A personal story from Kevin Mathews.
The best laid plans…. I intended to release a new album in 2020, with supporting events etc etc etc. And then of course, COVID-19 got in the way. After months of staying at home, with hardly any social contact, I have begun to slowly coming out of the cave in the past week or so.
So there was a period in July when I released a single a week just to prove to myself that I could do exactly that. A very fulfilling exercise in music composition, home recording and mixing, which I will try to share in greater detail one of these days. You can check out these singles over at Bandcamp.
Very specifically, I have written songs that reflected the real life situation that all of us have had to endure in the months since COVID-19 became global issue. Of course, the songwriting process was cathartic for me and I hoped that these sentiments would connect with listeners and maybe provided some comfort as well.
Thus, when Mike Spinks (City65Music) offered me the opportunity to play on its Sitting Room Sessions live stream, I jumped at the chance to perform again and at least kickstart the whole process of slowly getting my music out there in the public space again (such as it is).
I had wanted to play “Talking to Myself” which spoke about isolation as one of the newer songs but then good friend Don Shiau also requested “The New Normal” and that presented an interesting challenge. Fact is, I wrote that song basically on Logic Pro and not the guitar and wondered if I could do a version on acoustic guitar – effectively I had to learn my own song!
I think it all worked out in the end. I really enjoyed the almost hour long live stream singing old and new songs. Looking at the video now – it all looks and sounds very good indeed, so very satisfied with everything! Thanks so much again to Mike and Rachel Mason for making the event possible.
If you missed the broadcast, the entire performance video can be viewed at the City65Music Facebook page. In the meantime, check out my little teaser below – a clip of “The New Normal” in all its acoustic glory. – Kevin Mathews
… still there’s more …