Matt Carney | My.Dam.Playlist

MY.DAM.PLAYLIST series | Episode 1  | Matt Carney

The best playlists, shared by our Amsterdam friends | Get in touch if you have a good playlist to share and tell us all about it.

“Hi my name is Matt Carney and I’m an actor in Amsterdam. I’m going to talk about what kind of music I listen to … it’s kind of broad, I generally look on the Discover part of Spotify and start collecting songs which make me feel something.

I’m influenced by growing up in the UK, I’m British, and I’ve got a certain taste for bands like The XX and London Grammar. I’ve just discovered a new band called Lyves, they sound a bit like Massive attack. So, I’m definitely on the side of an Electro indie British sound and I listen to that when I’m … I’m often working at home …

But also I like very chilled, non-vocal music as well. So I listen to Alaskan Tapes, they’re really chilled, a bit like James Blake without so much techno, more kind of dreamy, melancholy tracks. I need something in the background but nothing too vocal – so the Alaskan Tapes is really great. It’s kind of like Sigur Ros but abstract.

I go to the gym and I do have high energy tracks … I like Låpsley … she’s a London girl, she’s been compared to Adele. She’s not better, just electronic music that’s more high energy. And Joisin, I discovered recently, a kind of Radiohead sound. I also like an artist Haevn, one track I’ve listened to for a while has now gone really mainstream, Bright Lights. It gets you started in the day.

I like to wake up with music, I go on a musical journey during the day, I start chilled, change in the afternoon to high energy tracks, if I need to concentrate, I take vocal music out of the playlist.

I even go classical … Ludovico Einaudi, so contemporary classic. I also like Jóhann Jóhannsson, who I saw in Amsterdam. I’m influenced by bands that come to Paradiso and ADE. So through that I discovered Kiasmos – they’re a Scandinavian-Icelandic duo.

I’ve been influenced living in Amsterdam; there’s a Scandi influence, and techno coming from Berlin and homegrown techno – not on the hard side, more easier-listening techno.

So I’ve got other artists, like Haux, which I don’t know where they’re from, I think they’re European, they have more of a Scandi sound [they are American electro].

That’s my playlist – it goes across genres but I have a structure in my day, going from one genre to another. And, I like Canadian dreamy folk and the blues, soul too.”

[a rough transcript of what Matt said]

On Spotify: My.Dam.Playlist | Matt Carney