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Materia are a band like no other.
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They’ve made a name for themselves with their nostalgic, yet futuristic sound, devoid of any guitar. And they’ve pushed the envelope once more on their latest offering, Starlight Fantasy. We caught up with the band’s electric violinist, Habibi Favilla, to chat about the track, their history, and more.
Hysteria: What’s the Materia origin story?
Habibi: We all have different interpretations of this. But basically, Tim (Barker, vocals/keys), Jason (Mackaway, electric mandolin) and I were uni friends. We were hanging out, playing music, and we accidentally wrote our first single, Slipping Away. We were just jamming, and it came out. We decided to be a band from there.
The Materia sound is so unique. Where’d it come from?
I had taken a break from making classical music. I have an improvisation background. I was getting into electric violin and wanted to learn how to play more rhythmic stuff. Jason, who was originally a guitarist, started learning the mandolin. And that has the same tuning as the violin.
We were trading tips and playing together. And as we did that, we realised the two instruments worked really well together. We couldn’t see anyone else doing violin and mandolin as a duo. Others would just have them as cameo instruments but never the mainstay.
Half of it was just us experimenting. We wondered if no one else had done it because it didn’t work or they hadn’t thought of it. That’s why we ended up pursuing it.
Starlight Fantasy is a reflection of how kids in the 70s and 80s grew up with the moon landing. They spent so much time out of this world, for lack of a better word, that they forgot how precious earth was.
[Habibi Favilla, Materia]
Let’s dig into the new single, Starlight Fantasy.
Starlight Fantasy is Tim’s baby. He completely wrote it, more or less composed it and then brought it to the band.
We were writing for our album. And throughout that process, we’d developed a bit of a concept. Basically, reflecting on life and its greater meaning. Tim and I are really interested in space and space travel. For him, Starlight Fantasy is a reflection of how kids in the 70s and 80s grew up with the moon landing. They spent so much time out of this world, for lack of a better word, that they forgot how precious earth was.
As a group, we speak for most people when we say we’re concerned about climate change, how we’re treating the planet, and how unsustainable it all seems. For Tim, this song was him acknowledging that as much as you want to keep your head out into the sky, you’ve got to bring it home and look after the planet. It’s a hopeful song.
You recently sold out your first headline show – massive news! Give us some memorable moments from the night?
It was really cool. It was exciting to have it sell out and see a whole bunch of family, friends and strangers. It was incredibly humbling too. The supports were amazing and a lot of fun! We’d never seen or heard of our opening act, Lettuce Pray, before. We just heard they were cool, but weren’t sure what to expect. They basically shredded the guitar for 30 minutes, and it was incredible.
Who would you most like to share the stage with–dead or alive, and why?
All of us have different answers to this! We’re somewhat unironically bugging Greta Van Fleet to let us support them at some point. That’s a short-term goal.
I think a few of us would love to play with Foo Fighters. It’d be dumb fun. And as far as I’m aware, Dave Grohl is into zany, fun stuff.
What’s next?
We have a couple more singles coming out. One will be out relatively soon. Those are in preparation for our album, which will drop at the end of the year.
There are a couple of music videos in the pipeline too. The one for Starlight Fantasy will drop soon. To launch the album, there’ll be a few exciting things. We’re doing an art book and a few other fun things. We’re also in the midst of organising an east coast tour to go with it.
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