Mattiel have just shared their covers of Beastie Boys and Clash classics.
Today Mattiel have released two covers, both The Clash’s Guns Of Brixton and Beastie Boys’ Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun, taken from their classic second album, Paul’s Boutique released in 1989. Talking about the tracks, both of which were recorded remotely during lock-down, Mattiel and Jonah Swilley said:
“When you make art, it no longer belongs to you. We had this release scheduled for last week, and we’d been working on all the moving parts for a number of months. Both Beasties and The Clash are an integral part of each band member’s musical influences.
After meeting Paul Simonon on the Jools Holland Show in 2018, we started playing Guns of Brixton upon our bassist Travis’s request. Our tour manager, Pete, had the Beastie Boys Book floating around the tour van last summer. We all started reading bits of history from their career and shared our collective interest in their story. Mattiel mentioned covering Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun from Paul’s Boutique and then we hashed out the details at sound check.
In early March of this year, we decided to cut studio versions of both. It should go without saying that we do not condone gun violence. The timing of this release alongside a global awakening is purely coincidental, but undeniably strange. We chose to release them today in order to benefit bandcamp’s donation to the naacp defense fund. They have promised to donate 100% of their share in sales every June tenth from now on. We ask you to interpret these songs as you wish, and we thank Paul Simonon, The Clash, and The Beastie Boys for writing them.“
The covers are accompanied by two dub versions of ‘Guns of Brixton’ created by Al Breadwinner at The Bakery.