Spotlight: Matilda Mann Is Helping Us All Feel Less Alone One Song At A Time
“SONDER MEANS; THE REALIZATION THAT EACH RANDOM PASSERBY IS LIVING A LIFE AS VIVID AND COMPLEX AS YOUR OWN.”
Sonder is also the name of Matilda Mann’s latest EP. The 21-year-old from West London stated that each song in the six-track collection was either written about someone else, or for someone else. Hence the name sonder. Mann’s fascination with humans and their own vivid lives was the inspiration for the album -- something that was exasperated during COVID times. “People always inspire me, mainly strangers. I think because you don’t know anything about them, so you only really look at the details in front of you.”
While lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic may have seemed like a challenging time to write about strangers and individual stories, Mann found it to be helpful. A way to truly focus the mind. “I think the key thing that lockdown gave me, and several other artists, was time,” Mann said over email. “I had so much time to think about what it was I needed in life and what I wanted to write about. It also meant that everything kinda had to be simplified. There was no going round to film a video, or get cover art. We had to record everything in a very limited amount of time, which meant there was no time to overthink or overdo.”
The pandemic also came as its own source of inspiration for her song “Doomsday” - a romantic melody that is primarily acoustic guitar and Mann’s angelic voice. The chorus begins with the lyric: “Before the world is doomed, I hope I get to live a life next to you.” An ode to living out the small moments with the people you love, because you never know how long you have.
Following COVID isolation came many firsts for Mann. Mann supported rising star Holly Humberstone and toured with fan-favorite Dodie. On top of that, she sold out her first headline show. “Have just done my first headline gig and my first time playing with a band! Was so, so much fun. Probably one of the best nights of my life.”
Outside of touring, Mann has remained busy. Coming out with two music videos and acoustic versions of her songs. Mann’s music is poetic and thoughtful, a sentiment that is also felt in her videos. The video for her song “Bloom'' sees Mann in the countryside among wildflowers; overhead shots of Mann and “boyfriend” are introduced as they twirl in a field, eat in bed, and walk up a path. They are often seen smiling and dancing. The video ends with Mann in the field alone after blowing on a dandelion in bloom. The music video, directed by Aria Shahrokhshahi, is full of light and bright colors and is highly cinematic.
“It was my first time properly filming a music video, with all the equipment, cast and crew,” Mann shared. “It was so much fun and probably the highlight of making the EP. We wanted it to be super summertime vibes. We went to some beautiful locations and had all these wonderful summer dresses to dance around in.”
While “Bloom” along with the rest of the songs in Sonder are emotional, one stands out in particular: “Glass Ceiling”. The song was written and produced by Rich Cooper, who has worked alongside Billie Martin and Rina Sawayama, in Cooper’s studio. “I adore working with Rich. He’s one of those producers that always seems to get the best out of me. I arrived at the session knowing I wanted to do a song that was driven by the bass, so we kinda just went from there.”
Cooper and Mann ended up writing the song over a couple of days - with plans for it to be the uplifting and powerful song that would end the EP. Mann shared that the song was written about a guy she knew, who portrayed himself one way but never went through with what they said they stood for: a hypocrite. “People always seem to be able to “talk the talk” but they can never actually go through with it. It’s almost as if they’ve just learnt these lines that they know will impress people.”
Mann’s music manages to hone on such exact emotions and feelings that you can’t help but relate and see them in others and yourself. Moments of love, of worry, of fear, of disappointment, and Mann manages to share them all in a poetic and captivating way, painting a scene. Each song on the album carries a different level of heaviness -- heard within Mann’s unique voice. Mann’s goal was to create music that people could find themselves in.
“Sometimes, I think you can feel so lonely in this world, because maybe you think nobody understands what you’re going through. So when a song can describe that for you, it can also change your whole perspective,” Mann shared in her press release.
And she manages to do just that -- creating those moments of realization between her music and her listeners. And now Mann gets to share those moments herself, with her listeners live. “I believe we have a tour coming up in mid April, round the UK. I can’t WAIT for it. I have so many songs in store and I’m so so excited about them. Hopefully will add up to a project bigger than an EP!”
Check out Matilda Mann’s new cover of The Beach Boys “God Only Knows” and get your tickets for her tour below.
Matilda Mann - UK headline tour dates
Tickets: https://matildamann.com/
Weds 30th March| Brighton | Komedia
Thurs 31st March | Bristol | The Louisiana
Fri 1st April | Leeds | Hyde Park Book Club
Sat 2nd April | Glasgow | The Poetry Club
Mon 4th April | Manchester | The Deaf Institute
Tues 5th April | London | EartH Hackney
