An Interview with Matt Hennessy

• Outside of music, which art forms (books, films, photography, etc.) inspire you the most?
  Photography! I love when it captures the live energy of a show so well - nothing fancy, just the raw emotion and feeling that an artist puts into their performance.

  Some miscellaneous, quick fire questions

• An underrated artist everyone should listen to?
  Durand Jones & The Indications

• Thoughts on AI in music?
  I don’t think it has any place in creativity - it completely removes the human aspect first of all, which is the most important thing; emotions, different walks of life, different stories etc. make the best art, and AI could never replicate that. Second of all, it poses a significant threat to artists who want/need to make a living in the modern industry, because people and corporations think they can use it instead of paying for real human work. This leads to soulless, computer generated slop being pushed heavily on Spotify, further empowering their corporate greed and gutting the minimal pay their artists get - and that’s just the societal/economical impact. The effect it’s having on the environment is a whole other story. The growth of AI is terrifying and needs to be heavily restricted.

• An instrument you’d love to learn in a day?
  Piano or saxophone! I feel like they’re both so versatile, I’d love to pick them up one day.

• Dream venue or city to perform in?
  Paradiso, Amsterdam is one of my favourite venues in the world because of how cool it is. I also love the Dutch music scene in general.

• Dream collaboration?
  I’d love to collaborate with Scary Pockets, they seem like so much fun to work with.

• An album you consider your creative “north star”?
  Louder Than Bombs, by The Smiths - it’s a compilation but includes a bunch of otherwise unreleased songs. You could probably trace most of my work back to the sound of at least one of the tracks on that album.
  
  To wrap up,

• What are your goals for 2026 / your long-term vision for your music?
  I’d like to start touring in 2026. I think with the recent growth, I’d be able to get on board with a bigger band and start playing more shows away from the south coast - I love the south coast but I’ve spent a lot of time here and would love to see more of the UK, and the rest of the world!
  In the long term I’d love to be able to sell out my own tours, collaborate with loads of artists along the way, make a living from music etc, but I’ll be happy with whatever as long as I know my music’s made an impact on people the same way my favourite bands impacted me growing up.
  
  
  And with that, we conclude our interview. You can find Matt Hennessy on streaming platforms as well as Instagram and Tiktok, and keep up with upcoming releases and live dates via his Linktree.

We spoke with Portsmouth-based singer-songwriter Matt Hennessy about songwriting, live performance, and the influences shaping his high energy indie sound. Here's our full conversation:

• To start off, could you tell us a little about yourself?
  I’m a 21 year old singer/songwriter from Portsmouth! I’ve been playing live for about 8 years with a few different bands, but only started writing my own music last summer.

• Who or what are your biggest musical inspirations?
  I’ve always been a huge fan of The Smiths, but I’m also inspired by Feeder, Bloc Party, Durand Jones & The Indications and Vintage Trouble.

• How would you describe your sound or the kind of music you make?
  I’d describe my music as high energy indie rock with funk/soul/jazz inspiration, something that bridges old-school influences with newer mainstream rock.

• When did you first start making music, and what pushed you to begin?
  I first started playing guitar at 4 when my cousin introduced me to The Smiths (although I didn’t start properly getting lessons until about 8). I started playing in a band at about 12/13, got more and more live experience over the years, and then started my own band at 19 when I realised I really wanted to be a frontman.

• What does your usual writing process look like?
  I come up with small ideas regularly, so I voice note them when I can and piece bits together when inspiration hits. I’d like to experiment some more with different ways of writing to see how that turns out though!

• You’ve seen insane growth over the last month; what has that experience been like?
  I’m still not sure how to react to be honest, it’s been incredible and the fanbase are great, they’re really engaged and I think this could be the start of something huge. I’m just really happy that the work is paying off.

• Can you talk about the inspiration behind your latest single?
  Comfort is a song about the struggles of healing and moving on from things, dealing with codependency etc. It’s about leaning on someone when you both aren’t in the right place, and the denial behind such situations; I find stuff like this inspiring to write about because it’s often relatable and makes the song meaningful to a lot of people.

• How do you personally know when a song is “finished”?
  Sometimes I know, sometimes I don’t - most of the time, there comes a point where I’m being such a perfectionist that I’m changing unnecessary parts of the song. I usually get feedback from other people in the industry at this point, which helps me “let go” of the songs instead of spending too much time on them.

• You mentioned that you used to be in a band, could you tell us a bit more about that?
  I’ve been in a few! First I played bass in a punk band at 13, then a blues band from 15-17, then I joined a pop rock band called Not So Clever during college. I played with them for a while until about halfway through university, when I decided to go a separate way and focus on my solo project which I’d started a few months before, and here I am!

• How does performing live feel for you?
  It’s my favourite part of it - I’ve always wanted to be a performer, and I don’t think anything beats the feeling of walking onto stage and riling up a crowd, jumping around like an idiot and having the time of my life. If I can do that for a living, then I’ll be happy.