This interview transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity by Maryam (@luckyyloopss), Gabb (@tegomass) and Evie (@doubleflutz)
Clara (@daejangie): So, I’m here with Harry Mattick, bronze medallist at UK Nationals last year. I think that you were back on the podium after two years in fourth?
Harry: Yeah, I think so.
And you landed your first fully rotated quad toe!
First fully rotated quad, yes.
Congrats.
Thank you very much.
What was last season like?
Last season was quite interesting because I feel like every other goal that I had kind of went completely out of the window. I had my eyes on getting this quad done, and I had nothing else in mind at all. I think that kind of shows if you watch some of the skates that I did last season, if you watch the Nationals ones especially. I did the quad, and I think I spent the rest of the program just going, "I'm happy I've landed the quad." I let myself lose concentration for the combo and just went butt on the floor. Last season was interesting because every competition I was like, "I want this quad now, I want this quad now." And I knew I could do it as well, coming up to every single event I knew that I've got a shot, I’ve got a shot, I could do it. And then I remember Warsaw, I did land it. I managed to get the landed quad, and I managed to get a triple toe on the end of it in combination as well. And I actually kept my head on that one. So I kept my head for the rest of the program, and I finished, and I was really, really happy, and then they called it as underrotated. And if you watch the video, it's only slightly, so I was like okay, I still need to go again. I managed to get it done at Nationals, so I was quite happy about that.
Are you going to bring it back this season?
I'm going to try. Now that I've done it, it’s one of the goals in my head again.
What were they?
Harry: I want to hit scores, I want to hit clean, I want to be in a position where I'm getting better at doing consistently clean skates in competition. I really feel like that's something I've not really been quite good at. Now my goals are coming back into, "I've done my quad, I want to get my quad out again." But I also want to skate clean, so now I'm a bit more like, "Huh." So I think it's going to come down to how it's feeling. Maybe not quite on the day, I don't really like to do that. I like to know what I'm going in for. We'll see how it goes. I want to get it out, but I also want to skate clean and do well and maximize my GOE.
We saw you at ACI in September, where you have become a fixture and a fan favourite. You set your personal best there in the Free Skate. When you were saying, "Score-goals," what kind of scores were you looking to hit?
Honestly, any kind of PB or best scores I'm happy with. I'm not looking at any particular score. I'd like to hit 200 points in competition at some point, I'm not quite sure if I can get that this season. I'd need to get really, really well, but that's a goal for the future as well.
You revealed your programs back in Canada. You've got "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Batman." You're well known for quirky, fun programs. Could you tell us a bit about how you usually about choosing your music?
I usually know kind of what I want. I normally have an idea. I was really reluctant to get rid of my "The Nightmare Before Christmas," I had that I think for about five seasons. I absolutely loved it. I definitely was thinking, I was happy to keep going with "The Nightmare Before Christmas," but I was like, "I'm not going to change it unless I think I can come up with something a bit better." I was kind of looking around and I was kind of going, "I want a character piece, because I always like a character piece." And I was thinking, "I'd love to do something that's in the world of ‘Batman’ and things." But everyone who you've seen do these things is always either really dull for me, I don't really want to do that. And then I realized, "Oooh, I reckon the Joker would work." So I was playing around with music from The Joker and I found the piece from the “Miracle of Sound” that my program ends with. When I found this, I was like, "Ahh. That." I sent it to my coach saying I'll try this for the Free. He actually thought I was kidding, he thought I was joking because he laughed like, "Ha ha, very funny." I’m like, "No no no, seriously, I think this can work,” and he was like, "Absolutely, the more I listen to it." "Yeah, okay." I thought, okay, I can't use this for the full thing because I reckon it will get quite same-y. So I was thinking and I liked the idea of having a Frankenstein program - which was really hard to cut.
You do your own cuts, I see.
Harry: It was really hard to cut. I liked the idea of having an after-hours theme park thing. I reckon that could be kind of spooky and nice - it's the same but different in terms of the end bit. I heard the theme from the Jack Nicholson bit, and I was like, "Ahh, that would work." Initially, we were going to use a piece I heard at a competition. I don't like to re use music if someone else has used it, but it was used in the Short Program in one of [Alexei] Yagudin's programs. I heard that and I thought, "Ooooh, that would fit." And I was like, "Hnghhh," I couldn't quite get it to fit. And then I heard the theme from the film where Jack Nicholson plays The Joker, that fits. There's usually a bit of progression with my music where I kind of know roughly what I want. I know the theme, I know the style that I want, and then it evolves a little bit until I get exactly what I want, or I hear something that's like, "Ooh. Yes. That's what I want."
