Two weeks back we premiered Matthew J. Anthony’s strange but beautiful video for their debut single I’m Your Man. And we at No More Workhorse were still curious about the content of the video so we asked Matthew a couple of questions:

I’m Your Man is a classic, crooning love song. So what are all the strange masks in the video about?

Well, on the surface level,  I’m Your Man may appear to be a straight forward ‘crooner’ of a love song, one that a man might sing to the female love in his life. And it is…but when heard in the context of the full story that is The Gospel According to Matthew J. Anthony, it takes on a larger spectrum of meaning. In that Gospel story, the character Matthew J. Anthony sings I’m Your Man to the story’s male protagonist, in an attempt to show the protagonist that he loves him deeply and wants to marry him.

So it’s a gay male’s love song?

Well you have to remember that Matthew J. Anthony is no human being. He is the personification of the ‘origin of life’ or ‘God’ if you will. So Matthew is not a ‘he’ but rather all manner of things, including the masculine and the feminine. Matthew changes gender and form throughout this contemporary Gospel and the male protagonist himself gets turned into a woman at one point and falls pregnant – so it’s way too difficult to say who is strictly male and who is strictly female in any absolute sense here. And so in that sense it’s the gayest, straight, bi, pre-gender, post-gender, all-gender-yet-no-gender of love songs.

Oh. So is that why you wear the different masculine and feminine masks…?

Exactly. The song is as much about a man singing to a woman as it is about a man singing to another man as it is about a woman who is calling herself a ‘man’ as she sings the words to another woman or man. In other words, the traditional notion of ‘man’ as being the ‘pillar of strength’ and ‘protector’ within a heterosexual relationship is essentially used – and twisted on its head a bit – in order to highlight the supportive role that the gender-transcending force called ‘love’ often plays in all our lives. And when I say ‘love’ here I mean ‘love’ as a state-of-being, an objective reality, rather than a desire; I mean ‘love’ as the ultimate, supporting force in our lives which includes, sustains and goes beyond all possible classifications and representations of gender and sexuality; something that is so intimately part of us that we, unfortunately – more often than not – barely recognise it. Some call it God, others ‘dark matter’ or ‘dark energy.’ But names aren’t important; they do not change the reality that lies behind the name. You could say Tao or you could say Jesus; you could even say mathematics or the ‘universe.’ I say Matthew J. Anthony.

Matthew J. Anthony will perform their spoken word/pop music extravaganza ‘The Gospel According to Matthew J. Anthony‘ at 10 Days in Dublin festival on July 7th at 10pm in Smock Alley Theatre. Tickets €10 available from: http://10daysindublin.ticketsolve.com/shows/873499531/events

*All artist proceeds from the night going to Transgender Equality Network Ireland – http://teni.ie/

Read what The Irish Times had to say about the last Matthew J. ‘Gospel’ performance, in which the audience are blindfolded, HERE.

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LYRICS: I’m Your Man

Give me your hand

Place your hand in mine

Hold on tightly

It’s time you understand

I’m your man

I am your man

*

I won’t let you

Spend this life alone

Listen carefully

Beside you I belong

I’m your man

I am your man

Your man now

*

So place all your hopes in me

Give me your hand

And place all your fears in me

Give me your hand

Speak right to my heart

I’m your man

I am your man