I started Mouth 4 Rusty in February 2009 when I found myself a little low and with a lot to figure out.

I’d been making solely instrumental music since 1997 but in a low February 2009 mood I wrote some words again, a few weeks later I put some music to them and then sheepishly recorded the song with two microphones. A few days later I wrote another, and by number four, ‘Good Men Now’, I’d made something I was quite proud of. Instrumental music had become complicated, but this was simple, write and then record, guitar and voice at once, minimal overdubs, especially at first. I tended to record basic tracks that way for the most part throughout the (soon to be eight) albums Mouth 4 Rusty would go on to make.

Eighteen months prior, my long term relationship had broken down and then, dissatisfied with the feeling I was just helping sell unnecessary products by writing about them in magazines, I walked out of journalism as well. I’d moved into an arts collective in Deptford, SE London, and my friend Michael helped me build a small wooden room in an old reception area to live and work in. Lined with old wooden doors, it was really quite raggedly beautiful. I made friends, I built a nice life, I’d been dating, I’d met lovely people, but there were things that were nagging and I couldn’t settle, I needed to grieve and regroup.

I was quite shy about the songs at first, mostly just sharing them with friends online. My friend Fiona was over from Canada and sang backing on one of the early songs and I realised I liked having a female voice alongside mine, so I put the word out and Katie Weatherall piped up. We also enlisted Natalie Sedgwick on violin, having played together for a few periods the previous couple of years. Initially it was just for recording ‘Joyful Under Water’ for a World Ocean Day compilation organised by NOW’s Angela Last, and then we decided to play the arts collective’s festival in Wales. After that we mostly got gigs because people heard us rehearsing, so it was several months before we played outside of the arts scene and in a traditional venue. My housemate Steve Molyneux joined us on floor tom and hi-hat (I’d been playing hi-hat and bass drum with my feet and it was tiring) and then Sarah Glayzer brought cello.

Katie left us in early 2010 just as we self-released our first EP, ‘Time Over Money’, so I put the word out again and got a message from Emma Davis, who’s voice I’d heard and loved a few years before. We continued playing live, found a double bassist and a couple of other drummers at different times, but it seemed to be getting complicated again, especially when it came to recording, and so in 2011 after some wonderful gigs I decided to call it a day.

We had two dates left of our current residency at the Gladstone in Borough but the rest of the band didn’t want to play a farewell gig, so I played the first alone and Emma joined me for the second. After the ‘last’ show we were approached by Ted Reiderer, who wanted us to record with him for his ‘Never Records’ project, a touring installation where Ted would record acts live in the back room, then press two copies onto 12” vinyl. The first copy was given to the artist and the second was added to the racks of his record store-styled library of all the acts he’d recorded and put onto a record, which was touring around the UK, US and Ireland. This experience, especially the instant nature of it, pretty much rejuvenated Mouth 4 Rusty and Emma began working as a duo in earnest, occasionally joined by friends.

I never entirely felt comfortable playing these sorts of songs live. It always seemed like we were bumming out people's evenings, no matter how much the crowd enjoyed it. I tended to think this was music better enjoyed at home. We started putting out albums in 2012, self-releasing six collections of tunes until 2015 when I moved down to the seaside and began hearing other sounds. In the months before leaving London Emma and I rehearsed a 7th set of set of songs but the recordings didn’t turn out great so we remade the album after I’d moved, and then made one more album for good measure, which will oneday see the light of day. In the meantime, this is a collection of some of my favourite songs from a six and a half year period where I shared a beautiful friendship with Emma, slowly replayed my story back to myself and, probably most importantly, had some amazing experiences playing alongside some wonderful bands and artists in some astonishing environments created by beautifully-hearted people.

Performed by

Matt Rigsby Smith - Guitar, voice, clarinet, melodica, percussion, harmonium, glockenspiel, bass guitar and other things
Emma Davis - Voice, melodica and percussion (except on ‘Good Men Now’, ‘Bikes’ and ‘Small Recordings’)

with

Fiona Stewart - Violin on ‘If You Were My Punishment’, ‘Very Well Made’, ‘Bikes’, ’Long Gone Trust’ and ‘Women and Children and Men’, third vocal on ‘Joyful Under Water’
Natalie Sedgwick - Violin on ‘Joyful Under Water’ and ‘Good Men Now’
Sarah Glayzer - Cello on ‘Good Men Now’
James Hitchins - Double bass on ‘Good Men Now’
Janine Baker - Double bass on ‘If You Were My Punishment’ and piano and double bass ’Long Gone Trust’ and ‘Women and Children and Men’
Nate Trier - Piano on ‘If You Were My Punishment’
Jack Collins - Organ on ‘The Leaver’
Gabriel Barrett - Trumpet on ‘Woman and Children and Men’
Katie Weatherill - Voice on ‘Good Men Now’
Chiara Goldsmith - Third voice on ‘Very Well Made’
Karina 'Seafoxes' Zakri - Third voice on 'Women & Children & Men'
Daniel 'Laish' Green - Third voice on 'Long Gone Trust'

Recorded by Matt at the ever-moving Make Do and Mend, except the guitar and voice for ‘Go Where You’re Loved’, recorded at Studio Klank by Simon Nelson.

‘Go Where You’re Loved’ from the forthcoming ‘So Long City, Sorrow, Sadness’ LP

‘If You Were My Punishment’, ‘Long Gone Trust’ and ‘Women and Children and Men’ from ‘Must Take More Care’ (2015)

‘Very Well Made’ and ‘Bikes’ from ‘Fire, Mice and Other People’ (2012)

‘The Leaver’ is from ‘What’s Getting Somewhere?’ (2013)

‘Small Recordings’ from ‘Forgotten Songs’ (2016)

‘Good Men Now’ and ‘Joyful Under Water’ from ‘Good Men Now’ (2012)

Ochiltree Music 2020
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