Matt & The Watt Gives [LP] (Red Vinyl)

Matt & The Watt Gives - Matt & The Watt Gives [LP] (Red Vinyl)

The best summary of Matt & The Watt Gives comes from songwriter Matt Pelham's daughter, Edith: ''Matt and the Watt Gives is the new solo project of long time Features front-dude, Matt Pelham. Since the disbanding of the Features in 2016, Matt has found himself very busy with a large variety of grown-up junk... Now, after eight years, for his sanity and the sanity of the people around him, Matt has decided to write, record, and play music again. '' Truly, Matt & The Watt Gives is a musical rebirth for songwriter Matt Pelham, both figuratively and literally. Pelham spent three decades writing, performing and touring with The Features; releasing five albums (but recording seven), three EPs, countless singles and more demos than you can imagine. After the quartet decided to pause the band in 2016, Pelham found himself with the opportunity for a fresh approach to music-making-shedding expectations and embracing a more relaxed creative process. What began as musical fragments-like the distinctive bass line and keyboard melody (now transformed into saxophone) of ''''Cutting Ties''''-evolved into fully realized songs as Pelham slowly taught himself the ropes of the home recording studio. He taught himself piano, how to record in his personal space and how to mix. Occasionally he'd get an assistant from longtime collaborators Brian Carter and Craig Alvin for select recordings but, on the whole, Matt & The Watt Gives production was handled entirely by Pelham. The same goes for the instrumentation - while largely handled by Pelham himself, guests such as Roger Dabbs, Rollum Haas (The Features) and Joshua Moore (The Katies) occasionally make an appearance. Aside from knob tweaking in the home studio, personal trials and tribulations along with a global pandemic provided the landscape for these songs to emerge and flourish - see ''The Chemo Blues'' and the aforementioned ''Cutting Ties'' for direct evidence of this. Fittingly, these hurdles also emerge as emotional reflections with tracks like ''Til You'' finding Pelham being deserving of love, ''Wilder Days'' coming to terms with the happiness of family life and ''For Every Dream'' pondering on the journey thus far. Pelham's distinct voice cuts through the record as a familiar friend to any fans of The Features but the musical landscape is an altogether new experience. A variety of ''grown-up junk'' led us all here and it's a joy to have Matt & the Watt Gives provide a bit of light through the cacophony of it all. Wilder Days The Shade Cutting Ties Castles Half the Fight Strange Devotion Natchez The Chemo Blues OTil You For Every Dream