Another degree of separation

Diploma in hand, 'U' grad carves out recording career

By Jason Birchmeier

Daily Arts Writer

While most University students aspire to land lucrative jobs with large corporations, a small percentage pass up opportunities such as these in their search for self-fulfillment. Back in the fall of 1996, Matt Chicoine graduated from the University and decided to follow his muse. Rather than get a normal nine-to-five job like most of his peers, Chicoine moved to Detroit to pursue a career as an electronic musician.

Since Chicoine left, he has quietly risen in stature among Detroit's thriving, globally recognized electronic music community. As a member of Carl Craig's Planet E label, Chicoine - who calls himself Recloose - has released two records to critical praise, has plenty more music on the way, has toured with Craig's Innerzone Orchestra, frequently DJs at Detroit's most popular club and recently showcased his music live for the first time to a packed crowd this past Saturday night at Motor.

Opening up for Carl Craig, Recloose performed songs from his two Planet E records - "Spelunking" and "So This is the Dining Room" - and some other new tracks that will be released in April. Much of the enormous crowd that had assembled to see one of Craig's rare live performances as Paperclip People were treated to Recloose's fresh style of emotionally charged, sample-based funk. Many of those at Motor seemed genuinely intrigued by the young musician, and a large portion gyrated delicately to his unique sounds.

"It was fun to up there," he said. "Usually when I play Motor I'm stuck in the back room. You can't really rock back there because no one's paying attention so being on center stage was nice for a change. I felt more empowered because it was all my music. It feels good knowing that I made this, and I'm making people happy."

While Recloose may be progressively making a name for himself with his music in a city saturated with talented producers and DJs, it wasn't long ago that he faced a fork in the road. Graduating with a University of Michigan degree in English, he wasn't at all excited about getting a full-time job and instead chose to further his musical career. Formerly known as DJ Bubblicious, Recloose had been an established DJ in Ann Arbor for some time, DJing on WCBN and at clubs such as Bird of Paradise. It was at this decisive moment that Recloose decided to follow his muse and take the next step: Creating his own music.

"The way I look at it is like there are two kinds of people," Recloose said from his home in Detroit. "There are people who are meant to be adults and people who are meant to be kids and enjoy themselves. And I think that's the difference: Kids enjoy themselves. I want to be a kid my whole life and always do what I want to do and be happy and chase my dream."

"This may sound like a cliché, but I'd rather have a young-life crisis than a mid-life crisis," he said. "I'd rather figure this shit out than do what I'm suppose to do, which is get a nine to five and put a suit on and go work at the 'blah, blah, blah' ad agency and hate it, you know? Live comfortably as far as money but not feel fulfilled at all."

So far, Recloose's music has played an important role in the changing vision of Carl Craig's Planet E label, arguably the most consistent and renowned label for electronic music in Detroit. Upon initial release in early '98, the sample-based music of Recloose - with its free-from jazz structuring, down-tempo hip-hop pacing and sense of humanity - was quite unlike anything coming out of Detroit. Recloose merged the sample aesthetic of underground hip-hop producers such as DJ Shadow with the industrial-tinged techno aesthetic of Detroit.

"I don't have any drum machines," Recloose explained in reference to his break away from Detroit's techno tradition. "I get all my drums from mostly records. It's been mostly sample-based, yet lately I've been writing a lot more of the chord changes, bass lines, lead lines and stuff like that. All the extra sounds, the drums and the vocals, are sampled."

When asked about what he shares in aesthetic with his fellow Detroit peers, Recloose spoke of the two essential ingredients for his music: funk and emotion. "I think that's the parallel between me and Detroit," he explained. "The basis for most of Detroit techno is that it's got to move you rhythmically as well as musically. The changes are usually pretty emotional, or they're deep so they're leaving you with some impression."

In addition to his choice to use primarily samples for his music, Recloose breaks away from the canonical tradition of Detroit techno in another way: He writes his music with the home listener in mind rather than the DJ. While a lot of techno tends to be rather redundant with its emphasis on repetition and tone rather than musical development, Recloose's songs stay truer to the school of jazz than techno. Melodies and vocals drift in and out of his songs rather unpredictably, infusing the music with a sense of evolution and progress.

"There are two different approaches to making records," Recloose explained. "There is one where you have only the DJ in mind aside from your own creative process. You'll make the song with the DJ in mind; therefore, you won't do a lot of arranging. I kind of try to do that, but I also try to make it flow in a way that you can listen to the whole thing from beginning to end and it doesn't get redundant at any point. It doesn't have to have a DJ on the other end, tweaking it out to make it fresh."

Spending the majority of his time at home working on music may sound great relative to everyone else's experience with normal jobs, but Recloose spoke of several drawbacks, most notably his current lack of revenues. "I'm not a superstar DJ, and I'm definitely not well paid," Recloose admitted. "That's the nature of the game. There's that certain level of record sales, and when you're selling 'x' amount of records, you're not really getting paid regardless of what label you're on, you know? Not unless you're really trying to sell records, which usually means you're compromising your music." Recloose's unwillingness to compromise his desires has brought him down a strange road few students have the courage to travel. Many envy the opportunities bestowed upon University grads, who often get first dibs on many of the best jobs in the country, but some students always pass up these opportunities in their search for self-fulfillment. In the case of Recloose, this meant courageously attempting to make a sincere career as a musician, true to his craft rather than the aims of commerce.

"I'm on this seesaw right now," Recloose said in conclusion. "I'm wanting to think that I can do this, but if the money doesn't pick up, at some point I'm going to have to figure something out. I went to Michigan, you know? I have a degree, and I'm still here chasing my dream. I'm having good results, I think, but there's a point where you gotta survive, too. Being a starving artist is only cool up to a point. You can only romanticize it so much. It would be great if I could make this my livelihood, and in the future keep making music, making it more of a career."

Three and a half years after graduating, the young artist may still struggle with his decision to pass up a secure path through life with ample spending money, a nice car and a house in the suburbs with white picket fences and rose bushes, but one cannot deny his remarkable accomplishments. No matter the path his life may head in the future, Recloose will at least never regret compromising his dreams for the dollar bill.

Courtesy of Jason Birchmeier

Matt Chicoine takes his college-educated act on stage now for a living, where he prefers to be called Recloose.