But you knew you wanted “Batman” from the start?
I knew I wanted “Batman,” I knew I wanted some kind of superhero thing. I wanted some kind of character piece that would be good. I was like, "It would be boring to put ‘Batman,’" but then of course, "Ahh, The Joker - ding ding ding."
Are you a big comics consumer?
No, but with my Short, I love Queen.
But you chose an instrumental version? Explain this to me.
I've always wanted to skate to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” always. Ever since 2011 I've wanted to skate to “Bohemian Rhapsody” - for years and years and years. There's always been something else that came up and I thought, "Oooh, I like that, I would quite like to do that." Or, "Oooh that's good, I'd quite like to do that as well." It's always been a second choice sort of thing. And then the “Bohemian Rhapsody” film came out and I thought to myself, "If I don't use it now, it will be really well used - because everyone's going to want it now. I better use it now, otherwise, it's going to become something that people hear and go, 'Ugh, this again.'" And so I was like, "Alright I'm having it. I don't care what anyone else's opinion is, I'm having something from Queen, although I want ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ something from Queen." Again, I like characters. I was looking through Queen and I liked the song “[I’m Going] Slightly Mad?” I loved that song, and I played it to a few different people, and the response that I got was like, "Nah."
Oh really?
"No, no, no, it's not going to work. It’s not" And I can kind of see what they mean, you put it on the speakers on the rink and it gets quite same-y, it kind of fades into the rink a little bit, and I was like, "Ohh well I really like it but they are kind of right." It's an evolution of the music that I want. I knew I wanted Queen, but this one, "Errmmm." And then I heard this, the cello orchestral “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and I thought, "Oh, I love it. I really love it." I decided, you know what I'm going to use this one. It's Queen, and it's got all of the character of Queen, but it's not too on the nose, it's not the obvious one. I thought, "Oh, this is perfect." It's the one by the Brooklyn Duo and Denver Quartet. Actually, they were really good, because they got back to me really quickly when I was asking their permission to use it, because we didn't have the code that we needed. They got back to me really quickly, so [it's] really thanks to them because I was really scared. I was like, "Oh no, I'm not going to be able to use it! This perfect piece of music that I've wanted for ages..."
Kudos to you for asking though, like I know that's not consistent.
Well yeah, I had to get permission to use the main bit of my Free as well. And I was like, "Oh no," because I thought it was Mark Hamilton. And I was like, "Oh no, I'm going to have to contact them, and then they're never going to reply to me." Anyway, it's not, it was the Miracle of Sound, and they got back to me like the next day and said, "Of course you can." I'm like, "Great. Cool. So lucky." That my music, alright.
Cool, and for choreo. You're known for toepick tightrope walking and fun choreo touches. Is it Richard Beamish and Emma Davies who choreograph for you?
Yes, and I have a lot of input as well. Honestly, with my choreography, it's one of those things where I think a while ago I realized I'm not going to have the same level of technical as some of the top skaters. I thought, "Well, if I want to stand out, I want to be unique in some way.” Well, I know I've got a very unique character, even off the ice, I've got quite a strong personality. I thought, "Well you know, I can let this shine so I can use this to my advantage." Sometimes in my Free especially, I did this in my "Nightmare Before Christmas," I sometimes adlib a little bit and I have to really reign that in. Because when you're practicing for jumps and you're setting up for jumps, sometimes doing a bit of a different choreography gives you a different amount of speed, so sometimes I've missed jumps because I've gotten too into the choreography. We have to really be careful to not do that. It's a lot of fun to choreograph these things. I just like programs that are fun to watch. I had a program quite a while ago now where, I had a different coach then, and he said to me, "We're going to run the program without jumps in it, just hold through the jumps, just a bit of conditioning." And I was like, "Okay." I remember thinking even in the training session that this program was nothing but jumps. I was going around kind of going, if you were to take two rotations out of all of my jumps, for example, there's no program there. I remember thinking even then and realizing if you were to do singles instead of your triples, is there a program? That's the test that I kind of apply to my programs at the moment - if I took my jumps out, if I did singles instead of the triples or the quad, do I still have a good program?
And your choreo sequences are always so fun.
They're always the most fun to choreograph!
How would you describe your own style then?
Unique. I try to make it unique. I like being different. I've always been different off the ice and on the ice, I just like being different and quirky and weird in my own little way.
You were saying you wanted to skate to Queen since 2011. You've been competing in Seniors since 2012? 7 years, am I right?
