Meet Awksymoron

We need bright spots in this world. They lift me up and give me the energy to make green smoothies in the morning. Awksymoron is one of those bright spots. Through an intimate production style, and honest lyrics Athena Matsil will put the mind at ease. If folky tunes are your thing give them a listen and read up as we chat with the artist about their 2020 release “Scaredy Cat, Y?”, and some other fun stuff.

A Self-Portrait by, Awksymoron

Would You Rather

have everything you wear always be four sizes too big or two sizes too small?

I tried thinking about every kind of article of clothing I wear and I think two sizes too small would be super uncomfortable, where four sizes too big would just be kind of inconvenient, so I'll go four sizes too big. To me, big baggy clothing makes more sense thinking about dressing for different kinds of weather too. I'm all about efficiency. Also, I like layering...  it's probably easier to layer loose clothes than it is to layer clothes that are straight-up hard to put on.

Some Questions with Awksymoron

What are your core values as a musician?

Fun, authenticity, DIY, impressive whistling, heartfelt and clever lyrics, humor, bitter-sweetness, empowerment, honesty, vocal harmonies, learning guitar skills, and incorporating them into my writing, playing shows, meeting new people, and making lasting friendships and connections.

What was the creative drive behind your 2020 release ”Scaredy Cat, Y?”?

I’d been stuck in a bit of a creative rut since shifting into lockdown and having no choice but to reimagine music-making and the entire industry in the pandemic world. One day, my friend Kelly Garrett suggested I make cassette tapes. I loved the idea of having cassettes, but I didn’t have a new album or even a few new songs to release. So that’s how I decided I’d begin to work on rereleasing my last 2 EPs, which are now remastered by my bandmate Griffin Jennings. They’re both under 20 minutes long and it felt like the perfect amount of music for a cassette release. Also, my band has never had any kind of merch so we figured this would probably be a successful launch, especially in these times when musicians can’t perform like we used to. It’s not just musicians who miss performing. Concert goers miss the experience of being at shows, being social, picking up merch, etc. And I was right! We sold about half the tapes in the preorder and the rest were gone the day we officially released. It could not have happened without the support of Kelly who pushed me to do this and designed the j-cards, and my friend Danny Evans and the label they help run Metaphorest Records. Metaphorest produced the tapes and sent them out, along with new stickers designed by my bandmate Theo Chapman and lyric booklets I made which feature art by friends I’ve made over the last 10 years. Overall, the experience was about getting my creative juices flowing without having to release new music that does not exist yet lol.

Do you collect anything, what is it, and why? 

I collect a lot of things, and all my collections carry sentimental value. When the sentimental value isn’t immediately apparent, I tend to project it… For example, I keep photo slides in my wallet and scattered in different nooks and crannies in my bedroom. They seem to come up in thrift shops in small towns I’ve visited. I like to romanticize the images since usually they’re of non-descript places and people who I don’t know. I have love letters my grandpa wrote my grandma when they were younger than I am now. I have an uncle who was an artist and graduated top of his class at NYU for textile design, and I have a couple of his old journals and sketchbooks. I also have almost all of my own journals starting from when I was in the 11th grade or so, which I don’t look at too often but I keep as mementos of who I was then and what I was thinking about.  I have a couple of mandolins that don’t really work anymore but belonged to people who were really important to me and formative in my upbringing as an artist. Those are all just a couple of things that come to mind. 

What is the best street food in NYC?

I love chicken over rice from Halal carts. You get so much food for not that much money. Chicken over rice basically drenched in hot sauce, white sauce and BBQ is it for me. Especially when I need a filling meal and I need it fast. 

What song off the new album are you most looking forward to playing live? Why?

I'm looking forward to playing Haunted, which is a song I played so many times in Oberlin, both as Awksymoron and as Thee Hundos, a punk spinoff with some friends that lasted maybe a year. By the time I was done with school, I had friends who knew all the words to that song because I'd played it so many times. I took a long break and some well-needed distance from that song but I think it's going to be fun to bring it back since audiences in NYC haven't heard me play it and I haven't performed it with this iteration of the band.

What was your first job? How did it go?

I worked at a bead store in Oberlin, OH when I was a student at Oberlin College. I’m pretty sure it's gone now. It was cool! I got to surround myself with gorgeous local and imported gift-type things. We sold beads, jewelry making supplies, fancy already-made jewelry, rugs, clothes for the professor-mom types, handmade paper, journals, knickknacks, candles, rolling papers, incense, etc. You know the kind of store. Usually, I worked on the upper level by myself which overlooked the parking lot of the Oberlin Conservatory and a bunch of restaurants. It was a good people-watching spot. I also made friends with my coworkers who were Oberlin locals and not students. It was refreshing to have people to talk to who existed outside of the bubble that is a tiny liberal arts campus.

Over the last few years, what are the biggest changes you have seen happen in the DIY music scene in NYC?

Perhaps the biggest changes I’ve picked up on have to do with my own perception of the scene, rather than things that have actually changed or like… institutional upheavals. Whenever I think about this question, the first thing that comes to mind is all the venues I went to as a high schooler, before I was a songwriter, that are gone now; ABC No Rio, Sidewalk Cafe, the Silent Barn, and more. Venues come and go and we could talk about the reasons why forever. I’ve found that while communities may become dispersed, they don’t just disappear. In other words, the relationships we forge tend to last. And that’s all to say that there isn’t really one scene, but rather, there are networks of communities, and these communities exist around people and groups of friends. 

In regards to coronavirus, I’ve been talking with a lot of people who really miss performing and going to shows right now. It’s a part of our livelihood that’s been put on hold indefinitely, for the greater good of course. At times, it makes me sad to not know when shows will happen again but I am also so excited in anticipation of a DIY renaissance, once it is safe for that to happen. Different communities and collectives will come up with and have already started figuring out different modes of hosting musicians and audiences. I think these efforts are analogous, in a way, to the idea of the scene itself. There isn’t going to be a one size fits all solution to having shows come back, just as there isn’t one DIY scene in New York City.  

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

VOTE! Also, keep your eyes and ears open for a second pressing of the tape sometime in the next few months. And for new music in the new year! And most importantly, if you watch the CBS show Survivor HMU! I want more friends who watch (live and breathe) Survivor. 

Thank you to Jorge Velez and Dena Miller for allowing me to pick your brains while I answered a couple of these questions. Listen to their music!!! They perform under the monikers Fear Not Ourselves Alone and Deer Scout, respectively.