We’re pleased to premiere the video for ‘It’s Mine Now’, the new single from A Starving Viking, the stage name for Matt Jarrett. Based around warm, tuneful finger-picking, the song picks up an insistent, urgent beat that makes you want to move. Over the top, Jarrett’s distinctive, rhythmic singing voice draws the listener into his smart lyrics about getting out of your own way: “…just shoot ’til you find your foot.” In the video, we see Jarrett playing in his near-empty garage, interspersed with drawings and images of a broken piano, all of which reinforces the themes of isolation and introspection. Jarrett explained to AUK how the song came to be written: “‘It’s Mine Now’ was written/recorded in a sort of hut in my garage that I built out of ply-wood and U-Haul moving blankets. It was a few months into the pandemic/lock down and everything was just weird. I was working from home and a bit stir crazy and this song came about from some negative self-talk. I figured a good way to get out of my own head was to write a song about those internal conversations. Make them public, and move on. I hope some people can relate to those conversations we have with ourselves. We all have them, whether we admit it or not.”
Jarrett came to performing later in life following the death of his father, who was a pastor. He explains: “After my dad died, there was a piece of his history that would be forever unknown to me, in that he went to college pursuing music, and at some point he changed his major to religion and never looked back, and I could never get a reason why out of him. Now, of course I never will. But hearing and seeing him light up whenever music was mentioned, or helping me with a piano lesson as a kid, I’ve always felt there was something wrong with that decision. I felt my dad made a mistake he couldn’t bring himself to admit.” Since then, folk music has very much become part of Jarrett’s everyday life, honouring his father’s interest and replacing the heavy metal of his youth. His debut album, ‘Semblance’, was released back in 2019; it was self-recorded and mixed. That was a learning process and he now realises that mixing is an art in itself and something he’ll leave to experts in future. The album has now been remixed by Tony Calabro and renamed ‘reSemblance’. Worth checking out.
The single is taken from A Starving Viking’s new EP, due out on 8th April 2022. Mixed again by Calabro, the new songs on ‘The Milksop EP’ experiment with broader instrumentations and richer arrangements than Jarrett’s previous material. Jarrett describes the sound and style: “These songs have the energy and feel of what A Starving Viking is. I’m excited for people to hear these. You can call it folk, as it’s primarily a guy and a guitar, but these songs feel a bit different. Floating on the edge of some genre. Indie-Fringe-Garage-Folk? Is that a thing?” It is now. And Jarrett captures its essence on ‘It’s Mine Now’. Enjoy.
