With a song in his heart

It wouldn't be difficult for Matisyahu to keep doing what works. The charismatic Hasidic Jew could continue to deliver rap-reggae to his cult following.

But he aims to evolve. So although Matisyahu still sports a black suit with a broad-brimmed hat and wire-rimmed spectacles, his recently released disc, "Light," has something fresh: singing.

"I've been working on singing, and it's been great," Matisyahu aka Matthew Miller says during a call from Chicago. "It's something that I needed to do."

Producer David Kahne, who has worked with The Strokes and Paul McCartney, helped Matisyahu break out of his vocal shell. "He was really supportive," Matisyahu says. "He kept pushing me. I had to take that next step. It would be easy to be repetitive."

Matisyahu, 30, spent a year working on the lyrics for "Light," while guitarist Aaron Dugan wrote the music. "We came up with something that we're thrilled with," he says. "It just works so well."

The soft-spoken New Yorker depends on Dugan because he doesn't play an instrument. "I would have to take a year off to study an instrument," he says. "But right now, my guitarist and I get into a room and he plays and I beatbox, and we come up with songs. We come up with some amazing melodies."

The results are powerful and provocative. "Light" includes some of Matisyahu's most accessible material, but there's also a playfulness to his work. "I never felt so comfortable making an album," he says. "Everything just flowed."

Although his faith is quite visible, Matisyahu didn't grow up with a spiritual foundation.

"I found religion not long after 9/11, but it had nothing to do with that, but maybe it did in some way," he says. "All I know is that I was in a rut, and I matured. It was miraculous. I found myself divinely inspired. I wouldn't be who I am without my beliefs."

These days, those beliefs include the notion that music can be transcendent.

"Songs can take you to amazing places," he says. "I'm so fortunate to have found something in which I can express myself and love as much as this. But I don't want to just do the same thing over and over with my music. I want to continue to challenge myself with each album and keep growing."

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