the Moving Castle crew are collaberating with DiMona on future projects, setting the stage for an even bigger accomplishments to lock down going into 2015.
“The biggest influence in my life so far has been moving from NY to LA to attend school at the University of Southern California. In LA, I finally met people with similar music interests and goals, I connected with people like my great friend and mentor Dr. Fresch and our awesome Manager Peter Rugo, and i was exposed to some amazing house/dance music that inspired me to start taking production seriously.”
Matt DiMona has an extensive story, each motion setting the stage for a bigger and brighter future. We couldn’t contain our curiosity about one of 2015’s hottest underground artists, Dimona took the time out to chat with WRR about his future, past, styles, influences, strategies, and so much more in our exclusive interview.
To me, what makes you magical is this perfect blend of 1. Semi-tropical tempos and percussion, 2. Fine-tuned poppy 4-chord progressions, and 3. Well-placed, catchy-hooks. Would you describe it in a similar fashion?
Good pop music is magical, and I’m unashamed to admit that I love top-40 pop and r’n’b. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that a song, with the perfect balance of melody and simple, catchy lyrics, can take off and become a larger-than-life phenomenon. For my own music, my goal is to one day write a song that reaches that same level, (as long as the music comes from a place with heart, emotion and soul.) As far as the tropical nature of my songs, well, that’s just one of the side effects of moving to a place where the weather is perfect all the time and the beach is a short drive away! However, I don’t want my music to be defined by the “tropical house” genre, which has become pretty over-saturated with kygo-wannabes and boring saxophone solos… my future releases will be straying from the tropical vibes and pushing into new, cooler territories!
Are there certain sound effects that you absolutely love to mess with? (i.e Lowering pitch of vocals?)
I love using pitch effects on vocals to try and coax out new emotions and sounds from the voice that you might not have thought were possible. I also love using high pitched, heavily reverbed vocals for background, atmospheric effects.
How did the relationship with you and Moving Castle begin? I’m sure you and Brett Blackman know each other, how did you two meet
I first linked up with Hotel Garuda over Soundcloud/Facebook; we started to hang out in LA and became good friends, through Garuda I was introduced to the one and only Brett Blackman and more of the Moving Castle clan- they’re all incredibly talented and I can’t wait to see where they go! I spent my winter break in new york city, where I hung out and partied at a few of their showcases (many 4am NYC pizza slices were had.)
What’s your view on artist collectives? What are the pros and cons of artists reposting a collective’s catalog versus not?
I think artist collectives are a brilliant way of promoting music and an amazing source of support for music producers with similar interests. Moving Castle is a perfect example of a bunch of friends who use Soundcloud and social media strategically to support each others releases while simultaneously pushing their whole collective further. I think 2015 is the year of the artist collective!
You have millions of plays and hundreds of fans melting over your work on SoundCloud, yet Facebook and Twitter are sort of smaller and more casual in comparison. Do you have specific feelings or techniques you apply toward social media?
My Soundcloud account is definitely my prized possession when it comes to my presence online. It’s been a perfect way to share my music and has brought me some amazing opportunities. i’m not too worried about the lower numbers on my other social media accounts, as they’ll (hopefully) rise in time as I put out more music. My favorite app to use is actually Instagram, which I think can hold a lot of power and influence if used correctly and can also be a really cool visual aid to my music. Twitter has also been super helpful in terms of connecting with other artists and fans.
Do you prefer to work alone or with others? Any collaborations in works?
I definitely do some of my best work alone but I am very open to collaborations, and I’ve worked on music with a couple people recently (Hotel Garuda, for one.) I just got Ableton recently, and, after producing in reason for a loooong time and struggling with it, it’s been really refreshing to use a new software to produce music with. It’s also made collaborations much easier to handle, as many of my producer friends also use Ableton.
i had an ok time playing a sold out show at Sound with my friends the other nite ??????
A photo posted by Matt DiMona (@mattdimona) on
What DJ’s have you been digging in the last few weeks?
Just going to use this space to shamelessly promote some of my friends who have been doing amazing things lately: Dr. Fresch, SNBRN, Hotel Garuda, Manila Killa, Louis The Child, Jai Wolf, Coyote Kisses, Pools and Justin Jay. Go listen to all of these people!!
What’s the title of this “baby makin’ track” you tweeted about?
😉 I won’t spoil the surprise, but i will say it’s a bootleg in the same vein as my “Bad Intentions” remix…
Any tours or shows planned going into 2015, besides Springfest?
Nothing too big that I can announce just yet, but I’m hoping to play some more festivals this summer as well as some more local club gigs in LA. Last summer, I was fortunate enough to play the Wide Awake art car at EDC Vegas (which was a crazy, sleepless three days) and I recently played a big, sold-out show at sound nightclub in LA with my friends Dr. Fresch, SNBRN, Hotel Garuda and Mija. Mostly i plan on pushing out lots of new music (originals, too) and seeing where 2015 takes me!
Connect with Matt DiMona
https://www.facebook.com/officialmattdimona?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/mattdimona
https://soundcloud.com/mattdimona
Share On
