Matt Hay

There are singer-songwriters who use their craft to project a more romantic image of themselves. Hear them sing their songs and you imagine them as cowboys, drifters, gamblers, rebels on life’s highways, though the reality is generally far more prosaic.Matt Hay is different. Starting from the dictum ‘write what you know’ he has penned an album of songs that barely venture beyond his own suburban backyard. He doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what he is; a balladeer from the ‘burbs. And yet you will find melodies here that stick in your brain, choruses you’ll want to sing along to, lyrics that are timeless and poignant, offering quietly astute commentaries on life’s little ups and downs.While Inside Stories marks his debut as a frontman, Matt Hay could almost be classed as a veteran. He was founder member and harmonica player of Cool Disposition, one of the most visible blues acts on the national scene in the 90s, and stayed with the group as they evolved into the rockier, all-original Surge.After Surge split, Hay turned his attention to his own songs and formed his current band, the SubUrbans, to put them across. All prominent figures in the Wellington roots music scene, the SubUrbans are comprised of keyboard player Clint Meech, drummer Justin Hooper and, on bass and backing vocals, Darren Watson - well known as the former frontman and guitar hero of Capital blues outfit Smoke Shop, and a formidable singer-songwriter in his own right.Watson co-produced Inside Stories with Hay, and between them they have crafted an album that can stand proudly alongside the best in roots rock. You may be reminded at times of John Hiatt, J.J Cale, Midge Marsden or the Warratahs, but you’ll also hear a fresh individual voice, singing stories he knows inside and out.