Blue Dog - The interview

Ever thought of an anarchist dog that also happens to be blue? If not, don’t fret; Matthias Konecny surely did! Matthias writes and sings about climate change under the name Blue Dog. Creating an eclectic mix of styles, from German Romanticism and yodeling to jazz and classical, Matthias’s music touches upon the importance of human connection, love, and the ecosystem but still keeps a raw and humorous energy. A beautiful conversation with Matthias led to the interview below for a deep dive into the stories behind the Blue Dog. If the interview with Matthias still leaves room for curiosity, more ways to get in contact with his music is by streaming his latest release, Songs of the Anthropocene III, on all streaming services. Blue Dog will also have a live performance at Theatre Mascini in Amsterdam on the 14th of March, 2024.

A: The first thing that interested me so much was your usage of the term Anthropocene. Can you elaborate on your choice a bit?
M: The Anthropocene is the era in which humans shape the planet’s future. A million years from now, when there will be no more humans on this planet, there will still be a tiny layer of solidified plastic as a geological memory of the time when we were in charge of the nastiness that happened to the planet. It’s a coat hanger for my songs. We’re destroying the ecosystem that we are dependent on, designing our apocalypse.

A: Do you still have hope for a better future?
M: Hope is a problematic concept. I like to say to myself, this is the world I want to see and then act on that. Hoping can be this empty concept that doesn’t lead to action. I see a lot of people saying things will be alright, and things are not going to be alright; we are quickly going extinct. We can either act against that - to slow it down or maybe even stop it. Or, we can continue doing what we do right now.

A: Is that what you feel like you’re doing with your music, bringing awareness to this issue? Or is it some sort of first step of taking action?
M: I write music because I’m feeling this anxiety. Sometimes, I feel frustrated and angry, and that inspires me to write music. To the listener I want to bring awareness and encourage you to be part of an ecosystem again. I also want to simply heal and provide solace and a bit of clarity in these ridiculous times. And I want to bring people together with my music and show that you can deal with predicaments through creativity.

A: Do you think climate change is more related to institutions or the individual?
M: We need institutions to be there for the people instead of their own interests, then eventually dissolve them when we don’t need them anymore. It’s probably not going to happen that way, though. We’re moving towards a sort of fascism really fast, which is the opposite of deinstitutionalizing, decentralizing, and seeing the value of people and what they can do individually to make a better future. What I can do as an individual is change my own actions to be in line with my beliefs and the world that I want to see. What can I contribute in my own small way? Well, one of the things I can do is to write a song about our times and sing it for other people. Another thing I can do is own a small garden where I can plant flowers there so that the bees can come and pollinate. I can help the people around me so that we can form a community. Are those anarchist ideas against institutions? Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter. If the world starts dehumanizing me into being a political and institutional animal, that’s where I rebel. We need to stop thinking in terms of systems and start thinking in terms of humans.

A: I was very curious about the significance or the meaning of the blue dog, it appears to be a common motif in your music and album covers.
M: There are actual blue street dogs in Mumbai, India. Clothing factories dump their residual dye in the water. The dogs go in and bathe and they come out blue. I read an article about them, it’s funny and sad at the same time, just like my music. In a way I am like those Blue Dogs, trying to make sense of a scary world. 

A: Are you the only one that’s working on Blue Dog?
M: I mostly work alone, but two songs from my last album feature drummer Thomas Jaspers. And Oene van Geel plays viola on De Aarde Is een Prachtig Ding (The earth is a beautiful thing). Thomas sometimes joins me at concerts.

A: When you say that you play concerts, do you mostly play at activist demos or concert venues as well?
M: Both, but I make different choices in the material. In my own shows, I focus on telling a story. When I play at a demo, I focus on the (simpler) songs that have the clearest climate change message, although all of my albums are about climate change.

A: You talked about feeling anxious. When did that start?
M: Around 2012, articles started coming out in the public sphere about concepts such as runaway climate change and tipping points, words that I hadn’t heard before. I’d heard about climate change and I was worried about future generations. But, what they actually said is we could hit a point of no return if we continue to mess up our atmosphere and ecosystems. This might affect us within years. Not decades, not centuries, but years. We’ve had a couple of extreme years since about 2016. My anxiety was and still is that these events could end civilization. At the same time, I see the fear around me grow and politics going into a fascist direction. It’s part of a bigger process, a scary one.

A: So, would you say that music, for you, is a sort of therapeutic process?
M: Definitely therapeutic, and not just for me. After I finished the second album, I had written two hours of music about this topic. I was like - I need an audience for this; I can’t sing for the mirror any longer. I started giving more concerts, I started organizing more concerts to reach people and maybe help people find a little comfort in these trying times. The most beautiful thing a person can say about my songs is that it has given them comfort.

A: That touches upon what you said about connection; in Age of Banana, I think that we only need friendship.
M: I think it was Bigger Than Us, which talks about how we all need friends who don’t judge us. I wrote that because my songs at the time were quite harsh. I was also going through a very difficult time personally. I wrote it to remind people that what I want is this connection; what I want is to give and receive love. I don’t want to point the finger and say You are doing this wrong. I’m only saying that I can’t be the only one who is feeling slightly panicked about what’s going on here. So we need friendship in order to feel connection, and we need to be.

A: Because we feel like we’re entitled to take what’s there, you know. Ooh, I’m a human; therefore, I’m entitled to chop down the street and take the wood.
M: That’s exactly what happens. It’s treating nature as a commodity, being a consumer rather than a supporter.

A: Would you mind talking a little bit about your inspiration?
M: One of my primary influences was Tom Lehrer, who wrote socially critical songs in the 1950s. He used existing styles to tell new stories, and that’s something that I also do. In our day, we’ve killed our ecosystems; our stories are dead. We need new ones, but we can use the tropes and styles of the past to tell them. Another influence is Randy Newman. He can write the darkest material and still find the humor, the irony. I think music should be allowed to go to the depths of human depravity and just dwell there for a while. I trust my listeners; if they think it’s cynical, it’s fine. I don’t think it is, but you can be critical of what you hear. Then I’ve got loads of other inspirations over a thousand years of music. I use Gregorian chant in Dat Mooie Leven (That Beautiful Life), and I use hip-hop and rap influences in Water Uit de Kraan (Water From the Tap) from my second album.

A: To end with, can you tell me about the Age of Banana? Was there a reason you chose that fruit?
M: Basically, it could have been any fruit. It’s a placeholder word for anything that just doesn’t make sense anymore. Truth is dead. That’s my opening statement for the album, and then after that, of course, I do give some tips on how to understand and deal with the situation and how to find the things that are actually still valuable and true.

For even more information: 
www.bluedog.amsterdam