Mather Louth Interviewed By SD Voyager

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mather Louth.

Mather, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Well, you could say that I’ve never been satisfied with boxing myself into any one means of creation, and that mindset started at a very early age. As a young child, I was always singing, sewing, sculpting, drawing…whatever I could experiment with (as free time seemed to be unlimited then!) But, the constant nucleus in my life was always music. As I grew a little older, I caught the musical theater bug and began performing in both scholastic and community productions for the next decade or so. I did not follow the path of typical higher education and decided instead to study in New York at a prestigious performing arts school. Though I was invited back for a second year of study, it became crystal clear to me that I wanted to pursue a career in music rather than theater, and so I moved to Los Angeles soon after. Over 14 years later…the rest is history, ha!

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do? Why? And what do you hope others will take away from your work?
First and foremost, I define myself as the singer and lyricist for my band Heathen Apostles. In my spare time, I do also sew, write, model for artists, and collaborate with photographer friends. But oftentimes, those creative projects are directly connected with the band’s output. Our music could best be described as what we call “bloodgrass” – sort of a blend of Southern Gothic imagery and storytelling set to a moody, dark bluegrass soundtrack. Thematically, our songs touch upon a lot of universal human experiences: love, loss, grief, betrayal, redemption, death, and spirituality. And because of my own personal history, there’s absolutely a sense of theater in what we do, particularly in the music videos that accompany our singles.

My favorite music is that which hits me on a very primal, subcutaneous level- it could be something in the singer’s voice, the atmosphere in the instrumentation, or the lyrical content (or, in the best cases, all of the above.) As a musician, I hope to evoke that sort of instinctive response within the Heathen Apostles listener. Music to heal, music to inspire, music to empathize, music as a cathartic release- in short, I want our listeners to *feel*, and, more than that, to feel understood. There have been so many occasions where I’ve only felt understood listening to a song that echoed what I was going through at the time. If the Heathen Apostles can accomplish that sense of empathetic connection to our listeners through our music, I feel we have accomplished a very worthy pursuit.

How can artists connect with other artists?
Quite honestly, I feel that loneliness can provide a great spark of inspiration to create some truly meaningful work as an artist. When I moved across the country to Los Angeles without having any family or real friends here to help ground me, I felt incredibly lonely (particularly during the first year.) All I had was my instruments and my recording equipment to keep me company in my new home, and oftentimes I would just stay in and compose and write lyrics. There is absolutely a sense of loneliness that bled into the work I did during that time, but it was honest. I remember even writing myself a sort of lullaby one night because I felt terribly alone.

Loneliness is part of the existence of the artist…part of the existence of being human, really. We all yearn to belong on a primal level, to feel understood, loved, and appreciated. To insist otherwise is to deny your humanity.

However, if the loneliness isn’t channeling itself into productive artwork, I find that there are definite perks towards using social media to connect with fellow artists in a way that wasn’t easily possible by prior generations. I’ve personally been able to build some incredible friendships with other creatives from all over the world thanks to social media. However, I would greatly recommend limiting time spent on those outlets, as they can easily leech your creativity and wholly distract you from your artistic work. Balance is key!

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My personal website is www.matherlouth.com, and the Heathen Apostles website is www.heathenapostles.com.

You can read the entire Mather Louth interview on the SD Voyager website HERE.