“I’m ready to not put out another record next year,” Matt Maltese admits on a late morning in early May. “In the last seven years I’ve done like six [records], and I think one thing I can say with some certainty, [is that] there won’t be another six in the next seven years.”
For any artist, that kind of steadfast output can undoubtedly grow tiresome. But Maltese’s hesitancy to jump back into the next album cycle isn’t driven by a lack of interest in music or a creative roadblock. Rather, as he says, “I want them to be really good and just have a bit more time to be made, and to just face the reality that I have a lot of other stuff I’d like to do.”
It’s true that the London-based singer-songwriter has been quite busy over the last few years — not to mention, nearly the last decade. Maltese’s official debut arrived in 2015, but it was his 2017 single “As The World Caves In” that most know him from. The song possesses a kind of piano-led melodrama distantly reminiscent of an Elton John number and captured a massive audience on TikTok four years after its initial release.
Although thousands of videos have been made with Maltese’s original rendition, it was artist and TikToker Sarah Cothran’s cover of the song that ushered in a massive resurgence in 2021. To date, Cothran’s version has amassed 52.1 million views and 6.2 million likes on the platform. The roundabout way that the song got broader exposure ultimately drew more curious listeners to Maltese’s own work. By the time “As The World Caves In” hit its viral peak in 2021, Maltese had already released two LP’s, 2018’s Bad Contestant and 2019’s Krystal.
Since achieving the wave of viral success four years ago, Maltese has kept up with a consistent musical output of work that often combines understated melodrama with cinematic curiosity and sharp-tongued wit. His latest release, Hers, out May 16, cascades between gloomy recollections (“Buses Replace Trains”), 007-worthy drama (“Happy Birthday”) and Beatles-esque showmanship (“Everybody’s Just As Crazy As Me”).
When Maltese hops on the phone this late spring morning, the release of Hers is just over a week out, and the singer is experiencing the final rush in the lead up to the record before listeners will make it their own.
The cover of Hers captures Maltese in a cream sweater with his back against a blank wall, a female figure’s legs outstretched against the wall’s surface with the singer’s arm around her hip. The record was largely inspired by one subject in Maltese’s life — who he, naturally, chooses to remain tight-lipped about. What he will say on the album’s inspiration is that, “a lot of the record was about one person. And I think that there was a realization myself that a lot of the record was a dedication to that person and time with them. I think I liked the idea of drawing a more simple, tangible line to that with the title.”
The jump-off point for the record was “Always Some MF,” a song that meanders with soft-spoken intimacy and flexes Maltese’s signature English wit on lines like, “You ain’t a fly on the ass of my love for her.”
“Writing ‘Always Some MF’ was a real memorable moment for me in the sense that it felt like the beginning of something,” Maltese says. “Between album campaigns, you’re kind of rolling around in the dirt trying to make something that feels compelling enough as a place to start from, or compelling enough to be the center of a whole body of work. I think with ‘Always Some MF,’ that was the moment for me where I was like, ‘Oh, this is a bar to try and live up to.'”
To read the complete article, read the full issue online or purchase a physical copy while supplies last.
Keep up with Matt Maltese: Instagram // TikTok // Facebook // X // Spotify // YouTube // Website
