Matthew Howes

Lovely to have a catch up with the brilliant Luba Mushtuk last week - working up some music for an exciting project

Full video for my new track 'Can't Wait To Meet You' on Youtube now - it depicts our IVF journey and was it was filmed by my incredible wife Nicola... I have no idea how she managed to keep going but she did, and we're now very close to due date and meeting a new little person! 🤞 🍼
https://youtu.be/ufFueFyRhAg

Can't Wait To Meet You This is a song written to my as yet unborn baby - it's been a long and difficult journey to get to this point, and now thanks to IVF (and my incredible partn...

NEW MUSIC OUT TODAY!
"Can't Wait To Meet You" by Matthew Howes... this one is about the journey that I've been on this year (and before!) - hopefully fairly self explanatory when you listen to the song, but have a listen on the streaming service of your choice and let me know what you think! 😍

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6eQxRe5aBdNDW9zLcpFWlc?si=0385cb9d7e2f4f68
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/cant-wait-to-meet-you/1781648440?i=1781648441

FANTASTIC afternoon at G Live in Guildford yesterday watching 'Legends Of The Dance Floor' alongside some legendary creatives 🙌

I really enjoyed creating the music for this show and what a great show it is too - it's been quite a while since I last worked with some of these incredible Strictly stars but they've still got all the moves (and the chat 😂!)

Heartily recommend you go and see the tour if you get the chance... it's utterly fab! Tickets available from legendsofthedancefloor.com

Songs I Wish I'd Written #16
"Monochrome" by The Sundays

I saw a post on one of the socials that said The Sundays final album 'Static & Silence' was released this week in 1997, which OBVIOUSLY made me go back and listen to all three of their astonishingly good albums.

Has any other band had such a perfect output?

Sometimes I wish they had released more material, but I'm also kind of grateful that they didn't because it meant I never had to fall out of love with them! 🥰

If you haven't heard them I would recommend listening to everything(!), in order(!!), before getting to my 'song I wish I'd written', because it's the last track on their last album.

"Monochrome" has always stuck with me - beautiful storytelling that takes a big moment in history and uses it to highlight a little moment of childlike wonder*. No-one else could have written this song, and if it is the last song of theirs that we ever get to hear then WHAT a way to sign off.

If you want to listen to the list so far check out my Spotify playlist here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qscNzqeqdHcihkMjeeZSV?si=459b8728e2334cb9



*and it heavily influenced my approach writing The Crucible(i) which is about my own big(ish) moment in history/little moment of childlike wonder: https://open.spotify.com/track/07IadA4lQwvrYleY04qElb?si=865f814dff364f86

Tonight is a Peggy Lee and Glenn Miller sort of evening

Songs I Wish I'd Written #15
"Time" by Olivia Dean oliviadeano

Very odd doing one of these without a physical LP or CD but I wanted to include this because it is THE song that I keep coming back to that has made me feel most optimistic about the state of modern music generally.

There are changes! There are chords that it would take more than two minutes to work out! That voice! And what a great arrangement! Honestly it's just lovely, please have a listen to it.

You may know Olivia Dean won BBC Introducing Artist of the Year last year (I didn't until I started to look a bit deeper after my 10th repeat listen!), and she was on the Pyramid stage at this year's Glasto too, but these days that still doesn't necessarily mean you are that well known by music fans (mad, innit?!) - if that's you then hopefully this is just another little nudge in your feed to make you think maybe you should check it out! 🤞

And if you are of my vintage and need a little more convincing you may also be interested to know that one of Olivia's co-writers on this is Matt Hales of Aqualung fame - a very fine songwriter indeed ("Brighter Than Sunshine" and "Strange and Beautiful" are both MASTERFUL!)

Basically I'm just very happy that there is exciting high quality new music being made!

Would love to hear from you if you have any other modern recommendations you think I would like (hopefully from my list of Songs I Wish I'd Written, or from listening to my music you might have a bit of a steer in that respect!), and if you want to listen to the list so far check out my Spotify playlist here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qscNzqeqdHcihkMjeeZSV?si=459b8728e2334cb9

Songs I Wish I'd Written #14
"You're The First, My Last, My Everything" by Barry White

I've realised by doing this that I love a lot of music that could be considered cheesy (no, really!! 😂), and that the 70s seems to be my 'go to' decade.

I think the thing particularly about Barry White is that you know almost immediately that it's a Barry White record - what a voice! But also, what great orchestrations and production!! Honestly nothing is out of place on them and it all serves the groove. And he always knew what he wanted to write about to... a very good example of finding a sound and identity and going all in on it. This album also has "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love" on it so it's well worth 30 minutes of your time!

As always, any thoughts or comments would be extremely welcome and if you want to listen to the list so far check out my Spotify playlist here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qscNzqeqdHcihkMjeeZSV?si=459b8728e2334cb9

Fabulous night last night seeing "Nadiya & Kai: Behind The Magic" in the West End - a show that I was lucky enough to work on (look there's my picture in the programme and everything!!) 🙃

So proud of these guys - a brilliant evening of pure entertainment... and some cracking music too, of course! There's still a few dates in the tour left so catch it while you can: nadiyaandkai.com