I GOT A LITTLE SOMETHIN HIDDEN UP MY SLEEVE

“dairy queen” is the latest single by Nashville-based, Kansas City-transplant Dance the Misery. Dance the Misery is Matthew Green, who writes, records, and produces his own music. “dairy queen” was mastered by Greg Calbi (The War on Drugs, The National). As a teen, Green started writing lyrics as an outlet for his OCD. From there, he picked up songwriting, and the move to Nashville during college to become a guitarist was a natural next step.

"There is so much talent here, in every way you can imagine— artists, musicians, directors, designers," Green states. "It feels like the freaking Renaissance.” Green is an art director by trade, so his visual artistry plays well with his musicality.

“It's like your mind is battling itself. There [are] two different manifestations: one is obsessive thoughts, and the other is obsessive actions.”

“A big thing for the action side is counting.” Green notes further, “I would wash each surface of my hands for a 30 second count— palms, fingers, back of the hand, wrists, under the fingernails.” Although, an obsession with hands and counting fare well for Green’s decision to turn to music, guitar specifically.

“The thing that really bothered me were the obsessive thoughts. It's like your mind latches onto something especially disturbing or painful and then just keeps repeating it, and you're like, 'This is terrible. I don't want to think this. Why do I keep thinking this? Maybe I actually want to think this. Maybe I should think it again just to check.' And it becomes a really destructive cycle. So, lyrics were always a way to kind of map the inner landscape. Writing something down just helps. There's a magic to it.”

When asked to explore his creative process in the now, Green says, "As I've gone on, l've started trying to look at lyrics more like painting— like a way to create something with a certain flavor, or to explore the imagination— all the different lives we lead, or could lead in a parallel world. I definitely think Nashville has made me a better songwriter, although I don't know if I'd call myself that.”

“There's a magic to it.”

“dairy queen” is a reflective and evocative musical reprise of a distant memory. You can almost feel Green slipping sweetly into each chorus, as if by accident, followed by the direct and deliberate forward motion of summer heat oozing through the verses. The momentum builds all on its own in a cycle; an audible mirror to his obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

DON'T YOU WANNA GO OUT?
GETTIN SO TIRED OF PLAYING MAKE BELIEVE
I'M A TEENAGE BURNOUT
BUT I GOT A LITTLE SOMETHIN HIDDEN UP MY SLEEVE
SHE WAS WORKIN ON A CANDY CANE
SO WE SLIPPED INTO THE BACK SEAT
IT WAS FEELIN LIKE 100 DEGREES
AND I JUST MELTED FROM THE HEAT

“I know people dig on music row songwriting or whatever, but there is definitely something to be said for knowing how to keep people's attention. And there's a wide breadth between pandering and self-indulgence. At the end of the day, you are writing for an audience. You want to write music that people care about.” As Dance the Misery blossoms into and out of the Nashville scene, we anticipate more eclectic future shoegaze from Green’s unsettled, colorful mind.

Listen to “dairy queen” below: