British songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Hegarty (aka Matthew And The Atlas) has recently released his new LP Temple (out locally via Caroline Australia) and in typical Matthew And The Atlas fashion it’s a stunning journey into the mind of one of today’s most underrated songwriters.
After the dreamy and textured Americana of his To The North and Kingdom of Your Own EPs had built him a cult global following, Hegarty released the debut album Other Rivers in April 2014, a release many beliebved to be difficult to top, until now.
Anyone who has spent some time with Hegarty’s latest offering would agree that Temple, is the kind of record that is impossible not to sink into. Bringing together the naked emotion of Sufjan Stevens with a dramatic rolling melancholy, it is a truly cathartic expression of its writer’s own fears and feelings, bound together by a universality of emotion and honesty that makes it bracingly easy to connect to.
To celebrate the release of Temple Hegarty found some time to pen for us a track by track run down of the record which you can check out below along with the LP stream. If you like what you’re hearing pop by the Matthew And The Atlas Facebook for more info.
Graveyard Parade
I used to see a black figure standing over me after I had woken from a bad dream. It would also happen when I’d had too much to drink and I’d imagine something in the corner of my vision.
It started after a traumatic event and I think I was dealing with the stress from that, and this was one of the things that manifested itself. This figure became a big part of the album and turned into a kind of character to explore ideas with. It’s basically fictional, but based on a real experience. ‘Graveyard’ is about that figure fading over time, but also trying to look through its eyes.
On A Midnight Street
I wanted to try and write a song that talked about climate change in someway. I’m a father and have worries about the world my daughter is growing up in, so that’s what I wrote about. I didn’t want it to sound like I was preaching, so tried to talk about it through a more personal, emotional perspective.
Temple
This song is kind of abstract and metaphysical. I’ve always loved the Hindu and Buddhist religions, and though I’m not religious, I like the idea of reincarnation. So it’s partly inspired by that and also the Darran Aronofsky film The Fountain, which has these different characters moving through time.
It’s fancifully suggesting we have forgotten some kind of hidden truth. The ‘temple’ is the mind and the ‘unfolding’ is the mind expanding. It also references the black figure later on, but he is like a devil on the shoulder, coming in different forms to disrupt our development or ascension to something better.
Elijah
A simple song about someone I know who’s had some hard luck. I had the verses for a while, but struggled to find a chorus for some time. There must have been at least 3 or 4 different versions. The ‘Elijah’ chorus only appeared a few weeks before heading to Nashville.
Modern World
This is a very exaggerated version of feeling lost or unsure of how to understand your place in the world. Also it’s about discomfort with social media and it’s place in your life. The content is pretty downbeat, so I wanted it sung over an upbeat melody to subvert it. That changed somewhat in the studio, but I think it still has an element of that, which I like.
Old Master
This on the surface is a song about the death of a relationship, and then through different experiences finding your way back to being able to function again. It’s really me relating to that imagined figure, and using that relationship to deal with a trauma.
Mirrors
This is kind of a lyrical companion piece to ‘Temple’. The unfolding in ‘Temple’ is about the mind expanding and opening up, where in ‘Mirrors’ folding it’s about the mind becoming more inward, claustrophobic and foggy. There is a little bit of the ‘Modern World’ approach, where I’m singing about something heavy over an upbeat melody. The last section is referencing the black figure. It’s in a sinister way; I’m beholden to it and I see it as the cause of my problems.
Can’t You See
A simple song about new fatherhood. I tried to avoid writing any songs about that, but obviously failed.
Gutter Heart
This was one of the first songs I wrote for the album and probably the one that went through the most transformation in the studio. It’s about needing that darker side to yourself, to give you perspective on the other things in your life. It’s about the sometimes difficult balance between the two.
Glacier
Like Temple, this is more abstract and metaphysical. It is inspired somewhat by the movie The Fountain as well, different lives moving through time. It took on a life of it’s own in the studio. We were really keen not to put a beat on it, which would have been very easy to do, and I’m glad we didn’t. It is probably the most experimental I’ve been vocally on record so far too, so this is an exciting song for me.
When The Light Hits The Water
We struggled to get the right vocal sound for the record at first. We ended up doing a microphone shoot out with 4 different microphones. The four of us in the room went for the same mic, which turned out to be a game changer. It just seemed to be able to take anything you threw at it and on this song it seemed to really pick up on the small things you don’t always hear on most mics, which I loved. This song is about losing something, the aftermath of that and also redemption.
Temple is out now via Caroline Australia.
