Matt Hectorne
Gig Seeker Pro

Matt Hectorne

Hernando, MS | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF

Hernando, MS | SELF
Established on Jan, 2012
Solo Americana Folk

Calendar

Music

Press


"Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree's Sweet Southern Sound"

You don’t have to be told that Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree is a Nashville band — their Southern roots jut out onto the surface, evident in every aspect of their music from the sound to the lyrics. Hectorne sings of whiskey and church altars in mellow tones, backed by a solid wall of guitars and drums. The formula is simple, as it should be, but also highly inviting. True to its name, Show Your Love is a collection of Americana/folk rock love songs that flirt with country, but never fully commit — the exact opposite of how Hectorne feels about the subject of these songs. “I just wanna be a man in the frame/No I don’t care if they remember my name/I just wanna be a moment in time/When I was yours and you were mine.”

Everything on Show Your Love feels real, believable and relatable — some of the best qualities music aims for. This is meat and potatoes music, as in “slow-cooked all day long, falling to pieces, mom knows what she’s doing” meat and potatoes. That reference might not make sense to you at all if you’re not from the South, but you don’t have to be Southern at all to enjoy the easygoing warmth of Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree. Listen to “Man in the Frame” above while you sip on some (SWEET) tea. - The Wild Honey Pie


"Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree / Rebekah Jean / Morgan Mecaskey"

With pronounced Southern leanings, Matt Hectorne has spent the past few years setting out into his personal musical frontier and discovering what sounds and messages lie within him. His solo run, of course, has come after a stint in Cleveland’s own Humble Home. But with the release of his third album, Show Your Love, Hectorne is proving that he’s got plenty to say and plenty to play. This latest outing is a terrific collection of tunes, anchored in many ways by the patient centerpiece “Man in the Frame.” As that tune builds, Hectorne’s gentle acoustic melody winds around reflective story and the sparse-but-orchestral backing of his band. With tonight’s show at the Beachland comes the guarantee that those in attendance with be among the first to catch Hectorne’s newest material live. It wouldn’t be wise to pass that up. (Sandy) - SCENE


"Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree // Show Your Love [LP]"

We’re big fans of Matt Hectorne over here, aside from being an all around quality guy, he makes some fantastically genuine music. With that known, he just released a new seven track album, Show Your Love, and it’s one of those back to front listens that I believe anyone could enjoy.

Since his last album, he moved to Nashville – and it shows in this record. The band really got a grip on that familiar Nashville sound, and they made it their own. Between the writing, the roadhouse guitar solos, and the church choir qualities – it’s hard to miss.

This album is heartbreak, bittersweet relationships, and falling in all consuming infatuation – if there isn’t something you can’t relate to on this album, I’ll be impressed. In seven short songs Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree covered a good majority of the human condition.

Some favorites on the album are “Ease My Mind”, “Think I’ll Fall In Love”, and “Lose My Mind” – go grab a copy and find out what yours are. - Yankee Calling


"For Matt Hectorne, one more show at the Grog Shop before moving back to Tennessee"

Matt Hectorne followed a friend from the suburbs of Memphis, Tenn., to Cleveland seven years ago. That friend was chasing a girl he'd met online. The couple's relationship quickly flamed out, and Hectorne's friend moved back south. Hectorne didn't.

"You think a girl's cute, you start a band, make some friends and you stay," Hectorne said. "I didn't really have any reason to move back and I had nowhere else to go. I did a lot of growing up here."

Hectorne, 27, recently left Humble Home, a band he started with friend and fellow songwriter Nick Wise. He's moving back to Tennessee -- Nashville this time -- in mid-July.

"There's just more opportunities to meet other people and do other things. I plan on using Nashville as more of a tool, as a place to be, to be based out of, use the resources that are there, not so much to try to grow in Nashville and then grow out of Nashville because that's almost impossible to do," he said. "I'm not trying to get signed to RCA Nashville or anything.

"In a lot of ways, it's like Brooklyn: There's a lot of people doing a lot of really creative things. There's a lot of energy and opportunity. What that looks like for me, I don't really know yet. It could be songwriting or playing music or publishing."

Hectorne is looking forward to the change and the opportunity to immerse himself in the huge community of like-minded artists that Nashville offers.

"It would have been more terrifying a few years ago. But I think I've become more comfortable with what I do," he said. "You can't really look at it as competition. Everyone's doing their own thing. And even though there's more people, there's also more venues. And I don't plan on playing locally a ton; I really want to pick up the touring as much as I can."

While he's handling all of the things a move entails -- looking for housing and tying up loose ends here -- Hectorne's also at work on a follow-up EP to last year's "Your Light My Dark."

"It will probably be at least six songs, if not more. The last one was good. It had a lo-fi quality. This one is -- not slicker -- it just has a little more meat on the bones," he said. "On 'Your Light My Dark,' we wrote a lot of the parts as we were recording. This time, we've been playing together since November, working out the parts on tour. They're not as off the cuff."

Before any of that happens, though, there's a show to be played Sunday night at the Grog Shop. While it's not officially a farewell show, Hectorne expects it to be his last in town before the move, and he feels like the venue is fitting.

"I'm glad that it's going to be at the Grog Shop. It's my favorite venue in town," he said. "I like a lot of them, but I've played that one more than any of them, I think it was one of my first real shows in town. I just have a lot of fond memories there." - The Plain Dealer


"Free Tunes Tuesday: Matt Hectorne’s New Single – Ease My Mind"

We’ve all got plenty of Facebook friends. But do you have “close” friends on Facebook? In your Facebook settings you can assign certain friends a “close” friends status. This means that anytime they post anything, a new profile pic, an update on their day- you get a notification. It’s basically a feature to enhance your daily Facebook stalking rituals.

