{"id":729,"date":"2022-12-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/?p=729"},"modified":"2022-12-18T09:03:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T15:03:27","slug":"matt-rhombus-of-totem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/matt-rhombus-of-totem\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Rhombus of Totem"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"newor-before-content\" id=\"newor-6412104\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-8687276566169212\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8687276566169212\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"8064447764\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>For Matt, the Big Bang occurred at the age of eight when he encountered a family member\u2019s extensive music collection. From this single point in time, his melodic universe began with cosmic bodies like Korn, System of a Down, Slipknot, Weezer, and Alice in Chains. Ever expanding, his exploration has landed him in a galaxy filled with sludge, punk, and rock-and-roll. Bass-heavy grooves have charted his path on this journey and, over time, have become the dominant, more prevalent point of recognition for his vessel of worship known as Totem. While music itself was always at the core of his attraction, camaraderie surely enhanced his gravitation. Like many of us that play, we are inexplicably drawn to an instrument at an early age. And suddenly, the arduous task of finding ourselves as human beings is compounded with finding a sense of musical identity. For those of you that don\u2019t play an instrument, I would liken finding one\u2019s musical identity to getting your first apartment. You don\u2019t have much to do it with. Still, you gather everything you have that you think you will need, and some of what expresses who you are, to establish yourself in this \u201cnew\u201d life. Only you\u2019re not sure exactly where you want to live, what you want it to look like, or what you can afford. I have always admired true musicians because not only do they face this head-on at a time in life when they are still unsure of themselves. But they do it out in the open, in front of everyone. And I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve noticed, but the court of public opinion can be bitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unbeknownst to Matt, he was mentally preparing himself for this quest just two years after honestly encountering music for the first time. He found himself doodling band names on his binders while in class. And at thirteen, to some degree, it had manifested itself physically. His hair was spiked and his jeans had chains hanging from them. Soon his friends would be discussing the idea of starting their own band. He knew several guitar players and a drummer. So, he settled upon bass as his contribution to the endeavor. \u201cI think it was like, a Crescent or something. I remember cracking that thing open on Christmas Eve. And it was just a little beginner bass. But man, I wore that thing out.\u201d At that time, Matt knew the cost of a bass guitar. While he gave it a shot, he was almost sure he wouldn\u2019t be lucky enough to get one. But in due time, he would come to know the value. And while he did dabble in rhythm guitar and drums over the years, he always stuck by his bass. Looking back, he affirms the experimentations became useful tools within his narrative. Because of them, if need be, he can pick up or sit behind either and play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGetting better at bass\u2026 I think that I actually haven\u2019t progressed, like technically speaking, at playing bass. Like, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m an amazing bass player by any means. But I use the bass as kind of a tool to help me write songs. That\u2019s been the struggle of my past ten years, trying to find my place in the New Orleans music scene in general. Being in one band, being in another band, I\u2019ve decided that I\u2019m not going to put my talent up to somebody else anymore. I\u2019m going to spearhead everything. And that\u2019s why our band right now, Totem, is very bass-heavy and very bass-driven.\u201d Modesty would definitely be Matt\u2019s namesake. And his tendency to cite things like tremolos from Steve Harris and other technical players in the field has perhaps contributed to this mental conflict within him. But his niche and true appreciation for the craft lies within getting into a groove and holding things down to propel the song. Pitting one musician\u2019s take on things against another is misleading. But inside the minds of many musicians, this is sometimes an eternal conflict. Doubting one\u2019s self is by its very nature, misleading. And there came a point in time where this combined with being kicked out of a band had Matt stuffing his gear into a closet and shutting the door. He credits his long-time friend and drummer, Gage Breaux, with forcing him to leave the questions behind and return to the things he loved about the art. Their bond and Matt\u2019s second coming further cemented Totem in the rhythmic, bass-lavish landscape that has become their signature sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sparking an alternate creative direction in Totem with a new guitarist, Max Bonnet, has aided Matt in dusting off the difficulties within him. And intentionally not sticking to one particular genre keeps things fresh. As he pointed out, Boris, The Melvins, and Neurosis have always been bands that inspired him in this vein. Max brings with him a penchant for the shoegaze genre. Which should bring about a balancing effect when paired with Totem\u2019s already established driving bass and drum elements. \u201cMax is like refined energy. And he knows how to put the right dynamics on certain strums and he has more technique. He\u2019s got something going on with him. He\u2019s got this shoegaze background. I don\u2019t know, he was obsessed with shoegaze for a while. He\u2019s got some pretty shit that is really going to help us open up a new door to the psyche-rock domain.\u201d In the past, Totem has been a trio where the bass basically commandeered the responsibility normally taken up by the rhythm guitar; keeping pace in the groove and moving things along a plane. Their drummer, Gage, would reinforce this, adding highlights and directing the change-ups. In the future, much of that will remain the same. But this recent addition will accentuate those priorities while also pulling the direction into question. Totem\u2019s recent EP, For What It\u2019s Worth, can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp. And it will come to be a pivotal sonic example from the band. Because moving forward, a unique dimension via Max Bonnet will emerge. The newly minted trio is in the midst of writing several songs to add to their EP in preparation for their upcoming album. And in true Totem spirit, it will be exploratory, possessing artifacts of both prior artistic endeavors and future direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<center><div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCJYroaE-LdzB0f5JarBpDTQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Press here to check out our YOUTUBE music videos and interviews.<\/a><\/div><\/center>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div 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From this single point in time, his melodic universe began with cosmic bodies like Korn, System of a Down, Slipknot, Weezer, and Alice in Chains. Ever expanding, his exploration has landed him in a galaxy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[340,281,343,333,338,344,36,341,332,334,34,29,342,335,337,336,339,104,331],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-banks-street-bar","tag-david-trahan","tag-for-what-its-worth","tag-gage-breaux","tag-gasa-gasa","tag-hot-box","tag-indie","tag-marsh-room","tag-matt-rhombus","tag-max-bonnet","tag-musicians","tag-new-orleans","tag-one-eyed-jacks","tag-punk","tag-rock-and-roll","tag-rock-n-roll","tag-santos-bar","tag-sludge","tag-totem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837,"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neworleansmusicians.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}