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However, when fans pack the Ridgefield Playhouse on East Ridge Road on Sunday, they won't see the same man whose fame was born nearly a decade ago.
In fact, it has been nearly three years since the rapper, born Matthew Paul Miller, looked to internalize his spirituality by putting aside the traditional dress of Hasidim, shaving his iconic beard and dying his hair blonde.
Contrary to his listeners' criticisms of his wardrobe change, Matisyahu told the Daily Voice that he hasn’t abandoned his religion or beliefs, but rather continued to evolve as an artist, and in turn, as an individual.
On Sunday, fans got a new look, and heard a different sound: His Ridgefield Playhouse performance was scheduled to be an unplugged event.
“This acoustic stuff gives me a lot more freedom,” Matisyahu said Saturday. “It’s like night and day.”
Coming off an acoustic set on Dec. 26, Matisyahu said it’s refreshing to get back to this different style of performance that allows him to “take on more of a role as a musician.”
“We play the same songs, but they’re kind of stripped back,” he said. “I like being able to do a multiple of things,” like beatboxing in a more instrumental sense, as the drums have been dropped for the unplugged event.
His eighth-annual Festival of Lights tour coincides with his 2014 release of “Akeda”, an album he says “an artist makes when there is no other creative choice but to turn oneself inside-out, to scrape the insides and reveal everything raw.”
“As an artist,” Matisyahu said, “you want to continue development. Hopefully you’re constantly developing. I think with [Akeda], certainly there is a continued process.”
Even with the finish and release of the album centered around his growth as an artist and individual, the reggae rap artist from White Plains, N.Y., said his journey isn’t complete.
“I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished that goal,” Matisyahu said. “I still have certain demons I haven’t conquered. I’m still a person in my process.”
And as someone still developing, he said he was “looking forward to coming” and playing new, old and improvised music for his Ridgefield audience.
With just a few shows left at the end of a six-month tour, Matisyahu will return to his Los Angeles home, where he plans to continue work on his next album he says could drop as early as “summer 2015.”
“I’m looking to turn around and release something soon,” he said, adding his influences musically these days range wide from Jon Bellion to Frank Ocean.
“At this point we’ve played every city in Connecticut,” Matisyahu said. “I keep coming back to Connecticut. It’s a good state.”
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