Jeremy Shulkin

Matt Hopewell has been known as the guy in Worcester&rsquo;s arts scene who brings poetry readings to the Q, the Chandler Street coffee shop owned by his wife, Emily Poulin. But now, Hopewell &mdash; who also goes by Cowboy or Cowboy Matt &mdash; has broadened his horizons.

On Dec. 10, the Q will host a pre-release listening party and live performance for Hopewell&rsquo;s EP Viva Psychadelia, a six-song album he recorded with local label Lo-Z Records.

In an interview at The Bean Counter, Torbin Harding, Lo-Z Record&rsquo;s founder and Viva Psychadelia&rsquo;s producer, Danny Lapensee, the drummer for the album, and Hopewell lay out their philosophies on their music.

&ldquo;Personally for me, &lsquo;Viva Psychadelia&rsquo; is a culmination of songs and poems that kind of encompasses my entire career as a performer,&rdquo; says Hopewell. &ldquo;It encompasses things that really interest me like just plain madness, delusion, paranoia &hellip; &rdquo; He trails off.

Harding, a multi-instrumental performer on the album, and who by his count spent somewhere between 200 to 300 hours producing &lsquo;Viva Psychedelia,&rsquo; jumps in. &ldquo;[And] lucidity as well.&rdquo; He nods to Hopewell, and continues, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like we were saying last night, the album is like a musical poem that encompasses all aspects of life.&rdquo;

Throughout the interview there&rsquo;s a lot of this back and forth, with each musician able to fill in for the other when one believes their words aren&rsquo;t doing the record justice.

It&rsquo;s a tough record for words to describe though. &ldquo;[We] have single-handedly invented Psychedelic Rock for the 21st century, combining humanoid tools from the last 50,000 years to produce this album, from the stick and the log drum to the bamboo flute, and magnetic tape to the synthesizer, to the iPhone,&rdquo; says Harding, trying to nail down a description.

But some of history&rsquo;s best recordings are the ones that were indescribable upon their release, and Hopewell, Harding, and Lapensee all credit genre-bending musicians as influences. Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Jerry Garcia come up often. Lapensee has been referred to as &ldquo;the next Mitch Mitchell,&rdquo; Hendrix&rsquo;s distinctive drummer. He smiles and laughs-off the compliment.

&ldquo;The best compliment I&rsquo;ve ever got is that I&rsquo;m &lsquo;the closest living thing to Captain Beefheart&rsquo; even though he&rsquo;s not dead,&rdquo; says Hopewell.

&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard everything from Tom Waits to Bruce Springsteen to Captain Beefheart, but [the comparisons] always seem to miss the mark. When people tell me I sound unique, that&rsquo;s when I&rsquo;m the happiest because I never try to sound like anybody in particular.

&ldquo;To me the best musicians always have their own sound and voice even if it&rsquo;s not the best; say Bob Dylan or Neil Young. Some people don&rsquo;t like their voices.&rdquo;

Hopewell&rsquo;s voice does have hints of Zappa and Beefheart, especially the Captain&rsquo;s grittiness, but his delivery is slower and more patient, which allows his lyrics to pop &mdash; an important factor considering he&rsquo;s a poet and thinks of Viva Psychedelia as a concept album.

&ldquo;Concept albums used to be cryptic, surreal. I&rsquo;m a big fan of the surreal,&rdquo; says Hopewell.

Torbin explains the record&rsquo;s layout. &ldquo;The album is book-ended by an intro poem and outro poem, and the meat of it are the two long, indulgent tracks, which are &lsquo;Guns and Stones&rsquo; and &lsquo;Psychadelic Opus #18.&rsquo;&rdquo;

Harding points out that the album&rsquo;s first note is an &ldquo;A,&rdquo; and that the last note of the last song is an &ldquo;A,&rdquo; &ldquo;coming at you in reverse, so the CD flows right back into it, so at the end of this record it goes right back into it again.&rdquo;

As for the lyrical themes, Hopewell&rsquo;s songwriting stays close to the territory charted by his poetry. &ldquo;It basically covers all of my interests, from crypto-zoology to tarot,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;People who are into my poetry won&rsquo;t be surprised.&rdquo;

Offers Harding: &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re talking bubonic rats, and unicorns and the Loch Ness monster, I mean, who isn&rsquo;t down with that?&rdquo;

Matt M.K. Hopewell plays his &lsquo;Viva Psychadelia&rsquo; through speakers and live on Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Q, located at 362 Chandler St., all part of the pre-release party for the album. Show up to pre-order it and hear Shane Hall and the Ticklebomb Orchestra back up the Cowboy. Also, check out lo-zrecords.com for more info and free downloads.