Interview with Matthew Dear: The Shapeshifter of Electronic Music
A militia man of the international electronic scene — producing whimsical music at a militaristic rate. From Detroit warehouse raves to Depeche Mode tour support, to fatherhood and a life rebuilt. This is the long game.
"A militia man of the international electronic scene, producing whimsical music at a militaristic rate — and, most importantly, he became a father of three kids."
Professionally making music for close to 20 years, Matthew Dear has been to many different places — and between the six years of Beams and new album Bunny, he started realizing certain concepts of life.
Texas-born, Michigan-formed, Detroit-inspired. Matthew Dear is Ghostly International's founding artist, one of the architects of the Spectral Sound dancefloor aesthetic, and a uniquely three-headed creative entity — equally innovative under his own name, as Audion on Spectral Sound, and as False on Minus.
His debut album Leave Luck to Heaven came out in 2003 to a four-star Rolling Stone review. His Black City album was named Pitchfork's Best New Music. He toured internationally with Depeche Mode and Hot Chip. And then, somewhere between records, he had three kids — and everything changed.
Raised in Kingsville, Texas, on country and rock — until his older brother gifted him cassettes by Depeche Mode and Nitzer Ebb, sparked by the developing romance between South Texas and electronic music.
His dad was a fisherman and managed an Elk's Lounge where he played guitar. The family moved to Michigan in 1995; at 16, Matthew started recording acoustic guitar to 4-track tapes.
In the late nineties he discovered the abandoned warehouse rave scene in Detroit and began making techno music on an Ensoniq sampler. In college, he delivered pizzas and threw his own raves in the pizza shop basement on weekends.
Matthew met Sam Valenti IV at a college house party and became the founding artist on Ghostly International. He had already brought his demo cassette to the legendary Carl Craig, who encouraged him to keep working.
His first release on Ghostly — also the label's first — was a split 12" with the late Dave "Disco D" Shayman. The title track, Put Your Hands Up For Detroit, was sampled into a #1 international hit a decade later.
He shaped Ghostly's dancefloor offshoot Spectral Sound with several releases under his techno alias Audion. His debut album Leave Luck to Heaven arrived in 2003 to praise in the New York Times and a four-star Rolling Stone review.
"Dear's unique in having established three equally innovative personae — each one genre-advancing in its own right, each one a different facet of the same restless creative intelligence."
Ninu Nina / Antakly Projects, 2013Matthew retired from a life of wanton excess — after years of drug and alcohol-induced malaise.
Released Bunny, collaborating with Tegan and Sara, Detroit's Protomartyr, and Ricardo Villalobos.
Remixed Spoon, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and The Postal Service. Contributed ideas and ears to General Electric, Microsoft, and Ford. MGMT invited him to remix every song from Little Dark Age.
Released Preacher's Sigh & Potion: Lost Album — a collection shelved from a decade earlier.
Matthew teaches and lives in Michigan with his wife, three kids, three goats, and a dog.
Three Personae,
One Artist
// Genre-advancing across every alias
The songwriter and composer — from bedroom-crafted debut to Pitchfork Best New Music. Leave Luck to Heaven, Asa Breed, Black City, Beams, Bunny. The most expansive and personal of the three.
The dancefloor architect — shaping Ghostly's techno offshoot with uncompromising, floor-focused productions. A cornerstone of the Spectral Sound aesthetic and one of Detroit techno's crucial bridges to the 2000s.
Released under Richie Hawtin's Minus label as False; later as Brain on Carl Craig's label — completing the circle with the man who first heard his demo cassette and told him to keep going.
Discover more artists chosen for their ideas,
not their visibility.
Antakly Projects is an independent platform dedicated to artists, musicians, photographers, designers, and thinkers at every stage — from emerging voices to established masters. Every interview is selected for depth, not reach.