For this month's Pick Six we feature Notts folk artist Daudi Matsiko who plays at Sneinton Market's By Our Hands We Make Our Way in 19 September.
TV Show
When I was making the saddest music I’ve ever made, Ted Lasso brought me joy. On tour recently through Europe I watched the Mark Ruffalo show Task. It's incredibly thoughtful, showing with care the life of a criminal and that of the FBI agent trying to apprehend him. It made me cry, it’s beautiful. It got two stars in The Guardian for being too dark, but I think it’s one of the most gorgeous pieces of TV I've ever seen.
Book
I’ve been reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, who in an absolutely surreal turn of events featured me on her substack recently and said some really kind words about me and my tunes. That book is helping me be brave. Courage is a big part of the process of making music for me, and I have to make an effort to cultivate it. Tolstoy’s How Much Land Does a Man Need? is also a formative book for me. It’s a short read but sums up how I feel about this forever state of forever wanting that hounds me daily.
Album
Last year, according to my Apple Music I listened to approximately 2500 minutes of the album Sunshine and Balance Beams by the Boston post-hardcore band Pile. It wasn’t even a rough year. But that album is completely unflinching in its gaze into the dark. And completely relentless. I traveled to see them twice on their last UK tour. The lyrics and guitars that sound like they're on fire, resonating with me in a way I can't easily describe. Incredible record.
Personal hero
Is it weird to bring up my mum? She doesn’t get anywhere near the credit she deserves for where I am now. She helped guide me back into music while I was recovering from psychosis back in 2012. We went through this check list of all the career paths I didn’t want to do, and while we didn’t say music directly, we checked everything else off the list. Throughout my teens she would drive me to gigs, never once making me feel like it was a burden, which it definitely was. My mum – her name is Peace – is the best mum a son could ask for.
Notts Spot
Obviously Jamcafé in Hockley. It's still my favourite place to gig in the entire world. The portrait from my album The King of Misery sits above the bar. It does feel weird drinking a pint and looking at a life size portrait of myself holding a pink ukulele. But to me, there's not a more meaningful place it could go. That album wouldn't exist without Jamcafé. My first gig there was in 2013 and I've been in love with Jam and Bradley ever since.
Sports Team
Christmas 2019 I brought me and my dad tickets to go see Nottingham Forest play. For obvious reasons we didn’t make it to the game the following year. I keep meaning to try again. Every international competition I’m reminded that I don’t have any actual hobbies, and how much I find football inspiring and a joy to watch. I'm obsessed with music – it's my job – but maybe this year I can make space for football and Forest. I think I need to.
Catch Daudi Matsiko playing at plays at Sneinton Market's By Our Hands We Make Our Way in 19 September.
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