In 2014, British singer Matthew Hegarty (Matthew & The Atlas) wooed us through his album "Other Rivers." With full emotion and expression of his music shining through, the Brit is back again, this time with a stripped version of his album "Temple." I was able to talk to Matthew about his album, the process, music, and what's next to come.

Read more about the album here.

Your new album Temple - Unplugged is due to be out in about a month. If you could describe it in a nutshell, what would it be?

The aim was to only use acoustic instruments to rework the original album, with a view to showing the songs in a different light.

So this album is an acoustic version of your previous album, Temple; what led you to the decision to create a striped away version? How has changing the sound of the songs affected what you want the audience’s take away to be?

I always like having an opportunity to rework songs and pairing them back is a good way to see if the songs still stand up! I know there are a lot of listeners who enjoy the more acoustic side of MATA, so I wanted to do it for those reasons as well. Also, the rest of the band play a variety of instruments like harp, double bass, clarinet, and banjo, so it was great to work on the songs as a group.

I heard that the album creation process for Temple is extremely different from your last album, Other Rivers. Where there any difficulties, or pleasant surprises?

Mainly pleasant surprises. Other Rivers was a long process of piecing together songs written over a good few years. After Other Rivers had been released, it sort of gave me a clean slate which I really loved. I basically tried to write a song a week, even if it wasn’t finished by the end of the week I’d move on to the next. It enabled me to have a creative flow I hadn’t experienced before, old songs would feed into newer ones and new ones might spark ideas for the earlier ones I hadn’t quite finished. I worked on those songs for about 3 months and I felt it gave them a really cohesive feel to them. We also ended up recording the album in Nashville which was very special.

In the earlier years, what lead you to music?

I started out learning guitar when I was around 15 years old. Mainly due to buddies of mine starting a band and wanting to get involved. We’d basically just play Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam covers. I had messed around with music over the years but it wasn’t until I was around 27 that I started to try and take it more seriously. When I was younger I just didn’t think you could be a musician and make a living out of it. I know that’s becoming harder and harder these days anyway, but there was a fundamental misconception about it in my mind. By the time I’d gotten to 27 I had a slightly older head on my shoulders, and I had just been meandering along without much purpose for a long time. So I started working harder at writing songs, I learned how to record on a 12 track and it grew from there.

What are you listening to right now?

Angel Olsen’s new record, Leonard Cohen, Foreign Fields, C Duncan…

If you could do a music collaboration with anyone, who would it be?

Tom Waits

If there is one thing you could say to aspiring musicians, what would it be?

I think playing live is very important, I spent a lot of time playing open mics to empty rooms in London, which didn’t particularly get me anywhere, but I learned something doing it. What really helped me was being the local support act at venues that were nearby to me. I built up a good relationship with the Boileroom in Guildford and 21 South Street in Reading and I’d open for the bigger touring acts that were going through. That eventually led to meeting Ben Lovett and playing some Communion nights and eventually putting out my first EP with them. Also if you’re a songwriter, I think you’ve always got to keep writing and recording and trying to push yourself creatively.

So what’s next?

Well, all the songs from the Temple – Unplugged album should be out by December. We are doing a headline tour in February, so we’ll be preparing for that. Potentially thinking about incorporating some of the unplugged album into the live show as well. I’m doing something with Bear’s Den in December, but I don’t think they’ve announced it yet, so keep an eye out. Apart from that, very much looking forward to Christmas and having some family time.

Temple - Unplugged will be available in its entirety on December 23rd.

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