I think the last Junior Worlds I did was 2011, so yeah. My first Senior season would have been 2012.
So, I guess when you started in Seniors, probably having one quad in the Free would be enough to get you pretty close to the podium if it was landed. And now things have changed.
Yeah. We have really high standards of skating in this country now, I love it. It pushes me because I come in and I can't let myself get complacent because we have really good skaters now and I'm like, "If I sleep in, they're not going to be sleeping in, so hmm."
What's it been like for you to see what you admired in skaters growing up, compared to what you see skaters doing now?
When I was a kid, I remember I watched the 2004 Worlds, the last group of the Free Program in the Men. I watched that, where I had it on videotape - that's how long ago it was now. I remember I watched this every single day until the following Worlds. I loved it, and I was watching it, especially Brian Joubert and Stephane Lambiel's skates. I really loved those ones. Honestly, I think some of my choreography might have come from admiring Lambiel because he had the zebra outfit, and so I think he was a bit of a character as well. I remember him doing the spins before they were required. I always wondered if that's the reason we have the spins the way we do now. You just did the spins just because, they're not going to have any extra points, but why not. I think that's probably a major influence now to the way I skate.
Were they your two icons then growing up?
Lambiel, Brian Joubert, and [Evgeni] Plushenko, obviously, as well. I think they were the main three I grew up watching in my room. And Daisuke Takahashi as well. His 2008 skate, when he did the hip hop version of-
"Cyberswan?"
Yeah, "Cyberswan," I loved that program! I watched that so much. I loved it.
I think I can see all of that in your skating. So we see you next at Nationals in two weeks, is that right?
My Short is the last day of November, yeah.
Any clue where you'd want to go after that, where we might see you again?
Oooh yeah, it depends on how that goes. We usually like to do the Challenge Cup. That's a staple first, we like that one. Beyond that, I don't know. We change depending on schedule and how training is going and different things. Challenge Cup is usually a solid one first.
So let's talk about your schedule. You're working as a personal trainer, is that right?
Working as a personal trainer, yep.
What's that like, having to balance work and skating?
Honestly, I like it quite a bit because I wanted to go into coaching, and obviously I'm going into coaching once I'm retired from my skating as well. It was putting me off, the idea that I would skate and then have to spend hours on the ice in skates standing in the cold. I was like, "I really want to coach, but I don't want to do this and train. It's going to be a lot of hours on the ice." My sister suggested doing the personal training, and I thought it was a great solution because not only do I get to input into skaters and input into their skating in a way that has really helped me, but I also don't have to spend that amount of time on the ice. I'm not limited to when we've got ice as well, so I can schedule people in when it's convenient. So it's a job that I love. I really do like it, yeah.
You were saying that you realized you realized stuff about your own skating when you were coaching people, what kind of things has it changed?
Oooh. I think when you coach you realize that when you're on the coaching side, you kind of go, "This is what we need to do. This is what we need to get done. We're going to get it done." When you're a skater and you're on the side and having to do it I think it's very easy to think "I don't want to run a Free today. I don't want to do my program. It's tiring. I'm tired today." I think it's given me a little bit more toughness. "No, it's a Free Program day. We have to do the Free. That's how it goes." I think that it's helped me in that way.
And you've managed to carry that into your own training. [Harry: Yes] That's impressive!
A little bit! I do love a good moan.
How long is a workweek for you then? You must be training 25-30 hours a week.
I skate ten times a week. I do about 3-4 gym sessions a week. My days are quite long somedays. I like to fit them in. Saturday is a busy coaching day because I don't train on a Saturday.
Your sister used to skate. Does she still [skate]?
No, I don't think so. Not very much. She was quite good! She managed to get all of her doubles and did really well. She was actually better than me for quite a long time! I don't think I was ever better than her while she was still skating. I think it wasn't until she retired that I was like "Yes! I can overtake her now."
You started skating as a sort of physical therapy from a really terrible accident.
Yeah. I got into skating because I was in a car accident at five [years old]. It was one of those where I had a head injury, I had physical injuries. It was one of those where I was the last person you'd expect to be any good at skating at all. For a long time, I really was not. I remember the first couple of lessons, I literally had two minutes at the end of my sister's fifteen-minute lesson, because I didn't have the attention span for that. [Clara: Because of the injury?] Yeah, it was one of those things where I started really early days but I loved it.
What did you do in two minutes? What is a two-minute lesson?
I only remember one lesson. I think I worked on my drags, let's do some waltz jumps... alright. Over.
