Mateo Admits ‘How Good Is Your Love’ Was an Accident [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

Like everything in life, plans are bound to change. And for Mateo, that meant choosing a song he quickly recorded to be his first single at his new label.

"I just recorded 'How Good Is Your Love' by accident," he tells TheDrop.fm. "The single was supposed to be another song. I was working at [producer Kerry "Krucial" Brother's] house, then heard the track and thought it was amazing. So I tried to cut the record real quick before getting on my flight. So that's how the song came about."

The material wasn't difficult for Mateo to write. "It came so quick -- the girl of your dreams," he explains. "She looks dope. Her body is crazy. Her face is beautiful. She has a great personality. She likes to write music. She likes Coldplay and Dr. Dre. She likes all these things and looks good in sweatpants and Jordans, but the only thing that remains the question and that you can't see is how good her love is. And that's what I'm saying."

Mateo isn't new to the music industry. He tried his luck, attempted to do the 9-to-5 routine for a few months and then pursued his passion. "Music was always around, but I decided to get a regular job," he says. "So I went to college, got a degree, got a job for the first few months, and I hated it. And so I switched over to music full-time, and luckily, my roommate at the time had a cousin who was a rapper and stayed with us for three weeks. Three weeks ended up being three months. It drove me crazy, but in that time, he would take me to these Brooklyn basement studios. We would just go and record but it was real janky though like horrible basement where I'm singing next to a washer and dryer. And from that terrible demo I made, I met with a producer in L.A. and went out to L.A."

From that meeting, Mateo soon signed with MySpace Records, which was what he liked to call an experiment. "In L.A., I put a song called 'Human' on MySpace, and I started getting MySpace features and people commenting and saying they like the song, which was cool for because now MySpace Records can see that we can take it to the next level," the singer shares. "Well, since it was an experiment, it didn't really pan out the way I thought it was going to. But it was really great because it was like an incubation period. That's what MySpace felt like where I was gaining a following and throwing out mixtapes."

After time passed and no sign of progression, in 2010, Mateo signed to Krucial Noise, an imprint on Interscope Records founded by producer Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, who worked alongside Grammy-winning superstar Alicia Keys for many of her albums. He felt like all the work he prepped for would pay off, and notes this point as when he really got his career started. One of the ways it sparked the work he's currently doing was by getting to work with Keys.

"I actually got to meet her a couple of times and also go into the studio with her to work on her album, and it was great. I'm a huge fan, and I've always been a fan of what Krucial and Alicia Keys did," Mateo states. "They created a very unique sound that was very organic, but it was still very mainstream, which is really dope. She was so humble and chill and so down to earth, it was such a good thing, especially when you meet your idol.

"I learned a lot from her by just writing with her and seeing what her process was like. It's been really great, and she's been really supportive and even tweeted out to check out the 'How Good Is Your Love' video," he continues.

Though he's logged studio time with Keys, Mateo would like to do a solid collaboration with the 'Girl on Fire' artist as well as Coldplay. "I would love to do a duet with Alicia," he admits. "My idol is Chris Martin from Coldplay. I would love to work with him. I'm a big fan of his."

Even though his career is starting to move the way he envisioned, Mateo sometimes considers becoming a rapper rather than a singer. "Sometimes I wish I were a rapper because there were would definitely be some Kendrick [Lamar] songs," he explains. "Like when 'Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe' came out, I was like, 'Damn.' Those songs are definitely songs I love."

Watch Mateo's 'How Good Is Your Love' Video