After a year of writing and recording, Mattie Vant has returned with the first single from his third album, titled ‘In The Dark Times’.
The track was previewed on BBC Introducing North East, and received its debut airwave coverage on Radio X. Pushing personal boundaries, the artist wrote, recorded and produced the track by himself, saying:
“In response to the pandemic, I challenged myself to write, perform and produce an album entirely on my own. This meant picking up some very basic drum skills
‘In The Dark Times’ is melancholic, with raw, slow-paced drums and guitars that intertwine with eerie background noise. This more subdued direction doesn’t bear much resemblance to VANT’s riff-centric introduction, ‘Dumb Blood’, nor his most recent more experimental album ‘Conceived In The Sky’. Instead, it falls somewhere in the middle, showcasing the artist’s versatility. Of his latest release, VANT stated “In many ways, this is my most personal record to date”. The lyrics could’ve easily been a commentary on the last year, but for avid poetry enthusiasts, they might sound familiar: “In the dark times, will there still be singing / Yes there will be singing / About the dark times”.
On social media, VANT revealed “[the track] Was written in 2019 and uses a lyrical interpolation of a 1938 poem of the same name by Bertolt Brecht. In many ways, it became the start point for my next record and therefore seems like the logical place to start this time around”. He stated that he had found the poem after reading an interview with British director Jonathon Glazer, after he stated it was the influence for his 2019 short film, The Fall. Instruments were harmed in the making of the accompanying music video, which is set in the midst of a gritty urban landscape. Mattie Vant stars as an ominous masked figure, switching between a series of menacing guises before torching his bright pink guitar in an act of rage.
Alongside his writing and recording, Mattie has released a Spotify radio show called Dumb Narrator, where he (virtually) hosts guest artists and plays some of his favourite music.
