Written by Shea Roney | Photos Courtesy of The Matildas

Last month, The Matildas released their debut EP titled Forever, My Talisman. After meeting in Carrboro and soon forming a band, the trio of Esmé Kerr, Lizzo Esser, and Victor Coto have since been piecing together a rich practice of creativity that goes beyond the music they make. But now spread out between NYC and North Carolina, The Matildas still harness that genuine spirit that they had from the early demo days of NC, expanding on the well-weathered and warm colorful patches of subtle pop-brews and playful experimentation. But rather than ask what choices they planned to bring into these songs, it’s easier to point at the amount of trust and good will that blooms between the group, and the lengths at which their intuition can go when piecing together these expansive soundbites and melodic revelries. 

There’s a subtle punch on Forever, My Talisman that The Matildas use both sparingly and with care. With production help from Lizzo’s cousin, Amos, songs like “Kadeisha” and “Follow Through” hold up structurally; thoughtful tunes carried like a treat on a popsicle stick, as loose sonic displays drip away, and sticky harmonies begin to seep in between your fingers. “Missouri” becomes enthralled by its own natural movement, having been written at the drums, the trio blend sporadic inspirations with genuine delivery. The title track emulates both beginnings and ends, reminiscing, “On the pitch, I skinned my knee. Forever, my talisman”. Amongst conversational rhythms and patterned voices, The Matildas don’t just sing of a brush with luck, but rather an abundance of gratitude that’s worth carrying around. It’s part of their nature that doesn’t wince at a scrapped knee, but sees it more as a trophy of effort. Or something along the lines of snorting through your nose from laughing too hard is more of a sign of endearment than embarrassment. Whatever it is, it’s the natural joy of it all that lives in the heart of these songs.

We got to talk to the trio about keeping it loose, adult soccer leagues, building cohesion and opening the Big Pop Show.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Tell me how this EP came to be. I know you guys met up at an aunt and uncle’s place, not just to record, but to be together in one place again. What’s the story there?

Lizzo: They are my aunt and uncle. We had spent a summer together, the three of us, just playing music at our house and recording voice memos. We liked having a collection that captured that kind of spirit of jamming. But my cousin [Amos] is a really talented sound engineer, and has been working on making a little setup for himself in their house in Massachusetts. I hadn’t been there, and I was thinking about reconnecting with him, so I just messaged him and asked if he ever recorded other people. It all worked out, and we took a little trip there. It was really wonderful to all jam together and have a more proper collection of fully produced songs.

So where is everyone located? You all met up in Massachusetts to record, but where are you at now?

Esmé: We met to record in a town in the corner of Massachusetts, Vermont and also New York. So it felt like we were on the border of everything. But we all met in Carrboro, North Carolina. Lizzo was finishing her masters, and Victor and I were just hanging out, trying to play music, and waiting for Lizzo to be free.

Victor: Lizzo and I were roommates through an email blast on the WXYC email thread. That’s the Chapel Hill College Radio. 

Lizzo: It was nice to come together in Massachusetts now that Victor is in New York, and Esmé and I are a little further in North Carolina. It was nice to all be together in a totally new place.

How long were you guys all originally in one place playing music together?

Lizzo: Around two years. The summer of 2024 was when we were doing a bunch of jamming, and we finally thought that we should make a band.

Esmé: But that coincides with we were also just hanging out a lot because we were on an adult league soccer team. But then we were also going to shows, so there were a lot of different ways that we were bonding. But music was the common thread we kept going back to.

I was going to ask, because soccer is a big theme throughout these songs, not just writing about the sport, but clearly the relationships through playing the actual sport are crucial. What connections do you have to soccer, and how does that translate over to your music?

Victor: I think Esmé has the closest connection with soccer out of all of us. I think that’s probably what sparked it. Esmé is really into soccer, and through Esmé is how we got into the Adult Soccer League. She’s the one that sent us the link and said, ‘you guys have to do this’ [laughs]. I think just having that in our lives, and Esmé being so excited and sharing that with us kind of just bled into the music very naturally. 

Lizzo: And The Matildas is named after the Australian women’s soccer team.

Esmé: I was really obsessed with soccer at that period of my life. Lizzo was doing college radio at NC State, and I was doing college radio at UNC, and we would always talk about themes of 90s rock bands, where people would dress like they skate, but more a soccer, athletic nerd kind of thing. After seeing those themes come up in music, and actually playing soccer and then trying to tie that back to music was so fun. And when we were actually playing on the soccer team together, it just felt really harmonious — it was just so exhilarating and free after being stressed out about work, or Lizzo being stressed out about grad school. And we were kind of bad [laughs]. Our team notoriously lost every game by seven goals. Seven is a low ball. We were so bad. But I said this to Victor one time, we were playing really well on the back line, like reading each other really well, because we just know each other really well. But it’s not like we were playing well [laughs]. 

Lizzo: I feel like we were going into playing sports as something to try out because it is a fun way for us to hang out as friends. And the music was very similar. Especially the songs that we have on our first little compilation of voice memos, I feel like it was really capturing what we were trying out. Us playing soccer and us playing music, there is a lot of similarity in those being our activities.

