The Matthew Show Discusses Being a Musical Sponge, Anti Trans Legislation, and Texas II
Interview ★ Kenzie Gay ★ @kenzwrites ★ 3 Minutes
The last few weeks (or 9 months, depending on if you stay up to date or not) have been a cesspool of crazy events and testimony within U.S. politics but for some of us, this chaotic and fascist-esque regime has been prominent for much longer than just the year of 2025; especially for those who live in a red state such as Arkansas, Florida, or Texas.
On this topic of conversation, today we’re here to talk about a Texas resident who is using his platform to advocate for injustice in the modern scope using his musical project and other artistic routes. Based in Fort Worth comes Matthew Broyles, one of the most inherently political artists I’ve had the honor of speaking with. He writes, he plays, he sings, and he creates in a way that will leave anybody speechless with pride. He’s one of those artists that I know is going to stick with me for a long while due to his passion, his wisdom, and the fact that he simply makes great music.
Recently, I got to pick his brain on things such as his newest album, growth as a creative, and of course; politics.
Matthew Broyles / The Matthew Show photos via Trista Morris
Who are some of your largest musical inspirations from a sound, image, AND lyrical perspective?
Inspirations are hard to pin down, as I've always been kind of a sponge. The ones that struck me in a bit more lightning-bolt way were Weird Al Yankovic in elementary school, Pink Floyd in junior high, and early alternative (pre-grunge) in high school, a la REM, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Peter Murphy, among a bunch of others. I'm sort of constantly afraid that I've ripped someone off because I have a ton of records in my mental filing cabinet, and lord knows where their echoes pop up.
Lyrically, I always like writers who don't pick the easy path. Roger Waters, Lyle Lovett, Aimee Mann, Dawes, acts that see clearly enough what the popular next line would be, but pick the weird one instead. I make that my mission as well. I'm not sure I have an image, but if I did, it would be the neighbor in Tom Waits' What's He Building In There? The odd guy who's always banging together some improbable contrivance in his workshop. That's me.
Walk us through the creative process of "Texas II". What were some highs? Some lows? Quirky aspects of the album itself? etc.
In 2003, I put out my debut album, texas. I had moved to NYC when I released it, and at the time, it was a sort of cutting loose from the lifestyle and scene I had been involved with back in DFW. I was also 29 and pretty naive about a lot of things. While I was slowly working through the tunes that would end up on this new record, it felt more and more like a status update. Like "how it started...how it's going." I haven't put out a full album of all original material in over a decade, assuming the album form was dead and just going with singles. But these songs felt like part of a larger whole, so I dubbed it texas ii, as much of a nod to the people who've been with me through the past couple of decades as a note to myself that I've actually come a long way.
In the intervening years, I had largely just taken the band into pro studios and bashed songs out live, but I wanted to revisit the way I'd made my first two albums, in my home studio with enough time to tinker. That's very satisfying in a lot of ways, but it also presents stumbling blocks, just having to be the engineer and the player at the same time, not to mention tech support. That said, I was grateful to hand mixing off to my good pal Mark Randall at Blackstone Studio, since his ears are younger than mine, and more well trained to boot. A high point was bringing in my friend Casey Hess to play some guitar. His album as Jump Rope Girls (8 Track Demos) was what originally inspired me to make texas, just knowing you could produce a good album at home at all. He also happens to be a badass guitarist and a super nice guy who I hadn't seen in many years, so it was good to reconnect with that era.
You've explained that the new album covers "a lot of emotional and cultural ground in the modern era of uncertainty". Can you speak more to that and your opinion on the era we're in?
I don't know how anyone is writing regular relationship songs anymore. My brain cannot break free of the cultural and political moment we're in right now, and that we've been in for a while. Back in 2021, my other band Ah Pook the Destroyer made a concept album about collective madness (The King in Yellow) because we really couldn't focus on anything else. Being an observant student of history, I've felt our slide in this darker direction deep in my bones, going back as far as the 2000 election. We are at a historical turning point that feels very similar to the environment in 1914, mixed unhelpfully with a bit of 1929. I just can't not write songs about it.
At the same time, I'm now in my fifties, and a lot of my life is behind me, so I get to ruminate on it periodically while lying awake in bed, trying not to look at social media. I've been through a divorce, new relationships, some good, others less so, and I've learned a lot about myself. So the album is as much a chronicle of my own struggles as the milieu they're taking place in. It's not a purely political album. Like life itself, it's trying to get the human stuff done while the alarms blare all around. At this point, it's pretty clear that the only way out is through. What that means, we're all still trying to figure out.
You've spoken about your belief in fighting for the rights of the underrepresented, including LGBTQ+ rights as you have a trans daughter. Can you go into detail about why representation is so important and how it relates to the current political climate?
The song Theme from texas ii was written shortly after Ken Paxton, the attorney general of my state, started his crusade against trans kids and their parents. At the time, my daughter was still living here, and there was a very real risk of her getting caught up in these machinations. She's living elsewhere now, not because I don't want her near me, but because that's the only way she can have a shot at safety. It's outrageous that a demographic group that represents a miniscule fraction of the population comes in for so much targeted government oppression. That's only gotten worse in recent days, for reasons I don't even have to explain.
Texas is literally trying to kill these people, or at least make it easier for them or others to do so. In my position as a straight white man, it's dereliction of duty not to call attention to this injustice. Solve the actual problems like income inequality and access to healthcare, and stop demonizing people who just want to be left alone to live their lives.
Also, fuck Ken Paxton. If that wasn't clear.
Are there things outside of music that influence your style and approach as a musician? (film, physical art, other hobbies, etc.)
Inspiration comes in a lot of forms. I'm a fan of well written anything, be it novels, poetry, movies, audio dramas, or even a well thought out social media post. I find it hard to stick to one thing, and in switching from music to prose to verse to whatever, I can feel it all getting mixed up as I create. I'm working on a book project and a radio play presently, and I can sense the bubbles stirred up by texas ii informing my writing. We contain multitudes. I'm just fortunate I'm able to let mine out to play.
