“All bets are off right now,” according to Christian artist Matthew West. “Do something that you’re excited about, do something that you love, put music out, and let people decide if it moves them,” West emphasized, when explaining his mindset behind his latest EP, Live Before The World Shut Down.
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The six song project features intimate, live versions of West’s music, originally recorded primarily at a performance at YouTube studios in New York, before the impacts of COVID-19.
West, like the majority of performing artists and songwriters, lost his touring schedule and with it a major component of his life as an artist because of the restrictions in place in light of COVID-19. Deeply feeling that stolen experience, West told American Songwriter he wanted to fill the void and give listeners a chance to remember what live music sounds like and feels like through this EP.
“There’s been a lot taken away from us,” West explained. “We know the problems of the world and the needs of many – the list is long, and heartbreaking. We keep our own problems in perspective, but I know the music industry has been hit hard. We’re missing live music and that experience.”
“The live music experience is the epitome of a hopeful experience both for the singers and the audience,” West continued. “Those are nights that fill us with hope, and we’re singing together – those are mountain top moments. This world needs that now more than ever and yet that’s one of the things that has been taken away from us.”
The instrumentation of the songs on the EP are quite different from the studio versions, West noted, which adds to the imitation of a real, live experience. Listeners can hear room noise, echoes of the drum patterns, the pulsing ebb of the accompanying cello, intro count-ins by the band, crowd chatter, all the beautiful, imperfect elements that create the live concert encounter.
West noted putting together this EP, and retrospectively the concert at YouTube studios, inspired him to continue to rethink the various ways to perform and arrange his own songs, as well as the songs he’s written for other artists.
Recently named ASCAP’s Christian Songwriter of the Year, West pens songs for artists other than himself to perform and call their own. In the future, West said he hopes to take more of the songs he’s written for other artists and put his own personal spin on the sound and the arrangement.
This freedom of creation is what inspires West in his current stage of artistry. “I feel like I can release more music more often, and even sometimes it will just be a different version of the same song because I like it, and I want the world to hear it,” West said. “I look around and see all the songwriters around me and other fellow artists not letting this year stop us from putting out hope filled messages in the form of songs. Out of hopeless situations, songs of hope arise and that’s what I’m trying to do, and I will not be stopped by my plans getting changed.”
The time for live music will return, West said. Projects like this EP only encourage that future, and solidify its need. “I believe those days will come back and when they do, I got a feeling we’ll all be singing together louder than ever before.”
Live Before The World Shut Down, released on October 30th with purchase available now.
