As a good Baarnais, he likes to call himself Matiu. Mathieu Larradet may be a traveler, but the drummer for Kimbala never forgets where it all began. In this case on his school table in the calandreta de Pau, victim of the young boy's pens, improvised chopsticks. He can't explain it, but as far back as he can remember, this instrument has imposed itself on him. œAt first, I didn't think I would make music my job, explains the smiling young man. It was above all a passion. ""
From the age of 8, he learned the drums in Pau with Michel Bonnet, for fun but always diligently. Because if Mathieu Larradet admits to organizing his life often ""hard"", concerning his passion, it is quite different. The musician is a hard worker, able to spend whole days on his cymbals and drums.
From Buenos Aires to New York
Armed with this high demand for himself, in February 2006 he entered the conservatory of Buenos Aires, where his whole family moved. Yet he thought he would take advantage of this period of his life in Latin America to continue his training as a cook, but the music recalls him. Four years of study followed, during which he played with the group Peces de Ciudad, and met a drummer, Pablo Laporta. ""He told me about a school, the Drummers Collective in New York, and offered to prepare for the audition,"" the young man recalls.
In January 2010, he joined the prestigious drum school. The teachers are big, the level is at the maximum. Aware of his luck, Matiu works tirelessly: œI played 9 to 10 hours a day, in addition to lessons. I would arrive early in the morning and leave late at night. After nine months of drumming and earning a major title, he is leaving school with one certainty: a drummer will be his job.
For now, a nice project is taking shape at his home in Baarn. During the summer of 2013, the young man is due to perform on the Pyrenean stages with Peces de Ciudad. A year ago, the group had already come to France for a tour, and Matiu hopes to repeat the experience. But the musicians will not be able to come, despite the dates already negotiated by their manager, Jean-Luc Larradet, the first fan of his youngest. We must create another group, in the same vein, to honor these summer contracts. The rest, we owe in part to Gambeat, bassist of Manu Chao. Met in Barcelona, the sparkling character hooks up with Matiu's project. The Kimbala group formed quickly: there were eight musicians from all walks of life, from Baarn to the Landes and Spain.
In a few months, during a residency in Laa s, Kimbala supervised by Gambeat gave birth to several pieces before playing them on stage, including those of Hestivoc or the Foire Expo. In the end, a CD / DVD box set recorded in Nadau's studio comes out in December, and a mountain of projects with it. And concerts in anticipation of course, scheduled here but also elsewhere, quite the contrary. As the other said, music has no borders, and Mathieu Larradet cannot contradict him.