Injured as you were, if I was your mother, I would have been worried to make your injury worse. It's a sport where you fall over so much.
I think it's the balance aspect of the sport that helped my head injury. I think that's one of the reasons why it was prescribed as physical therapy. I think it did me good. Still, I love it.
Speaking of your beginnings; were you ever recommended to go into Pairs? Did you ever think about going into Pairs?
Funny you should ask. No, not really - but I actually have done a little bit this year. I think it's two and a half months now where I've been trying a little bit and it's a lot harder. Mad respect to all Pairs skaters because they are insane! When you watch and haven't tried it; oh my gosh is it harder. Normally, I would be in the gym 3 to 4 times a week. Every session on the ice where we do Pairs feels like a gym session. Normally after my gym sessions, I want to go home and I want to sleep. It's so hard!
Who are you trying it out with?
Lydia Smart. She came up to me in August, roughly, and said: "Hey, do you want to try out a little bit?" I was like "Yeah, Sure! Why not?" It's weird. I don't know if what we're doing is good because I never really followed Pairs. I'm ashamed to say I've only ever really followed the Free. I don't know what is good, I don't know what's difficult. It's like if someone came on and said "I've just landed this jump. Is that good?" It's a bit like that. We can do some lifts and we're doing all sorts of things - but I don't know if these lifts are Hard? Or easy?
Has Richard ever coached Pairs?
I think so? He's a Pairs coach. But he's always like, "This needs to be better. You could do this better." He's always correcting.
So there's something that might happen there?
Maybe...
I mean, Daisuke [Takahashi] is going to be an ice dancer, he says.
Anything is possible. I'm enjoying it if nothing else. It's very fun. It's a lot harder than [Singles.] But it's a very fun thing to do. Following the Pairs, since we've been watching it, has been really interesting as well. It's a whole thing I knew existed but I never explored it. Watching that as well has been really interesting, it's really fun.
Well, there are different elements...
Hmm! The twist, particularly, is so impressive. We can do a fairly decent single twist at the moment. Just throwing someone overhead on the ice is so... I'm sure she's terrified. Especially because it's me throwing. But I'm terrified for her because I know if whether or not I know if I'm going to catch her or not.
So of those Pairs elements, the twist, you said, is your favorite?
I do like the twist. There's something quite nice about it.
What's the hardest?
Harry: Honestly, the throw flip I think is the hardest. We managed to do the throw triple loop within a few sessions of trying it. That really came easy. The flip has taken longer. We can do a solid throw double and we can get the triple around but it's just awkward as a throw because getting the timing of that can be really difficult. Weirdly, the death spiral is so difficult. When I watched that initially, I thought that it would be one of the easier ones. I mean, compared to the twist where they throw them up really high, or the throws that look very difficult... Those will take ages to learn. But I was like "Oh, the death spiral! That looks like something we could master fairly quickly!" No. That's really...
What's the difficulty?
For me, it's getting a decent pivot. I've never had a good pivot. I've never been able to do spread-eagles or anything like that. I've always been envious of people who could do cantilevers. Oh my gosh, I think they look so cool and I've always wanted to do one.
In fairness, you are very tall... which is 100% why. [Both laugh]
Fair enough! I have always been jealous of cantilevers. I think that's why I find it though. Then again, learning how to do something with someone else and learning how to skate with someone next to you is really difficult.
What about Singles? There's a trend at the moment of using jumps as a proxy personality test. What is your favorite and least favorite jump? The listeners may draw their own conclusions!
I love the toe. I feel like I'm quite good at the toe. And the loop as well. I always found the loop a comfortable jump.
Are you more of an edge guy or a toe guy, in jumps?
Never thought about that before... I don't know. I think, if I had to pick a least favorite it would have to be an Axel. I'm not a fan of the Axel. I feel like of all of my jumps I think Axel is the most awkward.
You've got that nice double Axel-double Axel sequence though.
I like that one.
Do you land triple Axels in practice?
Not at the moment. It's coming, we're working on it. But no landed triple Axels yet.
More personality test questions-
Ah, always a fun thing.
If you could get Winnie The Pooh storm Yuzuru Hanyu-style after each skate. What would you want to be chucked at you?
Oh... I don't know. I think, I still have a soft spot for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" because I was told that I cannot have this music by a previous coach because he didn't like it. But I liked the music so when I left him as a coach I was like "No! I'm having that music." And I'm so glad I did. So I have a soft spot for "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
So anyone going to British Nationals - take note!
Harry: I will always be happy.
