BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:349@jointherevolution.net DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220716T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220716T230000 DTSTAMP:20220519T005100Z URL:https://www.jointherevolution.net/concerts/matt-maeson/ SUMMARY:Matt Maeson DESCRIPTION:Growing up in Virginia\, Matt Maeson got his start performing f or inmates at maximum-security prisons across America at age 17. “I’d get up and do these acoustic songs on my guitar\, and they’re still the best shows I’ve ever done\,” says the Austin-based singer/songwriter. “You’re playing for all these people who are treated like they’re mo nsters\, and it feels like spreading some light into a really dark place. ”\n\nOn his debut album Bank on the Funeral\, Maeson uses his deeply in cisive songwriting to explore the tension between light and dark in his ow n life. The album redefines the limits of the classic singer/songwriter’ s sensibility and shapes a sound that’s richly textured and gracefully e xperimental. And with his soulful vocal presence\, Maeson again reveals th e raw-nerve vulnerability that prompted TIME to praise him as “never afr aid to investigate his past and his demons\, resulting in songs that are c lear-eyed in their honesty and raw around the edges.”\n\nCentered on Mae son’s candid storytelling and gritty poetry\, Bank on the Funeral take s its title from its closing track: a quietly hypnotic number written for a beloved uncle\, who was murdered when Maeson was six-years-old. “He wa s a criminal when he was younger\, but once he got himself together he’d go out and minister to the people he used to hang around with — the peo ple the church would never try to reach — and then one of those guys end ed up going crazy and killing him\,” says Maeson. “What inspires me ab out him is how he’d go to the places no one else would go and talk about the things no one else would talk about.”\n\nThroughout Bank on the Fu neral\, Maeson brings a similar courage to his songwriting\, imbuing every track with an often-brutal self-awareness. On the album-opening “I Just Don’t Care That Much\,” he fires off a litany of confessions (“Mayb e life was just a bet/That I lost to drugs and cigarettes”)\, brilliantl y offsetting all that heavy-hearted deliberation with his bright melodies and upbeat rhythms. Later\, on the fast-paced and horn-laced “Legacy\, ” Maeson’s spirited and sometimes-howled vocals relay some borrowed wi sdom about self-salvation. “That song’s about a night in Virginia Beac h when I was drunk on the street with my friends\, and an old man came up to us and started talking about life\,” Maeson explains. “The lyrics a re basically me writing out everything I remember him saying.” But for s ongs like “The Mask\,” the album shifts into moodier and more darkly e thereal terrain\, a potent backdrop to his gently urgent vocal performance . “‘The Mask’ is about how everybody has a mask they wear and how th at always roots back to something — some point in your life where you st arted pretending\, and then eventually started believing that’s who you really are\,” Maeson says.\n\nOne of the most arresting tracks on Bank o n the Funeral\, “Beggar’s Song” begins in hushed guitar tones and so ftly pleading vocals\, then unfolds into a stubbornly hopeful epic with go spel-like intensity. “I wrote ‘Beggar’s Song’ when I was broke and hungover at SXSW\, and everybody was partying and I was just over it\,” Maeson remembers. “It’s about spending the last two years on the road and what that’s felt like — that line ‘I’m a beat-down\, washed-u p son of a bitch’ has definitely been true on multiple occasions.”\n\n In the making of Bank on the Funeral\, Maeson drew equally from his insti nct-driven songwriting process and from the natural musicality he’s hone d since he was a little kid. Originally from Norfolk\, Virginia\, he was b orn into a music-loving family\, including parents who played in heavy met al bands throughout his early childhood. The same uncle who inspired “Ba nk on the Funeral” gave Maeson a drum set when he was a toddler\, then l eft his nephew his own drums after he died. At 15\, Maeson learned a few g uitar chords from his father and soon began writing songs\, playing his fi rst live gig at a Chick-fil-A open-mic night and then moving on to the pen itentiaries. “My dad was a criminal growing up\, but he ended up turning his life around and becoming a youth pastor\,” Maeson says. “Later on my parents started a prison ministry\, and I went along with them to play my songs in the prisons.”\n\nAs he built up his body of work\, Maeson i ncreasingly relied on songwriting as an emotional outlet. “I started get ting into a lot of trouble\, doing a lot of drugs\, getting arrested\,” he says. “Music became a way of getting things off my chest\, and I star ted writing with more honesty.” In addition to working construction 12 h ours a day and doing community service on his time off\, he began travelin g the country with a notebook and a guitar\, often going back to play in t he prisons where he got his start. In 2015 he began posting his songs onli ne and quickly drew attention for “Grave Digger\,” a starkly powerful track about “trying to figure out how to navigate life after realizing t hat everything you were told growing up isn’t necessarily true\,” acco rding to Maeson. He soon signed a joint deal with Neon Gold/Atlantic Recor ds\, then made his debut with Who Killed Matt Maeson — a 2017 EP featu ring his breakthrough single “Cringe\,” which hit #12 on Spotify’s U S Viral 50. With his sophomore EP The Hearse arriving in spring 2018\, M aeson next headed out on tour with Bishop Briggs and took the stage at maj or summer festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.\n\nIn bringing Bank o n the Funeral to life\, Maeson continued to tap into the cathartic power of making music. “Songwriting’s always been very therapeutic for me\, ” he says. “Wherever I’ve lived\, there’s always been a secluded c loset or bathroom where I could sing really loud and not bother anybody. ” And though he regards his songs as “conversations with myself\,” M aeson’s underlying mission is to include others in that catharsis. “Wh at I try to do is help people know that\, even if their problems feel so s pecific to their lives\, everyone’s going through something that feels j ust as specific\,” he says. “If I can write about what’s upset me or what I’ve learned from\, and somehow help other people feel recognized and understood\, that’s always the ultimate goal.” ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.jointherevolution.net/wp-content/upl oads/2022/05/MATT-MAESON-1080-×-1080-px-1.png CATEGORIES:All Ages,Concerts LOCATION:Revolution Live\, 100 SW 3rd Ave.\, Fort Lauderdale\, FL\, 33312\, United States GEO:26.121358;-80.1461974 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=100 SW 3rd Ave.\, Fort Laud erdale\, FL\, 33312\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Revolution Live:geo:26.121358,-80.1461974 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20220313T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR