Matt Maltese

Matt Maltese writes songs that feel like late-night conversations, the kind where you're not sure if you're confessing something or just thinking out loud. He started putting out music in 2018 with an EP called 'Bad Contestant,' and his work since then has mostly lived in that space between folk and indie pop, where the piano lines are simple but the feelings aren't.

A song like 'As The World Caves In' caught on in 2020, partly because its mood of quiet dread happened to line up with the moment. But that track isn't really an outlier for him. Listen to 'Krystal' or 'Curl Up & Die' and you'll hear the same kind of intimate, slightly melancholic writing, delivered in a voice that doesn't try to sound bigger than the room.

He's been open about dealing with anxiety and depression, which led to a tour cancellation in 2021. That honesty seems to be part of the music itself, which tends to avoid grand statements in favor of specific, small-scale emotions. When he plays live, it's often with a shifting group of musicians, like bassist Max Cooper, keeping the arrangements lean and close to the recorded versions.