CHROMATIC STATIC PRESENTS:
LIVE @ MY HOUSE

RECORDED MIXES CAN BE FOUND BELOW THE LIVE STREAMING, ENJOY!!!

Live @ My House; Special Experience

Summer Love 2020 - Morning

Live @ My House; Special Experience

Summer Love 2020 - Afternoon

Live @ My House; Special Experience

Summer Love 2020 - Evening

The Story of Live @ My House


Our journey begins in 1999 when I decided that I wanted to be a deejay. I've always had a deep appreciation for and understanding of music, it was apparently the only thing that would sooth me to sleep when I was a baby. When I was given my first guitar, my grandfather and I sat across from each other and he taught me how to play it. My mother would tell stories that they would listen to The Beatles and he would go into the next room and figure the song out, so I guess I was sort of born into it.

When I was 16 I got really into cars (as is my way, to become incredibly passionate about something very quickly if it interests me) and that led me to the group that would introduce me to the world of turntables and vinyl. A local enthusiast shop that I liked to frequent had some great characters and I was eventually invited to a house party, with a live deejay. As I sat there on the couch completely absorbed by house music, I thought to myself "this is what I want to do for the rest of my life".

A (very) short while later I found myself with a couple of turntables and a mixer and no idea what to do with any of it. I would eventually learn the wonders of gain staging and how to make that's already been mixed sound good, but right then I was just trying to figure out how to make sound come out at all.

Fast forward a short while and I was well on my way to making two records actually flow together and not sound like dying cats or bowling pins in the dryer. You see, "back in my day", we had to hold two records together at the same tempo using analog methods and it could be challenging at times.

I played a lot of music in those days, hours and hours a day, and really developed an understanding of how music worked and was structured. I eventually worked up the courage to begin playing for friends and then eventually at local venues. I think for a moment I was known-ish around town, but that's much further down my journey.

I decided that I wanted to go to school to study sound production, and make a bigger name for myself. The idea to move to Chicago to become a world famous deejay and study music formed in my head so after I graduated high school, off I went.

In Chicago my obsession with music became clear. I spent most of every day mixing records and I'm sure the neighbors those first couple of years wanted to throw me into a sewer somewhere in the neighborhood. A lot of things happened to me while I was in Chicago, but two of them were the most important of my life. The path that I would follow after the events in Chicago would go on to define the person that I am to this day.

It was one average day where I was, literally, stepping into my car to drive "home" for the weekend and I met The Canadians. I know we think of love at first sight as a romantic idea but let me tell you, it applies to the very best of friends as well. It was pretty much just a hello but from that moment I knew I had met a brother. I was invited up to deejay at the first of what would become MANY martini parties and went without question. Those parties became the highlight of my year every year, but again that's further down my journey.

Let me step aside for a moment to explain something. What actually happened was my roommate who we'll call Ruckus was invited but he couldn't attend and I, having only met The Canadians for a moment, made the decision to attend immediately.

The point is that I had met people that I truly regarded as family and wanted to spend some more time with. Plus Toronto just felt like home to me in a way no other city ever had, or has (sorry Texas...) So I decided to go on my way to Canada and attend a year long intensive program on sound engineering and design. I loved every minute of it and got to experience the best of Toronto, my home, the city that will always be where my heart is centered.

When I finally returned from my studies in Toronto I decided to work in a recording studio. You see, this was back in the mid-2000's when the concept of the home studio was first gaining traction and artists would still come into an actual recording studio. I quickly decided that I didn't enjoy the "studio engineer" part of the creative process, and really I didn't study sound design to work in a studio. I studied sound design so that I would know how to do it for myself.

It was then that the idea of Live @ My House formed. It was actually the name of the first album that I'd ever mixed and thought was good enough to let other people listen to. Before that I would just create mix tapes for myself, but since I only knew how to mix a few records together really they were the same mix tape played in a different order. This is all back before my musical journey really began, but humble beginnings right?

I also began producing music at that time and struggled to find my sound. You can listen to what I had achieved during this period over at https://soundcloud.com/claytonmathews

From there I started playing live wherever I could and I had a lot of fun doing it. The scene when I was trying to get into it was already saturated with many amazing deejays and everyone was looking for acts that could produce and play their own music live. I had always wanted to be a deejay, I didn't want to be a producer. I truly enjoyed (and still do enjoy) putting together the music others have created and making it flow. I was still struggling to find my sound to fit the music that I would mix. The two didn't go together. I was a House deejay, I LOVE House music. It's the sound inside my soul. At the same time, when I produce, what comes out sounds more like Synthwave. I'm pretty sure this is what happens when you're raised playing video games. Well, I suppose I should qualify that as having been raised playing video games when they were 8-bit. It just sort of stuck in my head and that's what would come out whenever I tried. Again, most of this is over on SoundCloud under Clayton Mathews. I created a new SoundCloud for Chromatic Static which can be found at https://soundcloud.com/chromaticstatic and I'll update it when something new comes out. Planning a full release sometime in 2021.

But let's finish the story we started, the story of Live @ My House.

At some point I realized that I didn't have the drive to compete with all the other talent out there so I just made music for myself, mixed records here and there, and that was it. I tried to create full length mixes again but never released any of it. That was just sort of where the idea sat. I was creating mixes Live @ My House, but I had no way to distribute them to my friends so that was that.

Then, years later, something happened. My mentality around creating mixes changed completely. I had always held onto the fact that a deejay mixes records, that's what they do. It took me FOREVER to start using Serato because I was so completely stuck on vinyl. I had waited YEARS to get certain songs because I had to wait for the record. I remember when I was gifted a record that had a song on it I loved I would practically cry. I have a very deep connection to music (if you haven't figured that out) and each record becomes a memory. I know the same can be said for digital forms of music, but the connection to a physical piece of music is just so amazing to me. That is why it took me so long to play digital music in the first place.

Then in 2010 I made a change which would bring us to this very moment. I moved far away from home and needed a job so I applied to Guitar Center (having worked there in the past). Of course I was over in Pro Audio and I got to be around music again every day. You could hear it coming from the next room where people would play guitars, and some of those guys can jam lemme tell you. A new controller called the Twitch came out that didn't have anything to represent the turntables. There were two touch strips to speed up or slow down songs on the fly, but otherwise it was just buttons. I decided that I had put in my time on the turntables, my days as a purist were over. I began making mixes again and enjoying the process. Mixes began to form that I felt were good enough for people to hear and my drive began to return.

2014 was supposed to be my year. I had updated to the newest version of Ableton, subscribed to SoundCloud Pro, and I was gonna make it happen. Well, clearly that didn't happen, but Live @ My House was solidified in my mind and in my heart. I have been creating a yearly special edition called "Summer Love" since 2016 and the monthly episodes go back further than that.

It's finally time for me to show the world what I got, so please enjoy and share the experience whenever you can.

Much love to everyone. Don't forget to sit back, relax, and enjoy the vibes...

Chromatic Static out!