Matthew Fowler's Stunning Label-Debut 'The Grief We Gave Our Mother' Due Out September 10th

Some people collect stamps or baseball cards or instruments, but born-and-raised Florida musician Matthew Fowler is well on his way to perfecting the art of collecting memories, displaying them not on a shelf but in musical verse and melody for the world to hear. "I moved to Denver. I quit my job. My grandfather died. I fell in and out of love. I toured all over the place. I spent a month living in Mauritius, the island country off Madagascar where my mom grew up," says Fowler about the ingredients of his upcoming album The Grief We Gave Our Mother-out September 10th via Signature Sounds Recordings. "All of those trials and tribulations, everyone I met along the way, they're all in these songs." Even the act of collecting these special moments in time makes its way into Fowler's indie-folk cannon. "My mind it sings of the memories / how they tug and cling / I lay listening" he sings in the opening lines of the album's first single, "I'm Still Trying," which was released today. With Fowler, however, the easy-to-recall memories usually represent something more profound under the surface. For example, "I'm Still Trying," at its root, is an admission of guilt and a shot at reconciliation with a family grown apart. "I lived with my parents for a long time in-between touring and traveling. Returning back to my childhood home after experiencing so much on tour made me take the time to remember lots of things about my past with a new perspective." Fowler was also named Holler's New Artist of the Week this week and spoke with them about his music and more. Listen to "I'm Still Trying" at this link and pre-order or pre-save The Grief We Gave Our Mother ahead of its September 10th release right here.

Following the success of his debut collection of live recordings-aptly titled Beginnings-Fowler headed to Gainesville, Florida, to begin work on a follow-up, but instead of a three-week trip, as planned, the journey turned into a multi-year odyssey in which he learned to produce and engineer records and began managing a live music venue. "Living in Gainesville, the album became this thing that I was eternally working towards, but never working on," says Fowler. "With my job at the venue, I was coordinating all of these great shows and meeting all of these songwriters I really admired, but I was basically just facilitating other people's dreams. Eventually, I got tired of showing up to work every day and watching somebody else do what I wanted to be doing with my life."

So, Fowler took the skills and insight he'd honed in Gainesville and booked a Hail Mary, open-ended tour with longtime friends and collaborators Tana and Addy Prado joining him on harmonies and woodwinds. Over the course of a year and a half, the trio played roughly 100 shows, fine-tuning all of the twists and turns in Fowler's elegant, emotionally charged tunes and landing support slots along the way with the likes of Richard Thompson, Damien Jurado, Angel Olsen, and The Weepies. "Spending all that time on the road, I really fell in love with the feeling of being totally vulnerable in front of a room full of strangers," says Fowler. "I decided that's what the next record should sound like, so I went ahead and booked two days at a studio in Orlando, and the three of us just recorded everything live on the floor with a bass player in one or two takes at most."

Things took an unexpected turn, though, when acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and producer Shane Leonard entered the picture. Leonard, best known for his work with artists like Field Report, Mipso, and Anna Tivel, took a shine to the recordings and invited Fowler to come to Eau Claire, WI, to flesh them out with additional guitars, drums, and keyboards. Staying true to the raw nature of the material, Leonard assembled a small crew of musicians to perform all of the overdubs live together in the studio, channeling the same collaborative energy and humanity that had fueled the original sessions. "Everything with Shane was just so natural," says Fowler. "We didn't go in with a lot of structured ideas or detailed plans. It was all about feeling the music in the moment and letting that guide the songs wherever they needed to go."

Written over the course of the past several years, The Grief We Gave Our Mother is indeed a profoundly personal work of self-discovery and introspection, but more than that, it's an ode to growing up and chasing dreams. The result is a record that's at once bold and timid, hopeful and anxious, world-weary and naïve, an honest, revelatory collection all about putting one foot in front of the other and forging a life of purpose, passion, and meaning. "This record is the sound of me finding myself and my place in the world," Fowler reflects. "It's about real moments and real stories and real people."

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