MATILDA MANN DEBUTS NEW EP AT FIRST EVER HEADLINE SHOW
Playing her very first headline show at Lafayette last week, Matilda Mann speaks to VOCAL GIRLS about her recently released EP, ‘Sonder.’
The follow up to 2020’s ‘Because I Wanted You To Know’, ‘Sonder’ is the most recent release from West London’s singer-songwriter Matilda Mann. The six track collection was written in lockdown yet, despite the inevitable introspection of such an isolating period, it is incredibly outward looking, with each track telling the story of someone close to Matilda. “Something I realised, while in the middle of lockdown, was that I had all the time in the world to take a step back and see how other people lived their lives, in a way I hadn’t thought of before”. ‘Sonder’, she says, shows the complexities of the lives of others; they are just as vast and confusing as our own.
Opening with ‘Stranger (for now)’, the EP begins with a wholly cinematic sound, with Matilda citing the Juno soundtrack as an inspiration to the songwriting. As soul consumingly romantic as ever, the track is backed by echoing vocals, swirling synths and a steady kick drum beat, as Matilda sings to a future lover with whom she wants to spend the rest of her life with. Romance continues into the second track ‘Doomsday’, a song Matilda wrote during the lonely days of lockdown, imagining what it would be like to spend that time with someone she loved. “Before the world is doomed I hope I get to live a life next to you”, she sings. Backed by her gentle strums on the guitar, the track is completely enchanting, wonderfully sweet, and entirely romantic.
Shifting at track three, the EP soon becomes sorrowful. In ‘Bloom’, a sonically upbeat though lyrically melancholy track, Matilda sings of feeling too young to make a good relationship last. Meanwhile, ‘My Point of You’ - the most classic stripped back track on the EP and the one Matilda has said is her favourite - tells of letting go of a relationship which had been damaging. Matilda sings of finally feeling yourself coming back again after the low, reconnecting with the defining parts of yourself which had been lost in the sadness. In track five, ‘February’, Matilda regales of losing a love you thought would last forever. Doused in heartbreak, although somewhat hopeful, the track is both atmospheric and emotionally honest, with Matilda singing “nothing left to hold, pockets filled with holes”.
The EP picks up again for the last track, ‘Glass Ceiling.’ Almost a fuck-you anthem to a friend’s ‘devoutly feminist’ ex-boyfriend who dumped her because she was ‘too independent’ and ‘didn’t need him’, the track is full of energy with a strong beat and electric guitar backing.
In her dressing room at Lafayette last week, where she played the EP live for the first time, Matilda is sweet and shy. Bashful in front of the camera, she debates whether or not to put her shoes on for pictures and jokes that she’ll go out on stage wearing only her wooly socks. Seemingly reserved and enigmatic, she says very little but tells me that this is her first headline show and that she is very nervous. Once on stage, however, she comes to life, speaking directly to audience members in the front few rows, commenting on the merch they wear and the wooden spoon someone is waving, to which they have taped a photo of her face.
Opening the show with ‘Paper Mache World’ - one of the more upbeat numbers from her previous EP - the show begins with a bang before plunging into a slower, stripped-back pace for heartfelt tracks ‘Stranger (for now)’ and ‘Doomsday’, the lighting accordingly dimmed to a dazzling glow. The set list includes fan favourites ‘The Fucking Best’ and ‘Japan’, both released in 2020, and finishes on ‘Bloom’, before Matilda and band step off stage and then swiftly return for a two-track encore.
Fans were treated to two unreleased tracks during the set, one of which was the explosive fuck-you anthem ‘Hell’ - a track far more grunge-rock than anything heard from Matilda before, who describes her sound as “indie cottage-core, grungey, folk.” Reeling it all back to her folksy roots, Matilda closed the show with perhaps her most popular track ‘As It Is’, the audience singing along word for word.
Although no future shows have been announced, Matilda is a regular releaser, telling me “I don’t like to sit on them [new songs] for too long, otherwise I feel like I’ve moved too far away from that time frame and what was happening in my life”. So, keep your eyes peeled. More headlines are bound to be on the horizon for the 21-year old!
Image Credits: Oscar Blair | @oscarxblair