friendly fire: the journey of mattias.

thursday, october 17th 2024 • boston, massachusetts

more portraits can be found here.

“I think that accepting you can’t be creative all the time is extremely helpful...being with other creative people and running ideas through with them is helpful to get my creativity back.”

From Florida to Boston, Mattias Herremen is no stranger to adapting to different environments. With Berklee College of Music being a big pull for musicians world wide, Boston holds a phenomenal music scene (underground as well) that many people overlook. It brings so many talented and like minded individuals together giving them opportunities to meet and create together, growing their music, careers and strengths. Mattias was one of those people who made the journey from a different home state to attend Berklee, quickly finding creative people like him to work and grow with.

When starting Berklee, Mattias’ main source of music related confidence was his songwriting ability. He shared with me that he used to not be able to sing, which I genuinely had a hard time believing given how good his vocals are now. Creatively, he’s found that musicians and friends around him tend to inspire him more than anything else. Being able to run ideas off others and seeing how they work and create is really what helps him with his own work. I met him through a mutual friend who had invited me to her band’s show. He happened to be headlining. Ever since, I’ve been a massive admirer and we’ve worked together a few times. I’m grateful to call him a friend and for the music scene in Boston that supports these connections.

october 17th 2024 -

Hunter: Just going to get the basics out of the way. . .what’s your name, age and where are you from?

Mattias: My name is Mattias Herremen and I’m originally from Fort Lauderdale but moved to Orlando after high school.

H: What got you into music? Do you think that your upbringing or childhood influenced this at all?

M: No not at all *laughs*. My mom is classically trained on the piano, so I did grow up with that. I never wanted to be a performer until I was 17. I went to a local show at O’Malley’s with my girlfriend at the time and saw the band The Castafellas. The drummer, Pedro, had such a stage presence and performance that it really stood out to me. He jumped off the Marshall amp and it made me realize that I wanted to do that. I wanted to perform and experience that myself.

H: What brought you out to Boston? Was it mainly just Berklee?

M: I never wanted to be a musician. The idea of preforming on stage was always scary to me, and it was really that show for The Castafellas and the drummer’s showmanship that really made me want to be in a band. So after that happened I started writing my own music. I released my first “solo produced” album called The Breakup Album under the artist name Newport. It was really bad and I made it all in GarageBand. I got it mixed by this guy named Slim the Scientist’s studio in Tamarac. At the time one of my best friends Brandon Walton (you can find him at Walton on Spotify/Apple Music) was making music and he had that connection. He was really connected with the Ski Mask, X, etc. underground rap scene. After I made my first album I moved to Orlando, 3 1/2 away from where I was living, to study sound production at Valencia College of Music. I didn’t make it into UCF so I applied to Valencia. I dropped out of college after my first semester because I knew that the only thing that I wanted to do was perform, be in a band and be a fucking rockstar. I hit up my sister’s boyfriend, who taught me guitar in the first place, who went to UCF and was living in Orlando. I told him we should start a band and he said “sure thing.” He knew a drummer named Josh, who was a church drummer and a friend, but I think that Nick was the only one who really did music “seriously.” Then we started the band, we weren’t great, we were getting our bearings…I couldn’t sing. Teaching myself to sing over the last seven years has definitely been the biggest process for all of my music. So the beginning was rough but after a while I got more comfortable and developed my “style,” although it did include a lot of bad habits technically. We made our way around, but eventually the lineup started changing a bit. The Castafellas actually hit me up to play on a bill with us and drove up from South Florida. It was awesome, great show. After the gig, Pedro came up to me and told me that The Castafellas were breaking up and asked to be my drummer. That’s when our incredible relationship that still lasts to this day started, I actually just got off the phone with him. The lineup ended up being me, Nick the guitarist, Pedro the drummer, and a bass player named Max. That lineup was pretty strong. I remember the first show that we played with Pedro there was a night and day difference. Everything just started to come together more. Then, things with Max didn’t work out but at the time we met this guy named Cairo…dude’s like a musical prodigy. I looked up to him so much. The way he plays guitar is out of this world…the way he sings…the way he drums. His name is Cairo O’Toole, son of bass player from Frankie Goes to Hollywood. He’s also in a band right now called The Boas. Anyway, Cairo’s guitar was way too out of this world for me not put my ego aside and pick up bass. So then the lineup was me on vocals and bass, Cairo and Nick on guitar, and Pedro on drums. That was a powerhouse. We called ourself The Carmics. We played all around Florida with that group for nearly two years. Everything was going really well. We had this gig in Miami in January of 2020 where this booking agent was going to be coming to see us and scout us out. After the gig she told us she wanted to put us on tour. And then two months later the pandemic hit and everything went to shit. We all moved back to our respective cities; Pedro and I went back to Southern Florida while Nick and Cairo stayed in Orlando. It was difficult to keep everything together. During that time I was rediscovering my musicianship and identity as a songwriter. I was home a lot just writing, writing, writing. One day I wrote a song and I showed it to my mom and she was like: “This is a beautiful song. Why don’t you apply to Berklee?” Of course I was like: “Get the fuck out of here, there’s no way.” I still didn’t want to go school at the time…but then I did it because of course “mother knows best,” and I got in. It was such a rapid change and like three months after I applied and stuff I was up in Boston. Ever since then it’s been amazing.

H: When this interview is up you will have moved back to Florida, leaving Boston. Any specific reason for that?

M: I was thinking of maybe moving to New York when I left Boston but ultimately decided to go back to Florida. When I think about the end goal and plan for the future it just made more sense to go back to Florida instead of staying here or going to New York. It also helps that my guitarist Daniel is also moving to Florida so we’ll be able to continue working together which will be super awesome. Also, I won’t have to pay rent and all of that money can go to more funding for advertising and stuff like that. Yeah, Florida just seems like a better place to be for the future of my music for the time being.

H: Who would you say is your biggest music influences?

M: Hmm…I don’t know. I don’t really have any musicians that like make me ‘feel’ anything like a lot of people. I guess that’s where I differ from other musicians, I don’t really have specific influences like that. I would say my musician influences are Pedro, Daniel, Cairo, etc...

H: What gets you out of artist block?

M: I think that accepting you can’t be creative all the time is extremely helpful. Like if you only wrote songs when you were feeling creative, you’re shit out of luck and that’s not going to go far at all. I don’t want to always be writing about the same thing like breaks up and stuff. *laughs* That’s a common theme with my music…girls and breakups and relationship stuff like that. I think that working with other people as well is helpful for me. Being with other creative people and running ideas through with them is helpful to get my creativity back.

H: What song are you most proud of and what song do you like performing the most?

M: Ooooh that’s a tough question actually…can I pick two I’m most proud of? I would definitely say “Growing Old is Getting Old.” It’s one of the most raw and emotive songs that I have. The lyrics aren’t anything particularly ‘astounding,’ it’s not like it’s this poetic masterpiece. It’s just so raw and direct. The music is just so complex in a way, but also so simple. It’s powerful and the orchestration of the actual musical elements I think is fucking amazing. I just think that it’s a beautiful, beautiful, emotive and powerful song. That’s probably why its most definitely one of the songs I am most proud of. The other one would be “New York” which is a song off of my upcoming album. My favorite song to perform… “Whole Lotta” is a lot of fun.

H: What’s your song writing process like?

M: I almost always start with making a progression on an acoustic guitar while mumbling melodies that honestly sound like gibberish and words that aren’t real most of the time. From there I develop the final melody and develop lyrics. I almost never start writing a song with a melody, it usually just starts with a chord progression.

H: What other media inspires you musically and generally?

M: Generally cinema and cinematography. The vibes and aesthetics that come with that. Like I mentioned before, I don’t really have songs or musicians that really influences me like that. Which I do think makes me weird as a musician *laughs.* I think for me, I wanted to become a musician because it just seems fun. Like I like making music but working towards the end goal of the music is more fulfilling for me than the music itself.

H: What’s something you haven’t done that you want to experience? It doesn’t have to be music related at all.

M: Hmmm…to go to a fancy restaurant with all of my friends and be able to pay for all of it. I think that would be really nice. Not having to worry about the costs of it and just enjoy the night and the people.

H: You may not, but do you have any guilty pleasure musicians or songs?

M: I really like the Bee Gees. Hmm…I would also say twenty øne piløts, but I can’t even say they’re a guilty pleasure. They’re really cool.

H: Okay so your answer may change at different times, but if you were to be dropped off on a desert island and could only listen to one other musician when you’re there, who would you choose right now?

M: Oh god…hold on I’m going to consult my Spotify for this. We’re using process of elimination for this…I’ll narrow it down to three and then pick one. Cage the Elephant. Arctic Monkeys. I want to say Catfish and the Bottlemen because I absolutely love them but…The Black Keys. So out of those three…oh no, wait. The Killers. I’m going to have to pick The Killers.

H: This might be a hard question too, but what song do you wish that you personally made? Or at least had a part in the making of?

M: Oh I was literally just asking myself this question the other day! Hmm…I don’t know…oh wait. No I have an answer, but this is going to change my answer to your previous question. My desert island band would have to be Coldplay. Then the song I would pick is “Fix You.”

H: No that’s such good song, I understand. There’s so many layers to it.

M: Yea exactly, that’s definitely the song I would pick.

H: I guess just to end this, do you have any upcoming shows or releases you want to mention?

M: My most recent release was a single called “Reason” in December. In the summer of 2025 I’m planning on releasing an album!