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Deer Fellow - Cinematic Pop Folk |
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Imagine if you will a couple of gamers meet online while intensely
competing against each other and then develop a crush and decide to
meet. Well, that is not at all how things happened with Alyssa Kelly and
Matt Salois who now call Austin, Texas home.
Alyssa says, “It is a very classic Austin musician meeting about eleven
years ago. We both liked each other’s sets at an open mic and Matt came
up and introduced himself to me. It was my first night at open mic, but
Matt was a regular. A couple of months later we sang together a cover
song at the open mic.”
They are not native Austinites, but both have been in the Texas city
long enough to claim it as home, with Alyssa having moved from Kansas
City Missouri, thirteen years ago and Matt was born in San Deigo, but
grew up in Houston, prior to moving to Austin in 2009. That is a long
way to go to find your musical selves and to marry someone, although it
was not planned that way.
They stopped by to chat about their recently released album Hues
and Matt Salois explains why that title was picked.
“It started with
the song “Beautiful
Gray”
and that is about this in between will they or won’t they start a
relationship. The feelings with that we incorporated into “Beautiful
Gray,” just like it is not black and white,” says Matt, before Alyssa
adds the word, “haziness,” which Matt echoes.
Continuing Matt says, “The titular track Hues was actually based
off a video game Hue, which is a video game about getting through
obstacles and challenges, by manipulating backgrounds and colors or
things that are in your way or changing a landscape, so you can see
something you didn’t see before. It is all about the emotions tied to
different colors and the perspective you can get depending on what you
are feeling that day or that week or the mood that you are set in. The
song “So Low,” is about depression and is blue.
The good thing about video games is you do not have to play video games
to understand the concept behind it. The video game is an inspirational
metaphor how the way
emotions help you navigate what you are doing and how you are feeling.”
Alyssa adds, “There are a couple (of songs) that lean romantic, because
we just got married in November (2025). There are two that were
positively romantic. My “Beautiful Gray,”
I would not say is positive, but it is about romance. We tried to
get a lot of different emotions and perspectives on the album.
I wrote that song about 10 years ago. I saw some prose that someone had
written on Tumbler, about love in a hazy, in between spot. I thought I
really like that and I am going to make a song about it. It is not about
me at all. It is one of the first ones we started to sing together. Then
we put it on the shelf for a long time and for some reason we brought it
back and I am glad we did. I think it is one of my favorite ones that I
have written. Will they, won’t they. One person is all in and the other
person isn’t. The previous recording was a 2023 EP called Unraveling and it too was inspired by a video game.
Matt explains, “I grew up playing video games and I didn’t for awhile,
but when COVID hit and we were having so much downtime at home, I picked
back up on it and I started playing these little indie games that
friends recommended or somehow, I heard about. There is one called
Unravel and it is about these two yarn characters and it would seem
that their yarn coming undone was a problem, but it actually helped them
to achieve all of their goals to get through levels. It was like oh you
made a rope or you made a bridge. You tied together with your partner,
so you could sling over a gap, We used that to show anxiety or just
being heard and it is therapeutic. You think I feel that way too and
with all of those solidarity feelings.”
Alyssa chimes in, “I tried to play this game and I am very bad. With the
branding of the album, we did some yarn pictures.”
Contrary to what people might think, Alyssa says, “We have been playing
music together for ten to eleven years, but we don’t write together.
Usually, if I am singing, I wrote it and if Matt is singing, he wrote
it, with the exception of “Easier,” which is the first song we wrote
together and we wrote that last summer when we were in Yellowstone
National Park. We were driving down winding roads that were very
dangerous.”
Matt continues with the story, “I had a guitar in the passenger seat
while we were driving and I was coming up with vocal melodies and lyrics
(kids don’t try this when your parents are driving). Typically,
we write separately and then bring the song to the other person and we
make a few tweaks here and there.”
We could not accept this
for just what it is and instead posed the question; what is going to
happen if you decide you want to create an instrumental?
Alyssa replies, “That will probably require a little more collaboration.
I am very slow with my writing process. It takes me months to a year to
finish a song and partly because I don’t actively make time to sit down
and do it. When I do usually, I am looking to find a chord progression
first and then melody. That will inspire a concept for lyrics. Sometimes
I will start with a lyric line that has somehow fluttered into my head.
Usually, I start with the music first.”
