MATT LOVELL UNVEILS NEW VIDEO & SINGLE “TROUBLE” VIA VARIANCE MAGAZINE
DEBUT LP NOBODY CRIES TODAY OUT JUNE 5TH
Photo: Jason Lee Denton
Singer/songwriter/survivor Matt Lovell has released the latest single and video “Trouble” from his debut album, Nobody Cries Today, produced by Jars Of Clay’s Matt Odmark and due out on June 5th. “Trouble” arrives just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month. “The song, which is inspired by Lovell's own experience with pain and trauma, is intended to serve as a light, reminding others it's possible to make it to the other side of their grief or misfortune,” Variance Magazine says of the encouraging single. The playful video features Lovell accompanied by a character that represents his trouble(s) - at first, it’s unclear if the character is friend or foe, but we quickly find out that this “Trouble Monster” is here to help him learn a thing or two about how to roll with the punches and have a little fun amid life’s ups and downs.
WATCH: “TROUBLE”
“Trouble” follows previous singles “Be Free,” an Aretha Franklin-style gospel-infused empowerment anthem, “Alligator Lilly,” a song about lost innocence with a quirky, Wes Anderson-inspired video, and “90 Proof,” a torch song about getting over the loss of a relationship. “Lovell knows how to tap into a part of himself that can bring the emotions of ’90 Proof’’ to the surface and doing so is all the more honorable, knowing the story he’s trying to tell, isn’t a made up screenplay,” said American Songwriter of “90 Proof.” “It’s one man being willing to revisit challenging parts of his life and do so with performative solemnity and grace.”
LISTEN: “BE FREE”
WATCH: “ALLIGATOR LILLY”
WATCH: “90 PROOF”
All but one of the album’s songs were recorded in 2016 - just months before Lovell nearly lost his life. On January 20, 2017, he was shot in the chest in Nashville by a sixteen-year-old who attempted to steal his car. Miraculously, he lived. “This moment created a new center of gravity and re-ordered my understanding of everything I’ve experienced in this lifetime,” he explains. “Many people who experience acute trauma go through somewhat of a euphoric period immediately after the incident occurs, and this was definitely my experience. The level of peace I felt was something I had never touched before. I wrote profusely, I gardened, I brought new life and vigor to my musical ventures, and I made peace with complicated friendships. More than anything, I found a level of great self-acceptance and this created space for me to begin to learn how to live this life.”
This era ended with the abrupt onset of PTSD, causing the most difficult time Lovell had ever faced. He began to question everything and struggled to find a way to articulate the horrors he was experiencing. Now, on the other side of recovery, Lovell is excited to sing these songs again for anyone who will listen. “In these years of writing and recording, I have gathered quite a wild palette of paints,” he says. “In a way, Nobody Cries Today has actually been my teacher. As I have written these songs, each of them has been like a tiny rowboat to get me from one day to the next. They have witnessed me in the years that I was in the throes of trying to find acceptance for myself and for the world I’m living in. As a gay man of Southern origin, this proved to be a tall order. These songs have also helped me to explore things like zest for life, discontent, hunger, truth, and hope,” he continues. “Nobody Cries Today contains every bit of earnestness, desire, and love that I have to give.”
CONNECT WITH MATT LOVELL: