The craft of an artist is often a deeply personal, fine-tuned one; from conception to release, every detail baked into the result is a piece of the mosaic that is the artist.
The style put forth by indie-pop whiz Matt Cooke (aka Mawzy), has historically occupied the melancholic, break-up vibe, but his latest venture, the comparatively bouncy single “Hold Your Hand,” dares to depart from the usual style of an artist.
Mawzy, allegedly, was accused of “only writing break-up songs.” Taking this as a challenge, Cooke masterminded every aspect of the final product, from writing to recording, all in the midst of the pandemic.
“Once the pandemic hit, I packed up my car and drove to Newfoundland,” says Cooke. “I was living in this 100-year-old house on the side of the ocean. We were often snowed-in for days on end. It was isolating and beautiful.”
“I wanted to create something that didn’t perpetuate the feelings I was going through, something you could bop to at a coffee shop. The lyric ‘We’ll make circles in the sand’ is a reference to a night my partner and I camped out on a private beach on the way back. The cops were called but the love was high that night.”
And such heights are more than apparent in Cooke’s latest. From the first few notes alone, it’s like a fireplace in a cafe; a fun, electric tune that never once departs from a gentle core that focuses on carrying rather than evoking, despite its ability to do both.
If it was indeed a challenge to effectively deviate from break-up songs, Cooke absolutely crushed it, and with this single offering up only a taste of Mawzy’s 2022 discography, one can only imagine how else this wizard of a songwriter will deviate from the breakup path.