Former Atlantan applies telephone game to music

Former Atlanta musician David Matysiak is still playing a kids' game, but he's turned it into art.

Now based in Omaha, Neb., the former member of Atlanta band Jet by Day has taken the old game of "Telephone" and applied it to music on an international scale. He creates a piece of music, sends it to another musician, who then manipulates and/or reinterprets it before passing it on to another musician in the chain. He's dubbed the project Telephono.

More than 50 artists from California to Italy participated in the project. The enterprise has resulted in a limited edition of 200 sets of five vinyl 7" singles in screened, handcrafted and individually numbered boxes created by Athens-based artist Jordan Noel. The project is an ongoing effort that now includes a soldier stationed in Iraq, whose work could be part of a possible second physical volume. A small number of the sets should be available at Criminal Records in Little Five Points beginning Tuesday, but they can also be ordered off the Web site.

Looking for something different

The story of Telephono begins with Matysiak's move to Omaha, where a couple of fellow Dunwoody High grads were already settled. "I was going on a road trip a couple of years ago, and I ended up in Omaha a couple of times. Derek [Pressnall] and Nick [White], who are in Tilly and the Wall, they live out here and I went to high school and junior high with them. So basically, I'd known a lot of people here. Long story short, it was just a change of pace and I was looking to write some different music and Omaha was the place for me."

Part of his attempt at different music was Coyote Bones, which began as a solo outlet for Matysiak's music. "As a musician you want to grow, you kind of want to play with different people. You want to challenge yourself. When I started Coyote Bones, that became more of a collaborative project where every song seemed to take me into a different room with different songwriters. There were about 17 to 19 people on that record. After that, I landed the residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art."

That's where the project came together. He says he didn't want to have to worry about egos, expectations and putting out a record. "I just want something where it's more of the process, not the product. I was kind of burned out about having deadlines. I just wanted to write. I didn't want to have to worry about what happened to it."

What happened is pretty cool, though. Take the original track Matysiak calls "Mazzy Star married our hearts that night in 7th grade when we first french kissed." It begins life as a gently strummed acoustic guitar with Matysiak cooing soft "ooohs" over it. By the time it's reached Ludvig Rylander of Swedish band the Concretes, it's a twisted pop song that throbs with quiet menace and swirling electronics.

'Something everyone can do'

You can hear more of the nuts and bolts of the project (and much of what is contained in the vinyl set) online, but Matysiak acted as curator for the tracks mastered for the vinyl release, choosing the most interesting completed pieces and spotlighting the diversity of the contributions. The vinyl set give listeners "the whole picture, and if you want to delve farther, then you can," Matysiak says, "but if you don't feel like it or don't have the time, like most people, at least you get the message and you get the vinyl and you get the art."

And speaking of art, designer Noel has been working with Matysiak for many years, and the artist even toured with Jet By Day, selling merchandise at the shows.

"We wanted to make something that was really special and at least matched how special the music was, with all these amazing people being involved in the project," Noel says. The sleeves that house the singles are numbered, making them much like a limited edition print. "I come from the school of just doing as much by hand as possible, so I though that since were only doing 250 copies of the whole thing that they should be hand-screened and assembled. I'm actually making every single one of the sleeves."

Aside from the music (and art) being created, the work serves another purpose for Matysiak, too. "I think projects like this are really important for artists and musicians just to clear their palettes and start something new or start over," Matysiak says. "Do anything to change it up, make it a little bit more interesting."

It's not just for musicians and artists, either. Matysiak has set up a social networking site (telephono.ning.com) attached to the Telephono site where anyone can take a whack at manipulating a track.

"It's more about letting people in on it. It's more about letting it be something that everyone can do. I'm not trying to saying this is most original idea in the world. It's an adaptation of something that makes sense to everybody. I feel like it can open creative doors for some people that are sometimes going to take the easy way out and say 'I don't play music' or 'I don't do art.' It's too easy for all of us to keep saying that, and I think that more of should say 'I'll give it a shot.'"