Meet Matt Barri | DJ/Music Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Barri and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind my success has to be the people I surround myself with. I’m very fortunate to have insanely supportive friends and family that always share and support my music. During the pandemic, I’ve met some of my best friends over discord. My friends Wish Lane, Lizdek, and THREESIXTY (just to name a few), are always there to support, challenge, and grow with me as an artists and as a person. I’m also very lucky to have an amazing family who I can always count on to be at every show whether it’s in minecraft or in a club.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started producing music when I was about 13 and started releasing music on soundcloud when I was 14, so I feel like I’ve always been serious about it in that sense. It’s taken many many hours of staring at Ableton and trial and error to get to the point where I was confident enough to release an actual body of work I was proud of. It was challenging in highschool because not a lot of people, the school faculty included, took my career path seriously. There’s definitely a stigma against creative careers in Palos Verdes, where I’m from. My highschool was incredibly competitive academically and me wanting to go to a one-year music program instead of college made me feel inadequate. Once I got accepted to go to ICON collective in North Hollywood, It was almost like the clouds had parted and I heard a choir singing. My senior year I focused solely on music and my sick skills behind the decks. I learned that no matter the circumstances as long as you focus on whats ahead of you instead of what surrounds you, you’ll always make it out okay.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Whenever I have friends visit me the first place I’ll take them is NoHo Chicken. In my opinion, the best hot chicken spot in the valley dare I say all of Los Angeles. They have a truck typically parked a few blocks from my house however they do tend to move often so make sure to check their instagram (@Noho_hotchicken) to find out where they are. There’s literally so many amazing restaurant’s in the North Hollywoods arts district that it’s difficult to choose just one. I’d say if you’re here walk down Magnolia and you’re bound to find some amazing food.

This might be a hot take but I actually like a lot of the touristy spots in LA. The observatory has a gorgeous view, and 3rd St Promenade is pretty fun too. I’ll also admit that Palos Verdes also has some incredible views of LA where you can see everything from long beach to the palisades. Tons of cool hiking spots too if you’re into that.

My favorite thing to do is perform which I haven’t done in a while due to the pandemic, but I’m very excited to start playing shows and clubs again when they reopen.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There’s a lot of people I feel like I need to shoutout and thank. First off would be all the insanely talented producers and artists I’ve met from FORM. It’s a wonderful community and I highly encourage any artist of any medium to join the discord server. Huge shoutout to Alec and Samir from Beyond the Beats podcast as well. They have also been massively supportive in my career and continue to push me and my music on their show and I honestly cannot thank them enough for that. My parents, my brother, and Leila my wonderful girlfriend, are also people I want to shoutout for being there for me during arguably one of the loneliest and times of all our lives. I love all of them immensely and am incredibly grateful for them.

Website: https://mattbarri.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattbarri/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattbarri

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattBarrimusic/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYD5TxzOvL-rNyeTgoRF9Bw

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3qwnHUyseBNiCCqwZuvSQF?si=_Bl0AdgcQn-Y1S3H_YPLjQ

Image Credits
@neosequence @darinbarri @socialsanctuary