A striking new single and album news from Matt Fryers.

ONE HAND TO THE LIGHT

Matt Fryers (“FINALLY!” echoes around the waiting room) has a new single. One Hand To The Gods sees the light of day coming out on the 6th July. A veritable tsunami of activity sees the plan to release two more single and an album – That Was Then – but let’s take things one at a time.

It’s a haunting portent of what sounds like an unflinching set of new music from the Manchester-based acoustic singer-songwriter. A track that sees Matt Fryers is baring his soul as heads into what promises to be his most authentic and his most vulnerable era of songwriting yet.

“DEAR REAPER…”

One Hand To The Gods finds Matt delving deep into the harrowing, internal battles between self-destruction
and survival. Framed as a series of letters to The Reaper himself, the track marries his trademark raw, emotion-driven vocals, fragile acoustic melodies and atmospheric arrangements into a thought provoking journey.

Beginning in a place of isolation, despair and heavy with the weight of one’s own mind, the song exposes Fryers’ darkest places, reaching out from the deepest corners, pulling the listener in and carrying them onward, through themes of fear, self reflection and doubt (the “shitstorm raging over me“). Perfect fare for the Fryers acoustic model. The balance comes with a cathartic shift via subtle and ethereal textures into defiance and a refusal to surrender to internal darkness.

“One Hand To The Gods is about battling your own demons, but ultimately finding the strength to push back against them,” says Matt. “It’s dark, it’s brutally honest and the perfect place to begin the story of That Was Then.”

The single sets the thematic tone for That Was Then, which Fryers prefaces as an deeply personal collection of songs reflecting on his own emotional states during some of the most turbulent periods of his life. One that promises genre spanning sonics and elements of folk/indie/rock and contemporary music. A long wait – almost over…

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