And up to this EP, you guys were just releasing demos and voice memo recordings on bandcamp. What sort of things were you trying out in this session? Or was it more wanting to leave it open for the spur of the moment?

Victor: I think when choosing the songs it was a lot of what we have a more concrete idea around, so that we can use the three days that we have to finish recording. A lot of songs we had mostly finished, but I think a lot of them were songs that meant more to us. Maybe they were a little more personal things, like “Kadeisha” is specifically about a soccer player that Esmé really likes. And then “Missouri” was a personal favorite amongst us.

Lizzo: As far as what sort of sounds we wanted to focus on, I think a lot of Amos’s inspirations, like 60s wall of sound, more electronic kinds of things, helped us figure out what it was going to turn into. We used a 12-string and a lot of percussion, playing around on different things than we had in practice. It was really cool and helped us build a more unified sound throughout.

Victor: I think we picked up a mandolin at one point too. But there was a lot of focused recording stuff, and then there was also a lot of just playing because Amos had a lot of instruments.

I mean, you guys said you started off with just jamming. Did that carry through a lot in these recordings?

Lizzo: I would say so. “Follow-Through” is a good example. The beginning and the end of that song has a lot of us just jamming, that was made into little pieces that altogether made an interesting texture of unexpected things. 

Victor: Yeah, and we can’t really understate how much Amos had a role to play in how those recordings sound. Most of the electronic components that you might hear are pretty much all Amos and him at his computer or getting on the guitar and layering things.

Do you guys have a background in recording at all? Or was it to Amos’s whim?

Lizzo: I have a very minimal amount. So, yeah, a lot of it was Amos helping us along.

Esmé: We don’t really have much experience recording, but Amos was really awesome about us being able to just show up. I couldn’t fly with a banjo to Massachusetts, and that’s when the mandolin came in on “Missouri”. There are playful key elements that Amos understands, like if he programs some weird key part, or really messes with my keys on “Kadeisha”, that we’ll accept that and think that it’s awesome. Because we were only in Massachusetts for three to four days, the creative integrity that we all had was really booming and contagious. And when we were finalizing a lot of stuff, Amos was really just putting in fun things that were already an essence of what was there.

Were you guys just recording the whole time, or did you allow yourselves breaks? 

Lizzo: We spent most of the time recording, but then we also watched movies at night. We watched Moon Rise Kingdom, some Harry Nilsen live recordings. I think that was also part of the collaboration – we all love this music, and we all love this media. 

What’s going on in Missouri? 

Lizzo: Good question. An important piece of us as a band and as friends is we were really inspired by Life Without Buildings. The spirit of that band, sounding really in the moment, and being sort of repetitive, we wanted to do something like that. 

Esmé: Shout out Kathy Tompkins. We were listening to so much of that music together, and those kinds of spurts of spoken word. And I feel like we just did that on top of instruments.

Lizzo: I was also going on a trip to Missouri to visit another Aunt and Uncle. There’s a lot of familial things going on [laughs]. And when we were jamming, I was like, ‘I’m going to see Uncle Mo and Aunt Carrie’, and like, ‘we’re flying on a plane’. There’s some lyrics about passing the ball, because, you know, we were on the soccer team.

Esmé: We wrote that song with Lizzo on drums, and us all singing together, just throwing things out there. And it did end up being really familial. Lizzo and I have a little family-like relationship. We’ve known each other since we were in high school. So I know what her aunt and uncle’s names are. So sometimes I feel like it’s not weird that that’s introduced, because we’re like, oh, [Lizzo’s uncle] is such a character, and we’re friends on Facebook [laughs].

And you guys just recently played the Big Pop Show. How was that weekend for The Matildas?

Victor: It was a lot of fun. I was really nervous. I mean, I’ve never been elevated on a stage before, so that was cool.

It makes a difference, doesn’t it?

Victor: Yeah, it kind of does. And someone baked bread and me and Esmé ripped off the very tail end and shared that between us. All the other bands were really awesome, too. Canaries came on after us, and they were really nice. They came in right before we went on and wished us luck.

Esmé: It just honestly feels magical that we had this getaway in Massachusetts, and then our next time seeing each other was a hustle to get out this EP, and then we also played first at Pop Show. We were the first band to play at the Art Center in Carrboro. I live in Carrboro, and that’s where we all met, so it just was a moment of major community. Like, there’s Kirk, who brought a loaf of bread and is congratulating us. And then there’s Pipe, they live down the street. And then also our old-school band that is still playing shows and having such a big influence on younger people playing. Then there were all these bands from Chicago. Lizzo has been saying we gotta go to Chicago. I haven’t had any context of it, and then I feel like I saw a corner of Chicago at Pop Fest, and I was like, whoa! I didn’t realize it was like a British invasion going on. It’s like a faux British invasion. Even though I did go last year, I feel like there was so much anticipation, and we had so much anticipation to see each other. And then when we saw each other, it was great, we had this relief, the show was over, and then we just got to see so many bands, and it was electric.

Lizzo: And Amos came and played drums with us, and then our friend, Joe Delmestro played guitar, so we had a fun little crew, and it was a sort of reunion. It was just a wonderful thing.

You can listen to Forever, My Talisman out now via Duped zine out of Chappel Hill.