I don’t need nothin’ but truth, Matt Maeson declares in the opening line of the opening track on his latest album, Never Had to Leave.
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Maeson has always preferred honest storytelling, especially in his own craft, but Never Had to Leave takes that trait to new highs. The album, debuting on August 26, is an eclectically powerful 12-track account of life as Maeson sees it. As a singer/songwriter with a tendency for travel and a handful of commercially successful records to his name, Maeson’s perspective is one that doesn’t pop up often.
Over the course of Never Had to Leave, Maeson illuminates his experience with the inner workings of the music industry (“Cut Deep”), the gentle whispers of love (“A Memory Away”), and wrestling with religion (“Sanctified”). And while it may seem like a broad range of themes, c’est la vie, mon chéri. Maeson’s surefooted vocals also pull everything together as he runs and hurdles through a range of sonic highs and lows.
“Making this record [‘Never Had to Leave’] was just a good reminder, [for] me, to take the pressure off of what I’m doing,” Maeson tells American Songwriter. “Because the reason people gravitated to my stuff in the first place is because I wrote those songs before I had any success. And they were just honest, real depictions of how I was feeling. [They were about] what I think with the spin that I give it with my voice and my melodies and the way that I write.”
Maeson himself was just about born into music. His uncle was a drummer and his parents played in a few bands when he was growing up. Maeson even performed in prisons as a teenager as part of his parents’ prison ministry mission. Music is part of his DNA, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Listen to Never Had to Leave HERE and stay tuned for more from Matt Maeson’s interview with American Songwriter.
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine/Atlantic Records
