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Arts

From Kevin Parker to Nicholas Allbrook, Matt Sav has spent 10 years behind the lens of Aussie music’s biggest legends

Matt Sav is possibly the one of the most interesting visual creatives in Australia today. With passion beyond his craft, Sav is determined to push people’s understanding of conventional beauty past the illustrious and into realms of provocation and discussion.

Known conventionally for his outstanding visual work in collaboration with Tame Impala, POND and their various members’ projects including Nicholas Allbrook and Cameron Avery, Sav is so much more than the impressive resume that precedes him.

Read the full article in Happy Mag Issue #4.

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Photo by Matt Sav

Matt Sav, the lens and visual creative behind POND and Tame Impala, sits down to discuss where his gaze lies and where ours should be directed.

“It’s important for people to get a bit closer to musicians, and understanding what their motivations are, knowing a little more about them,” he begins. “Just from being a musician myself, I was friends with those guys for a long long time, I met them through gigging and playing around and as I was growing my career, they were too.”

“I think once we became comfortable working together it’s become quite organic and quite easy, everyone has a good time and it’s not stressful. There’s a high level of trust, they will let me shoot whatever I want around them because they know that they get the final say out of what goes out into the world. There’s a lot of trust there, the only real difficulty is that I’m always checking in and not being too self interested.”

Without forgoing the incredible prestige his headline projects garner, Sav has moved determinedly forward from the spotlight of these pursuits and into collaborations and ventures that look far beyond the Perth psych scene for which we’ve come to know him best.

“I’ve almost finished my new website,” says Sav. “When it comes out you will see I’ve worked across far more genres than people actually think. I’ve worked with electronic musicians, I’ve done a video which is just a dance piece…not many people have seen it but it’s probably my favourite thing I’ve made so far.”

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Photo by Matt Sav/Pony Express

More and more intrigued by his passion for purpose and perception, Sav pushes me to consider art in its political context, how the visually engaging can move past emotion and into action, and perhaps using emotion as a catalyst for the latter?

“It’s probably part of my core personality. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a pretty grotesque kind of character, I have a disgusting mouth on me. I feel like that’s where beauty often lies, in those taboo places in the human psyche and the human condition.”

 

Read the full article in Happy Mag Issue #4. In this issue we chat to Julia Jacklin for our cover interview, go behind the scenes with Sydney’s Polographia and tackle the question: Why are so many festivals still coming through with male-dominated lineups?

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