British singer-songwriter Matt Maltese recently released his sixth studio album, 'Hers'.
His first fully self-produced effort since his second album 'Krystal', 'Hers' finds Maltese reflecting upon a serious long-term relationship and the more grown-up complexities of love through the rearview."I've written a lot of music that comes from a place of infatuation, but this record was written on reflection of a much longer-term love," shares Matt.
"The complications and wonderful roads that that goes through and the more informed heartaches that come out of it. I got to really reflect and slave over it. . . It's a bit like having a year to write a really important email.
"I'm British enough to feel a slight shame of writing so many love songs in the past," he adds. "Maybe the more interesting thing on paper would have been to go to the other side of the world and write a concept album about prehistoric creatures or something.
"But at the end of the day, we're all human, and love and people are things we're all continually affected by. It's my job as a songwriter to excavate the things in my life, and that's what I was going through."
One of the album singles is 'Buses Replace Trains'. The song's title was born from a conversation with a close friend about band names his Welsh uncle had suggested to him when he was a teenager, including ‘Buses Replace Trains’.
The concept felt like the perfect basis for a sweet and earnest love song, with the grandeur of the subject matter brought to life with the swell of strings and twinkling keys. 'I know it's not that simple, but it is,' the song closes.
"There was something touching about the phrase 'Buses Replace Trains' out of context. It triggered of course the nostalgia of rail replacement buses in Reading growing up, but I also just couldn't shake that it was a title for a love song. So plain and ordinary and quotidian," Matt says.
Here, Matt continues the transport theme sharing his favourite modes of travel. [Ed's note: We'll forgive him for the limebikes!]
