Have you ever heard of Appalachian/Brazilian fusion music? Now you have, because that is exactly the music that South Carlolina-born and current New York resident Clay Ross plays with his band Matuto. Although Ross originally came to New York to play jazz, he soon fell in love with the uplifting and inspiring sounds of Brazilian music. Matuto came into fruition when Ross was immersing himself and studying in Brazil, and the band is just releasing its sophomore album The Devil and The Diamond. Ross, who as it turns out, is from 30 minutes away from where I grew up, and I first went off the record and talked about being New York transplants, and then he shared Matuto's story with me. Read on to find out more about Matuto's unique sound.

Times Square (TS): You grew up down in South Carolina, what role did music play in my childhood?

Clay Ross (CR): Music offered me a gateway to friendships and was my way to stand out. I was introduced to it at a really young age, and I was lucky to have really great and supportive parents. I was able to do everything that a lucky kid in the suburbs to do. I just really took to music, and I had a talent for it. It was my way to make myself known to the world. I wasn't a star athlete, but I always performed in talent shows. People knew me as the kid that played the guitar really well.

TS: Who were your biggest musical influences?

CR: As a kid I was really into classic rock and then heavy metal. My dad turned me onto bands like Led Zeppelin, even southern rock like Lynard Skynyrd. There was a lot of blues-based rock stuff like Cream and Eric Clapton.

TS: You came to New York to play jazz; how did that evolve into Matuto?

CS: I went to College of Charleston after high school, and I got exposed to jazz music there. I started playing with local jazz musicians. I decided to pursue that further when I went to New York, and there, I met a lot of musicians from all over the world. I heard a bunch of music that I had never heard before, but I was particularly attracted to Brazilian music. Something about it just spoke to me, and it started a love affair that's lasted for a decade. I started to play that music and began to work with artists from Brazil. To make a long story short, I wanted to express my own relationship to that music. Matuto is a Brazilian slang word for "hillbilly." It's an idea of being from the South, but I'm a curious hillbilly! I look at myself as a hillbilly of the world!

TS: You got a Fulbright Grant to study in Brazil; how did that impact your music?

CR: There's nothing like the power of context! You can study all of the musical notes and all of the musical rhythms of Brazil, but until you go there, drink the water, eat the food, and watch people dance to the music in the context where the music was born, you just can't understand it. Something really clicked—it was really liberating because when you go to a place to experience the music, it becomes so much more familiar than studying it from afar. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Certainly, Matuto would not exist if it weren't a part of the story.

TS: How did the band form?

CR: The band started as a project when I was doing more jazz-oriented work. Matuto was like a branch on the tree at the beginning. When I met Rob Curto, who is now my partner in the band, he was more deeply dedicated to music at the time when I was. He really helped solidify the band. In 2009, we actually marked the date as February 23rd, we were playing for a huge crowd in on a Sunday night at Brazilian Carnival. It was very magical, and we decided that this would be a band, we would tour, and we started to shape a vision for what Matuto could be.

TS: You're about to release your second album; what was the idea behind Devil and the Diamond?

CR: The idea behind it is a person's inner battle when wrestling the devil to realize the diamond that he or she has the potential to become. Rob and I are spiritual people, and we think about why we're doing what we're doing, community, why we chose music, and what music represents to us. Becoming better musicians makes us better people, but we're always struggling with that devil. Everyone has inner demons. That's how the album started taking shape. There are references in the album to that storyline with the lyrical and musical content. For us, we can tell when there's a musical conflict between the good and bad side. It's the kind of idea that we just talked about, and it made its way into the fabric of our creativity.

TS: What can fans expect from your current tour?

CR: One aspect that's new and we're very excited about is a visual aspect that incorporates live projections. We've been working on a project for a year where we have animators who animate the illustrations that come in the album booklet. The whole album is a storybook in a sense and tells the story of The Devil and The Diamond. In the live show, we'll project the animated clips of the illustrations. We'll mix those with more abstract animations from the album's artwork. I'm still figuring out all of the technical logistics, but it's all coming together. We plan to debut that on June 20th at Lincoln Center!

TS: What does music mean to you?

CR: Music is life force. It's something that's my vehicle for my life. I don't know where I'd be without it. I'm grateful that I found a passion for music.