MAESON WITH AN "E"

"Be careful with the spelling, otherwise, you may get lost or into the wrong ship. Meet Matt Maeson, with an E."

For the majority of people, it is very difficult to express their feelings. Harder than that is to express it precisely, with the right words, gestures or both. Usually, we try to practice this "skill" by looking into others example, such as: in reading something someone else wrote, in paying attention to the dialogues of a movie, or in hearing the lyrics an artist sang. This type of problem, however, doesn’t seem to affect Matt Maeson, our Artist of the Week.

As it may come into realization through the following paragraphs, Matt not only dominates the art of coherence, he is also an incredible storyteller, capable of creating empathy on his listeners, whilst successfully sharing with them every feeling he wants to.

Source: @mattmaeson (Matt Maeson's Instagram Account)

From an unconventional childhood to a headlining tour around the US, Matt’s story shows us that even when the ride is bumpy, you can still arrive at your destination if you fasten your seatbelt right.

Maeson was born in Norfolk, Virginia, but grew up traveling around the USA with his parents who had a band and ran a Christian ministry. They performed in maximum security prisons and biker rallies, spreading their religion. Matt says he has started playing the drums by the age of 2; but only by the age of 15, he began writing his own music, since, when younger, his parents did not allow him to listen to rock music, where most of his inspiration comes from.

He’s currently a singer-songwriter and accordingly to his Facebook page his main influences vary from Johnny Cash, Kurt Cobain and Jeff Buckley to Jim Morrison, The Beatles, Andy Hull and others.

A Rocky Start

Not much is known about Matt’s first work experiences or life after he left his parent’s band. His solo music career, however, started when he uploaded some of his work on the platform SoundCloud; there people enjoyed and shared it, which eventually led him into being invited to sign with the Neon Gold/Atlantic Records label which he’s with until nowadays.

With a rich sonority, quite different from most contemporary songs, it's hard to classify Maeson's songs in one musical genre. Nevertheless, it is usually referred to as alternative, acoustic and indie.

After being signed, Matt went on his first headlining US tour, presented by Communion, an independent music company founded by Ben Lovett (Mumford & Sons) and Kevin Jones (Bears Den). Maeson drove from venue to venue, alone on his mobile hotel, also known as Hyundai, writing what would become his first ever EP: Who Killed Matt Mason.

Up to this moment, Matt has released some singles, as well as his debut EP. Who Killed Matt Maeson, released in March 2017 contains 6 tracks: Grave Digger, Cringe, Me And My Friends Are Lonely (A Fun Fact about this one: As we already know, Matt slept in his car during the US tour, however, during one of these occasions, while parked to get his beauty sleep, Maeson noticed one empty and abandoned Wendy's (fast-food restaurant). He thought it would be more comfortable to sleep there, so he got his things and went to the place. There, he found the inspiration to write this song), Straight Razor, Tribulation and Twenty Twelve (which was really written in 2012).

On his website, we can find an extract that summarizes perfectly what the EP is about: “As with all of Matt's music, it asks the same questions his life has-about desperation, redemption, and love.”

Tribulation

One of the main songs of Who Killed Matt Maeson, Tribulation is characterized by a husky, strong and full of feeling voice; great guitar arrangements and chord progression mixed with a unique combination of pop beats. As it reads on this extract from Paste Magazine (which can be found here: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/03/matt-maeson-tribulationmp3.html): "Tribulation is a song about self-doubt. Feeling inferior because you don't understand something enough. In this case, that something is love,” Maeson shares. “It's easy to convince yourself that there's no point in trying to find it anymore because you don't know how to handle it but the truth is, it's love and no one understands love."

Cringe

Being the most known work by Matt, conferring him important positions on some of the Viral Spotify playlists (UK and Global), and also contained on his debut EP, Cringe has definitely nothing cringy about it. With Matt's soulful voice, full of meaning, it's almost impossible not to feel in the place of the protagonist of the song. You can feel every inch of pain, of broken heart, of confusion. The strong guitar picks also contribute a lot to this immersive effect. Throughout the song, we can almost touch the powerful raw honesty, with which this song seems to have been made of.

A great year for Matt Maeson so far!

(Source: @mattmaeson - Matt Maeson's Instagram Account)

If you'd like to know a little more about Matt in his own words, check this video out:

You can contact and learn more about him through:

Facebook: Matt Maeson

Website: http://mattmaeson.com/

Twitter: @mattmaeson

Instagram: @mattmaeson

What were your thoughts on our trip of this week? Share them with us, you already know the drill, Instagram-us at @themusicalexpedition or Facebook-us at The Musical Expedition.

See you all next week!