“Here’s to the times, we don’t remember,” sings Mat Hannah in the opening line of his new video, “Back To You.” Spoiler alert: it seems he remembers a lot more than he’s comfortable with. The title track from his recently released EP is all about a lopsided relationship and the hard lessons that come along with it.
“Back To You” isn’t exactly a new song. Fortunately for Hannah, he learned his lessons early; the relationship in question was from his final year of high school and his first year of college. And, like a lot of people at that time in their lives, Hannah was still sorting out his priorities and learning to recognize red flags. Good times and fun counted for more in that particular relationship than love and respect.
Judging by the lyrics, things went very very poorly. Even if it took Hannah a minute to realize he was wasting his time.
“When you’re not with me, are you cold?
All your clothes are on the floor,
While somebody else is loving you”
“‘Back To You’ is a song I have been working on longer than I’d like to admit—some songs I can seem to write in a day, some a week and some a few years! I had some rough lyrics for this song pre-Little Cities days, believe it or not. Just couldn’t find the right way to express them,” explains Hannah, keeping in mind that it’s been a few years since college.
“Long story short, in the end, we both wanted different things and were in different places in our lives. Sometimes, things or people that were more fun than I could offer her would come up. and I’d get pushed to the side and she was okay with that while I wasn’t. But, being young and naive, I’d always keep crawling back for more. After a while, I realized that me always crawling back and giving more ‘second chances’ wasn’t healthy for anyone so we both went our separate ways!”
“The song is kind of a toast to those memories, we had a good go —but ultimately our lives are much better that we went our separate ways!”
It may not have been a fun experience for Hannah—at least, not some of the more important aspects—but he says he’s come out the other side a better person for it, while a lot more self-respective and a better sense of where to draw the line.
“And honestly think she’s a better person for it, I think she realized hurting people sucks and eventually they stop crawling back.”
Working with Kyle Simpson and Joel MacDonald of Confound Films—who had previously worked on videos for Hannah’s band, Little Cities—the new video for “Back To You” ties in some tastefully straightforward performance visuals, alongside an appearance by actress Brieonna Richard.
“We just got along super well and was very comfortable to work with them, plus we all have the same taste in music and style so it comes easy to make great visuals,” says Hannah. “We wanted to keep the music video to my style – simple, welcoming yet a tiny bit edgy.”
Mat Hannah’s EP, Back to You, was released in September of 2021.