Apr 7, 2022

ARTIST FEATURE: Calson

Words and Photos By: Zachary Finch

Matthew Moreno, who releases music under the name Calson, was born and raised in Fullerton, CA, and that’s where I first met him. He was getting food at his favorite spot, Chicana, when I met him. A friend complimented his pants (actually the same ones featured in the shoot for this article) and then the three of us got to talking. He told me he was a musician, and to check out his album he released, so a couple days later when I had a drive long enough for it, I turned it on. I was met with a bluesy, psychedelic experience, all led by the voice of Calson himself. I felt like I had tumbled down through his ears into his brain.

Fast forward to the following week, I had listened to that album about four more times. I still smile when I listen to the first hook off the first track on the record- “Honey, When I’m With You”. I scheduled a day to meet with him, and drove over to his place.

One of the things I love about Matt is that he’s absolutely bursting with energy. We ran around downtown Fullerton, getting pictures here and there at some cool spots he knew, and I had to try my best to keep up. After the shoot, we sat down, back at Chicana again, and I asked him something I’ve asked everyone I’ve interviewed. “What’s your origin story?” He was off.

He told me that he was born and raised in Fullerton, and that he released his first EP under the name “brazwave” in his senior year of highschool, and making that EP is what made up his mind on what he was committing his life to: music.

After that EP was made, he felt himself drawn in a new direction that led him to retire the brazwave moniker, and take on the name “Calson”. That name was a portmanteau of “Calvin” and “Jackson”, with Calvin being what was originally supposed to be what he was called, and Jackson a nickname his mother had given him. In early 2020 he started writing what would become his debut album, “The After After Party”. He explained the name to me as describing what happens after the after-party: waking up the next morning. Navigating day to day life in his own head. This includes struggles with perfectionism (on Symmetrical), dissociation (on Rod Daven), and insecurities (on Wavey The Ghost), all filtered through Calson’s signature psychedelia.

He told me that he tries to make his music “wistful”; pondering the past or the future, a sort of nostalgia for another time. His music is also incredibly introspective, and one of the last things he said to me was that “It’s okay to have a pity party every once in a while, but once the pity party is every day … you start to run out of decorations, you know?”. If that sounds like something you’d want to listen to, I’d definitely recommend “The After After Party”.