Let's make it a Jack [Skellington] storm. Anything that we might not know about you?
Harry: I love Walley's!
Oh cool!
I've always thought that double and triple Walley's should be a jump. I love my Walley's. I like to do a few on the warm-up and I like to try and make them as big as I can.
Would you ever add one to your choreo sequence?
Well, I'd be slightly worried they'd count it as a loop. Do you know what I mean? I feel like if you rotate more than once, they would want to count it as a jump. I guess what I need to do is do my seven jumps, and then do a triple Walley!
Exactly!
Well, I need to learn a triple Walley first! And then do one, and just then be like "How are you going to mark that?"
"What are you calling now?"
Yeah! Because they would call it. Wouldn't they? They'd call something. I don't know if they'd make my third spin not count or something like that.
Surely not.
I don't know. You're only allowed to do so many elements, aren't you?
We will look into this.
Yes. We will look into this! This will be a work in progress. [laughs]
We noticed you have very cool "Batman" training gear. Tell us about that.
Ah, yes. Well, this is just part of my eccentricity really. I like training tops that reflect either the music I'm skating to or the personality. I have a few other ones as well that I've worn in competition practices before where there is a Kung Fu Panda on it.
Amazing!
I love that top as well.
Where do you source them?
Different places. One of them I bought off of Facebook. One of those targetted ad things. It was £8. I was like, "I'll buy it because it looks cool. It'll probably be awful but I'll get it." And it was the nicest top ever I was like, "Ah! Bargain!" Some of them are like Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu rash guards. There's a couple more that I've got my eye on... I'm going to drop hints for Christmas.
Can you give us any hints?
I love the Tatami rash guard brand. They make the Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu kit. There's a story to this. A couple of years ago at the rink, when I was training at a different rink, they melted the ice. They hired out space to the Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu National Championships. I was working at the rink at one of those cafe things. Right at the end, it was 11 o'clock at night or something, they were putting the kit away. They had one competition left so we stood watching the competition and we all had a go on the mats. It was a team of people working there. There were putting these tops away and I was thinking, "They look cool." So I went to the guy on the side and asked where did you buy these from. He gave me the info and I bought six. I just thought they were so cool!
What was Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu like?
Harry: It's a weird sport.
What is Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu?
It's like a martial art. It's a bit like judo, I think. But it's fun!
I like how you saw the competition, didn't take away from the sport - just the gear. Good priorities.
Well, there would be a risk of injury, I think. It's one of those things where I would like to do a bunch of different things like, "I would love to do this or that, but don't want to risk the injury of it." Actually, I was talking to Keegan Messing at Autumn Classic and he rides his motorcycle, he does skiing and all this stuff. And I thought maybe I should give some of this a try.
It's true. He manages it! You have your two character programs for this season. Any thoughts of what characters you would pick for next season? Is there a wishlist that you have?
Ooh, I don't know... I would love to do, it's a bit like "Queen" where it's always been a bit of a second choice, I would love to do a Russian folk song. Again, I don't know what piece of music it would be. It's always been a bit of an idea that's not gone through that evolved state where I don't exactly know what piece of music is. I always wanted to do something stylized and dance-y in that way. Maybe that'll come to fruition.
Last question; you also wear refreshingly colorful costumes, unlike the majority of the men in the Singles discipline and in Pairs. Can you tell us a bit of how these get designed?
Harry: It's done by Sparkle by Joanne. She's very good. I've used her for that last 5-or 6 outfits, if not years. We listen to the music, we come up with the character pieces. We come up with something that we like. She's very good. She comes up with stuff that I look at and think, "Well I was thinking something like this - but that's better!" Like, for example, with the "Bohemian Rhapsody" piece. I wanted to go with something like the yellow jacket and white pants. I knew this would look awful but I wanted to go with it anyway because it's "Bohemian Rhapsody!" So she came up with the costume I have now which is infinitely better than that. That's like a nod to Freddie Mercury in different ways. There's the red from "We Are The Champions." It's designed in different ways. If you google Freddie Mercury, there kept coming up a black and white catsuit that he kept wearing, so we put a little bit on the waist from that. There's just different nods to different Queen bits littered throughout the outfit. I really like the outfit just for that reason. The Free Program is like a ringmaster. Because, again, it's a nod back to the idea of having an abandoned theme park thing. We thought, "Why don't we have a ringmaster, like a circus conductor type of person - but we'll have it with Joker colors." So I think that both of these look really good and I really like them.
Thank you so much for your time.
My pleasure!
And best of luck at British Nationals. We look forward to seeing you there!
Thank you!