Ahead of their appearance at Bushstock this weekend, Matthew Hegarty of Matthew & the Atlas revealed his excitement at playing the multi-venue festival.
Taking place at numerous locations around Shepherd’s Bush, Matthew & The Atlas will be joining acts including Peace, Billie Marten and Ceramic on an eclectic line-up.
For Matthew, the festival remains a favourite.
He said: “They’re great, they feel a bit more like SXSW or The Great Escape.
“Bushstock is always a lot of fun to play, it’s part of the community we are in, so we know the good folks who run the festival, hopefully we’ll have some friends playing there too.”
Having spent nearly a decade carving a name for himself across the UK and Europe, Matt still enjoys going out on tour, but with a young family back home admits the pull to return is strong.
Matthew said: “I have mixed feeling about it nowadays. The rest of the band are like family on the road and I love travelling, seeing new places and also returning to cities we’ve played before.
“That’s amazing and I feel very privileged to be able to do that, but I also have a 3 year old daughter and 1 year old son now. So being away from them makes it much harder.”
The first act to be signed to Communion, Matthew’s 2014 debut album ‘To The Rivers’, received critical acclaim and recent release ‘Cali’ sees his star continue to rise.
For Matthew, however, the trick was to keep things much the same.
He said: “The process wasn’t particularly different from previous work.
“I develop the songs at home, spend as much time on the demos as I can before going into the studio.
“That gives me a good map to where I want the production to go. I doubled tracked all the vocals on this EP, which is something I hadn’t done before, and was very keen for that to be across all the songs.
“We have a few festivals to look forward to over the summer, which should be good. I’m about to start writing the third album, I’ve got a few new tracks I’m excited about already, so I’ll mainly be locked away working on that.”
What: Bushstock Festival
Where: Multiple venues in Shepherd’s Bush
When: Saturday July 23
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