Fresh after his set this past Dreamstate in Long Beach, we had the opportunity to interview the French champion in today’s Progressive arena: Matt Fax (David Ciekanski). His latest album “Story of the Fall” takes listeners on a journey with some true production craftsmanship.

From it’s majestic intro with the track ‘Beyond Belief’, to the dance floor banger ‘The Abyss,’ all the way to the ear candy elements of glitches and bass on ‘Somber,’ this album is a testament to the continual dedication to his artistry. David has used different aliases in the past, and Matt Fax has become his go-to for channeling his Progressive sounds. He explained,

“ Matt Fax was when I moved to the more progressive house side, the name just came out of nowhere, it was like a placeholder and I started releasing music under that alias and it stayed. ”

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Music has been a vehicle for Matt to express himself and better translate his feelings, stating, “I feel sometimes words aren’t enough for people to understand how you really feel. I feel with music, people can relate more about your story.”

With “Story of the Fall” Matt indeed brought us into his world and further elaborated on how he overcame and worked on his mental health, explaining that he,

“ really wanted to tell my story about the past three years of my life where, I was falling into a hole that I’m slowly going out of, it keeps getting better. The best thing is when you go out of that place but you have to go through so many things and sometimes it’s hard and you kind of lose your identity. ”

Using music to heal has blossomed into art that has broadened his creative horizons, and while he started without the intention of making a career out of it, his success has allowed him to remain a true artist while having fun through his creative process.

Neon Owl x Matt Fax Insomniac Dreamstate 2023 interview neonowlco

Matt’s love for music started as a child, when he was exposed to music by his family. Even though no one in his family was a musician, it was this exposure that infused his love for music to the point that it built the curiosity to learn how to produce his own music. Although he did not train on any instruments, Matt “tried to play the piano for like a couple of months and stopped because life, basically, I didn’t have time.” He didn’t let this stop him, however, as he continued to acquire the knowledge to create superb musical productions on his own. He started with many digital audio workstations, but has grown to “love” and “feels comfortable” with Ableton saying that while

“ people of my age were playing video games, I was playing Ableton. ”

We spoke more about production including putting “your ego on the side” and not “taking yourself too seriously” when getting constructive feedback on your productions, because he feels “that’s how you grow.” We learned a few fun, interesting facts about Matt as well. His dream collaboration would be with Thom Yorke of Radiohead, and if he were an animal he would be a “rabbit.” As far as go-to meals in America? He mentioned

“ a typical thing that I was doing when I was touring in America, is that I was trying every burger from McDonald’s that we don’t have in Europe, and one thing I need to try is the In-N-Out Burger. ”

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