#matty's values

"What about Happiness? Like, happiness is overrated. Happiness is like, we have fleeting moments of joy, right? We're not going to get happiness because it's not a destination, it's like there's this… and the thing that pisses me off about like, everyone saying that we should be happy all the time, it's like, what about when you're not? Are you being wrong? Are you wrong as a human? I always feel like, 'Oh, I'm not happy, I must be doing something wrong.' No, you're not, you're just going through the human experience. And happiness is overrated. Like, give me purpose over happiness. You know, music and art, all this is fucking… it's great and it gives us stuff, but it's not like, important in the way that like, people who at the turn of the century were working on radioactive material. They chose to do that, and they were poisoning themselves and they knew it. Were they doing it for happiness? No, they weren't. They were doing it for purpose because sometimes it's just bigger than happiness. I don't really care that much about happiness. I care about… for me, anyway, because I don't really know what it is, it's like… I'm happiest when I'm doing something that I know is good. That's happiness for me."

"To call yourself a feminist is to believe that men and women deserve equal opportunities. We live in an insanely patriarchal society."

"You have to pride everything on its own merits. I think that to have an almost like a moral position, or like a freedom-of-speech-esque kind of position on interpersonal relationships which are so dynamic and kind of emotional, which is a realm that isn't, you know, that objective, and I don't think should be kind of judged in the way that you could legislate. So for me, yeah, I think that art is great - like this great, this is all fucking cool - but if it hurts people… It's like the Burroughs thing, you know, like when he shot his wife. Like yeah, the lore is great and it makes Burroughs more interesting, but I'd rather her have lived than had cool books for me to read. And I'd rather people and children be like, happy."

"Hello to all the gays and all the lesbians and all the trans people who voted for me as their Ally of the Year at the Diva Awards. It's a shame that we need an ally of the year, but I'm happy to be it."

"I don't like people who create drama in their life in order to get material, whether it be a song- I hate that, because I just think that taking risks in your art is one thing, and it's something that should be separate from your life. But, I do like the kind of- the people that have interested me the most in my life, people like, you know, Andy Kaufman is probably like, my hero, My biggest hero ... 'cause there's these levels of transgression, isn't there? And there's like punk, there's like GG Allin, where you're like transgressive in a way that it's really obvious. You just really re-establish the order that 'I shouldn't be doing something', but if you do something that you shouldn't be doing, but people don't know whether you shouldn't be doing it, or whether it's real or it's not, like Kaufman used to do. I like these lines of like, blurring between what people consider is real. Because with the internet now, there's also a forum. So, there's a lot of conversation right now about like, whether I'm back on drugs, or whether the show is real."

"I grew up with my parents being actors and that was kind of confusing enough - like, the concept of the meta, you know? I think I might've felt quite scared if my reality was distorted when I was younger."

"I'm almost like, in character a lot now. The show is quite theatrical, and it's kind of about the duality that I experience between being by myself at home, you know, like I'm a single man. When I'm at home, I'm at home as much as anybody else. I'm as online as anyone else. And then I go, and like - what's this place that I'm playing tonight?" "The Scotiabank Center." "It's like where the Raptors play. So, the amount of people that are in there - it's like a real weird paradox between being alone and how to do that, and then being with more people than you can even think about. So, the show is almost about that. And that scares me. There's acting in the show, you know, the balance - and I used to mediate it by being on drugs and now I'm not - so it's quite a meta performance. So, I'm quite in character a lot, which is where I can be like, sardonic or annoyed. But I'm actually not like that." "You don't seem that way to me at all. I got a bit of sweetness off of you, if you don't mind me saying." "Honestly, I'm quite soft and quiet. I've got this whole reputation now for being a bit like the joker or something. Amongst my fans, not like wider culturally. I just find this all very interesting."

When I heard it I thought it was from the perspective of staring death in the face. "I mean, yeah. It's not opinionated. It's stuff that's happened. It's what I was worried about. A combination of not being able to focus on one thing, and talking about my drug addiction, interspersed with the world, then me, then the world. I've always been staring death in the face. Always an existentialist, a nihilist. I just wanna have a baby now. Then I'll stop doing that." You want to have a baby now? "I'm too busy, but do you ever think that sometimes? God! Well, at least then me will go away! I'd like to become a vessel for somebody else's happiness. That's where I get meaning in life. I make music; it makes people happy. I find everything else a bit hard. I love my girlfriend." Why do you feel such an urgency to make so much music? "I don't know. Do you not feel really urgent right now? To articulate that is weird, right? I'm such a drama queen. Everybody is living their own movie, everybody is the protagonist in the world. If you're a writer, you want a great ending, right? I was obsessed: I'm gonna do three records. We've got artwork for the third. That's gonna be it." Do you feel confident that you're quitting? "Um. Yeah? But to be honest with you, one of the reasons I don't wanna talk about it is because I don't deal with change well. I move forward. If I think about it, I go backward. I've tried to distract myself. It's so hard when there's no answer as to why. Why? Because it's better. Because you should. I don't wanna have a baby because of my sense of salvation." It's okay to think that having a kid can be selfish. "Yeah. There's not much out there for them. I worry if there's really any point. Is there?" You're asking if there's a point to having kids? "Can we not? I don't wanna go down this road. Some stuff me and my missus have to iron out."