And you Matt? “I usually
start with the guitar first and then fill in some blah, blah, blah vocal
melodies and then come back later when there is a concept that I want to
say and fill the words in with.”
Alyssa acknowledges that Matt is a very fast songwriter.
Matt elaborates, “I do write a lot quicker than Alyssa does. I would say
too many (songs), too often, so it is hard for me to pick a song to move
forward with. There are a lot of options in my song bank.”
“You get really in the zone. (Her voice deepens) His brain won’t go
anywhere else. I must finish this song,” she says, gesturing comically.
Matt continues, “I usually revise (the song) for a week or so until I
feel like it is really done. The instruments and that come later.”
We ask them to talk about the song “Fool For You,” that leans more into
Cinematic Pop than it does Folk, upon which Matt Salois sings lead.
“The chorus came
first and once I knew I wanted that chorus I filled in all of the verses
and bridge with lines about being a buffoon. (Matt, you forgot the
puppet!) It leads up to (the lengths to which you) will go to
impress somebody and to win them over, as a love interest,” (he
quotes lines from the song and no we are not going to tell you the
lyrics, buy the music!)
“It is more like the Great American Songbook style of writing,” Alyssa
says, putting the words into air quotes.
Matt picks up the thought, “So, it feels more like the standards and a
little more old- school, fashion style,” as they acknowledge in unison
that the Great American Songbook is an influence on their writing.”
“I grew up listening to the oldies radio station every morning, while
getting ready for school. My parents also had it on in the car a lot. I
listened to the music of my time as well.
Thanks for listening to good music mom and dad!” says Alyssa.
Matt adds, “The music was better back then.”
With a really big smile Alyssa says that their harmonies seemed to come
to them naturally and boy it has been decades since you have heard
harmonies this good.
Matt says, “It took me a bit to know that I could harmonize, but as soon
as I opened that gate, I loved it and it never stopped.”
Austin is a city not known for duos and can hardly be described as a
place that is awash with Cinematic Pop with Folk influences, so how have
you found this musical ride? Alyssa thoughtfully says, “It has been very hard. It is very saturated.”
Matt finishes the thought, “In population and musicians.”
“I think our sound is
pretty niche. That fact we are a duo is pretty (niche), because it is a
band focused town,” Alyssa says.
Surely though, you must have an audience with a sound that may be niche,
but is wonderful.
“We are slowly chipping away and people are slowly getting to know who
we are. It is hard to fast track success in a niche genre. When somebody
comes up to us after a show, I think yeah, you get us, you understand,”
says Alyssa.
Matt says, “We try to write songs that are a little bit different and
feel less recycled and not like the top forties template.”
One of those more unique songs is “Cold-Blooded.” Has Truman Capote come
back from the dead?
Matt begins, “That one is just a hate letter to all of the haters. It is
about the haters who get off on bringing people down and that we have
all met in our lives. People who are mean for no reason and just for the
sake of it. People who are always contradicting you and making you feel
lesser then, just for their own enjoyment.”
“It is about the snaky people and you can swear they are reptilian,
because they have claws and cold blood in their veins. There is a line
like that in one of the verses.
Everybody has someone in mind when they hear the lyrics. It is about
that person,” says Alyssa.
Alyssa takes the vocal lead for the song “Invisible.”
“This one is about social anxiety and (people being) introverted. It is
about not being seen or heard. I wrote it about some of the people in
the open mic that really
didn’t care about me as a person. It was just performative,” explains
Alyssa.
Matt agrees and says, “You have a line exchanging pleasantries, but no
one gives a damn, which I think applies to a lot of different
industries. I like the first line, drowning in a crowded room.”
Alyssa expands on that thought, “Now it is about our music in this
internet world and clawing through all of the noise just to get our
music out.”
The song is born out of their own experiences and Alyssa explains why,
“I was painfully shy. To this day I still get super, super embarrassed
performing instrumentally, just piano or just violin. There is something
about singing that I feel like I can just do it without feeling nervous.
I think part of it is that we have each other to lean on and it helps.
There is comfort in knowing that if we mess up, we mess up together. M:
And if we triumph, we triumph together. It took me a long time to get
over the stage fright nerves. I still deal with them, but I have gotten
a lot better.
Please take time
to visit the Deer Fellow
website,
follow them
on
Instagram
and listen to
their music
on YouTube
.
#DeerFellow #AustinTexasMusic #CinematicPopMusic #RivetingRiffs #RivetingRiffsMagazine #EntrevistaMusica
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