Self-taught musician Matthew Robertson ‘23 is releasing a new album called “Sweet Graffiti” under his artist name “B3rt” on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music on Wed. Apr. 26th. According to Robertson, “the album genre is upbeat pop-punk, specifically pop-punk from the early 2000s. I was inspired by bands like Blink-182, Sum-41, Paramore, Avril Lavigne and very early Fall Out Boy, but there’s also a little bit of an influence from underground 80s alternative bands like Social Distortion, Husker Du and The Replacements.”
“the album genre is upbeat Pop-punk album, specifically Pop-punk from the early 2000s. I was inspired by bands like Blink-182, Sum-41, Paramore, Avril Lavigne and very early Fall Out Boy, but there’s also a little bit of an influence from underground 80s alternative bands like Social Distortion, Husker Du and The Replacements.”
Matthew Robertson ’23
Robertson is an environmental science major with very little classroom experience related to music. “Aside from a few semesters of guitar lessons, I have only taken one music-related class, ‘Pop, Rock, and Soul.’ In regards to the contrast with my major and making music, it’s certainly something I know a lot of people in both fields find surprising but I think it’s proof that you can be thoroughly entrenched in two drastically different disciplines and still do well in both,” he said.
In regards to coming up with a title for the album, Robertson detailed how it was a difficult process. “Coming up with the title of the album was more challenging than I anticipated, especially compared to my previous works. Maybe it could have been named after one of the songs or an homage to another pop-punk band or album. After a while I decided on the concept for the cover art and it was in the style of graffiti so I knew that I wanted it to be something graffiti. I finally decided on ‘Sweet Graffiti’ because I really liked the way it sounded when spoken aloud. I also felt like the title perfectly encapsulated the overall tone of the album so I would say that’s why I decided on ‘Sweet Graffiti.’”
A message he wants his audience to take away from this album is that “it’s okay to screw up a relationship, it’s ok to feel bad after a breakup and it’s ok to feel sad.”
Matthew Robertson ’23
Robertson also discussed his process for creating the songs featured on “Sweet Graffiti.” “The process is different for everyone and for me it greatly depends on the song. For example, for one of the songs, I wrote the lyrics, recorded the instruments and vocals and edited and mixed the whole thing within a day. Other songs usually take longer with some of them having their lyrics tweaked over a whole month. This album came together rather quickly for the most part with half the songs being written in December of 2022 and all of the initial recording finished in early February. After that I spent about a month just adjusting and tweaking little things here and there. Overall, I put a lot more effort in the post-production than I have done in the past and I think it really paid off.” Robertson’s previous works were more political, but a message he wants his audience to take away from this album is that “it’s okay to screw up a relationship, it’s ok to feel bad after a breakup and it’s ok to feel sad.”
Robertson’s post-graduation plans include an internship with The Walt Disney Company Environmental Science Major Matthew Robertson ’23 is releasing a Pop-Punk album “Sweet Graffiti” on major streaming platforms on April 26th.a Conservation Presenter in the Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. He described it as “a position where I interact with guests in the park and talk about the conservation issues we are currently facing.”
As it’s Robertson’s last semester here at Muhlenberg, he discussed that “depending on what I may do in the future this may be my last album for a while at least. I would also like to say that out of all of my other works this has been the album I’ve had the most fun, writing, recording and overall the album I’m most proud of. I still listen to the first 6 songs on the album and just think to myself ‘Wow I made this.’ It’s really the first time I’ve enjoyed listening to my own voice.”
