Fragile Hands
Morgan White
Guest Columnist
Nick Matako of new melodic hardcore band Fragile Hands is a veteran of playing underground music in Virginia. His new effort as founder and vocalist may be his most personal attempt at playing music yet.
Ink Magazine (IM): What genre would you classify Fragile Hands as?
Nick Matako (NM): If I had to put us in a genre, I would say melodic hardcore. Genre’s suck.
IM: Amen to that. Top 5 Influences?
NM: Pinpointing influences is really hard for me. All of the guys listen to an array of bands and pull influences from them. Collectively, I would have to say we look to bands like The Carrier, No Bragging Rights, Hundredth, Counterparts, and Verse.
IM: What is the song writing process like?
NM: Well, Shawn and I wrote the entire demo ourselves. We wrote until we found a sound we really wanted to expand on. We then started recruiting members to solidify our lineup and I am excited to see how our sound evolves with bringing in these new members. Each person is really awesome to work with. So, I imagine this new lineup will put out some really cool music.
IM: You guys are still pretty new. As far as focusing on what lyrics for each song talk about what’s the overall main focus for the message that’s trying to be put out?
NM: I just write from past experiences to be honest. I want to write real lyrics without focusing on elaborate metaphors that can be taken in different ways. I appreciate and love many bands who write in such ways but I wanted something different for this band. I use my lyrics as a way to get out my personal anger, depression, and terrible times in my life. Just unadulterated as possible. It may seem linear, but I would rather be real and simple than to sugarcoat it and it lose some of its meaning. With my lyrics, my hope is to share my life with the listener and maybe they can relate to it. I’m not trying to save the world. I just want to show the listener that you can overcome whatever obstacles life throws at you. I did and I’m here for you regardless of the situation.
IM: Looking forward to the future how would you like the following of Fragile Hands to look when you get to the point where the band can’t go any further?
NM: To be honest, I have played in a lot of bands. I have toured a lot of this country. I do not have a set goal for the future. Our name has a significant meaning for me. Despite all of the bands I’ve been in, I was too stupid to hold onto some of them. I wasn’t a strong enough of a
person to ride a band out until its completion. I got in the way. My hands weren’t strong enough to hold onto something that meant a lot to me. This concept goes for a lot of things in my life, but other than my family; music is everything to me. Our demo is entitled “Between Here and Infinity”. The whole idea behind it is really simple. It is about feeling like something or some is holding you down from accomplishing goals that you set for yourself. In my life, it was either drinking, rough patches with family members, bad friendships, doing stupid things, or being a stupid kid. We all have dreams and big plans, but we are the only ones that can keep us from accomplishing those goals and ambitions. My goals for this band are infinite.
IM: When will the demo be released?
NM: We are trying to release it Valentine’s Day weekend. We are recording, mixing, and mastering this release all in my studio. It has been taking longer than expected, but Valentine’s Day weekend is the projected release.
