If a listener is a house, the really good song is the manic party that spreads through every room in the place. It bursts through the door (ears, natch), can be felt tingling in the bedrooms (fingers and toes), and at its peak, raises the roof right off the main room (the heart); which is to say it lifts the spirit of the whole structure. If a really good song does all that, a really great song does all that and then some. New Man on the Song Scene Matthew Koma wants all that and then some — and if evidence suggests (as it does), he’s gonna get it too. As a listener, he’s heard how it feels when a great song lifts the spirits; more importantly, he’s listened — closely, truly — and he’s adamant about putting what he has heard to work — hard work. That hard work is revealed in Koma’s Propaganda (Cherrytree/Interscope), a debut album that has all the hallmarks of one who’s serious about mastering his craft and resounds in the richness of one who’s put in the hours — and the heart — to do so.
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Product of a lifetime of thrillful listening, most diligently to Elvis Costello, as well as to Bruce Springsteen, who Koma first caught at three and has seen some 30 times since, Propaganda is steeped in tradition and unafraid to show it. Not that the songs sound anything like what’s come before, but that they’re rooted in the history of what makes for a great song in the first place; that is story. In other words, Koma’s songs aren’t mere fan notes and this isn’t singing (or songwriting) by numbers; rather Propaganda is the culmination of a man’s appreciation for what’s preceded him and his determination to create the sorta melodies that will linger on and on.
And Koma seems uniquely poised to do just that. Born and raised on Long Island, it’s the very same land that produced both Simon and Garfunkel, in addition to Harry Chapin and Billy Joel; in other words, a land rife with song, and ripe for a songman’s plucking. That of course takes pluck, which Koma has in abundance. When tour doors were slammed in his face, he invented a booking agency and routed cross country sprees that took him from XX to XX and back again. Sure he ended up with only “$150 and a hot pocket,” but the experience was invaluable. It also set the stage for the stages he’s now sharing with labelmates LMFAO and Far East Movement.
The trek also gave Koma the source material of which great songs are made, so when he was invited to a songwriters retreat in Vancouver he came loaded with enough ammo to shoot the moon. Equally armed was one Sam Watters, who himself had lived through a few great song cycles. When the twain met it was kismet. The kismet continued apace when Interscope Records Chairman Jimmy Iovine got his fabled ear on Koma. Iovine had, of course, engineered Springsteen’s classic Born to Run, and, for a fan of The Boss’s music, having such a man hear him out was more than a proverbial honor. “I’d never thought I’d even be in the same room with such a legend, let alone signed to his label,” says Koma. “It feels as if everything’s come full circle.” For a singer whose songs are insistent with spin, full circle is perhaps the most perfect place to be.
