Smoking Nurse – Matt Burt

Smoking Nurse is the first printed selection of Matt Burt's poetry. Written during the late 90s for his spoken word performances, the pieces were a continuation of his earlier writings, which he recorded on a semi-broken micro-cassette player. These primitive recordings were later sampled by Burt's musician friend Helge Sten, which is how I found out about his work a decade ago. In the early 90s, Sten (later known as Deathprod) encouraged Burt to leave his job as a farm journalist for the second smallest newspaper in Wisconsin, USA, and move to Trondheim, Norway, to study at the local art academy. In 2004, Burt started his own band (Dog & Sky) and since has written and performed spoken word, music, and short stories, as well as collaborated with Norwegian bands like Motorpsycho and Spidergawd. Susanna and the Magical Orchestra covered his song These Days on their Melody Mountain album.

Through my 20s I returned occasionally to one of Burt’s and Sten’s collaborations, the chillingly minimalistic 6’15, released on Deathprod’s eponymous album in 2004. I have been coming back to it with an attachment that has only grown stronger with time. So when I found out there was no printed book of Burt’s writing, I felt it my duty as a publisher to bring it to you.

Martin Kohout