Matthew Daniel Siskin began writing songs as Gambles in August 2012 with no goal or motive other than the past few years needed addressing, and things that had gone unsaid for too long needed saying. “Trust”, the first song released publicly came together quickly and spontaneously between friends. Nicolas Vernhes and Matthew (long time close friends & collaborators) were spending a late night at the Rare Book Room where Vernhes keeps a recording studio, label, and home. Towards the end of the evening the two ended up downstairs in the studio where “Trust” was sang in a single take, and with no words written. “I think I just needed to say all of those things in that way, and it sort of just happened – and there is nobody else I trust as much as nico, besides myself, to be in the right place, to say them.” “Trust was just the beginning – I think a new process for me began that night, and I realized I didn’t need to sit down and really think about it too hard, it just had to happen. there’s about 20 or so other songs which came together a lot like that. It’s all stuff I’ve lived, a lot of it is pretty hard to hear played back – but that sort of told me I was going in the right direction.” Gambles is the end of a process and of many processes, the end of choices and the removal of style, the end of endlessness and self-doubt. Gambles is music and people, boiled down, pressed dry, sliced thin, and left to dry. Yet it’s clear that for Matthew, Gambles is also everything, a life-saving perspective into events that demand to be acknowledged, registered, declared and when ready, left. In October, Matthew sent “Trust” to another friend, filmmaker Grant Singer. Upon hearing the track, Singer immediately reached out to discuss collaborating. A few weeks later, and over the course of a weekend, they would shoot the video for “Trust” in Williamsburg and the Far Rockaways. Matthew will play his first show as Gambles on December 9th at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York.
