Matthew and the Atlas (GB)

About

Matt Hegarty is the songwriter, vocalist, guitarist and banjo player at the centre of Matthew and the Atlas, a folk act formed around 2009 in Aldershot, Hampshire. He was the first artist to sign with Communion Records, and the project has grown from intimate folk beginnings into a sound that pulls in indie pop and alternative influences while keeping acoustic texture at its core. The band's second studio album, Temple, was recorded in Nashville with production duo Foreign Fields over the course of roughly seven weeks. Hegarty has described the sessions as fluid and instinctive, quite different from the more deliberate approach taken on the debut, Other Rivers. A recurring figure in his lyrics, a shadowy character born from a real traumatic experience, threads through both records and gives the songwriting an unsettling personal depth that sets it apart from straightforward folk fare.