I wouldn’t consider myself and Matt Hectorne close friends, in fact we’re more like acquaintances. We’ve talked a number of times at Humble Home shows and through email regarding upcoming shows, but that’s about it. But every once in a while I get a Facebook notification, look at my phone and it says, “Matt Hectorne changed his profile photo.” You see, at some point in the past, months ago, maybe more than a year, I must have accidentally clicked that yellow star, because on Facebook Matt Hectorne IS one of my “close” friends. Every time this happens, I think to myself, I gotta go in and change that setting. He doesn’t post often which is probably why I always forget to do this.

Last week I got another Facebook notification from my “close” friend Matt. But this time it said:


It was a new single called “Ease My Mind” so I clicked it. I’m always interested in new local music. And it was then that I began listening to one of the best songs I’ve heard come from a local artist all year. “Ease My Mind” is so good on so many levels. Its laid back groove reminds me of something off of Ryan Adams’ Cold Roses. The melodies are so infectious that they’ll be going through your head all day. It’s hard work to make a song seem effortless, and “Ease My Mind” sounds like it just floated into existence. Some songs, especially with local artists still honing their craft, are lacking somewhere, maybe the chorus isn’t strong enough, maybe the vocals are a little pitchy, or the lead playing isn’t quite there. “Ease My Mind” is whole. It’s complete. And I can’t wait to hear the rest of the record. - Cellar Door


"Yankee Interview / / Matt Hectorne"

I got a hold of Matt after we posted a review of his band’s newest album, Your Light My Dark. He and his band make great music and I’m glad I got the opportunity to ask him a few questions. They’re playing Cleveland’s Brite Winter festival this weekend on the 16th – if you’re around, I’d highly recommend checking them out. And go grab his record from bandcamp.

Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree: Bandcamp // Tumblr // Facebook


YC: Where did your music come from originally, what got you to first pick up and learn an instrument and what caused you to start writing music?
MH: I guess music for me came from just needing a way to express myself. I was always a painfully shy kid. I didn’t have any real friends for most of my childhood/adolescence so writing was a way to get things out of my head. I wanted to be a novelist as a kid so I started writing short stories which lead me to add on poetry which lead to songwriting. I really only learned guitar to have a way to write songs. I was never the kid learning scales or Nirvana songs to look cool at parties.

YC: Who are the people that make up “The Family Tree”? And who are they to you?

MH: The Family Tree is really just a name to explain why there’s more than just me on a record. It is me bringing in people I love and respect musically to help fine tune my songs. I love collaborating. Very rarely am I very controlling with an idea for a song. The great thing about bouncing ideas off others is getting out of your own head and having that second (or third) pair of ears. Not to mention I don’t consider myself to be the most prolific musician, and I know other people can suggest things I would have never thought about.

YC: What does the writing/composing process look like?

MH: Like I mentioned earlier writing for me is about catharsis. There isn’t always an agenda or cause I’m trying to push. It’s just me needing to unload some of my thoughts and fears. To me writing when I feel like I have nothing to say always comes off as forced or hokey. I think my best songs are the ones that just fall out of me. I usually am sitting with a guitar and start singing a melody. Almost always whatever the line I improvise is the line I keep and that usually becomes the hook of the song. Then I just start fleshing it out from there.

YC: Does faith play a part in your writing?

MH: Faith definitely plays a part in my writing. It’s just one of those powerful ideas that can be pulled from again and again. I grew up in a small Pentecostal church in Mississippi. We went to church three times a week, every week. I tried for a long time to distance myself from that, but the older I get the more I realize how much that seeps into my songwriting. The concepts of faith, love, eternity, redemption, death- these are things everyone has grappled with. So not only has the music of my childhood in church affected my writing, but those concepts have become things I’ve tried to work out as well.

YC: What does the year ahead hold for your music?

MH: There is already a lot on my plate for this year, and I’m really excited about it. I’m booking a tour that will start in April, I’m moving to Nashville at the end of June, and I’ve already started recording my next record. There’s no release date or anything yet, but I’d love to have it out by late summer early fall. So this year I’m just going to be playing shows, pushing my current EP, and getting geared up for the next one.

YC: What have you been listening to lately?

MH: Nothing’s really captured my attention the past few months, so I’m still getting mileage out of some of my favorites from last year. I’ve been obsessively listening to the newest records by Justin Townes Earle, Water Liars, and Courtney Marie Andrews. I’m really excited about the new Milk Carton Kids record too.

YC: Where do you want your music to take you, if anywhere at all? Is there an end goal? A final stage of sorts that would make you feel significance?

MH: There is no end goal. I’m pretty sure it was Burroughs that said, “When you stop growing, you start dying.” The idea is more a bunch of small goals that always lead to the next. I’m not looking for stardom. I just want to be part of a community that loves art that is honest and aware. Wherever I can find that is where I want to take my music. - Yankee Calling


"Music Spotlight: Matt Hectorne & the Family Tree"

Hanging around the green room below the Beachland Ballroom, Matt Hectorne seems at his most content talking church music and his Mississippi upbringings when the conversation comes to a halt and a smile breaks behind a grizzly beard. “‘I’ll Fly Away,’” he points upstairs in approval to the Womack Family Band’s psychedelic rendition of the spiritual standard taking place on stage that’s echoing through the floor. In 20 minutes he’ll take the stage himself for the last time with Humble Home. In five months he’ll move to Nashville.

For a boy who grew up in a small suburb of Memphis immersed in a church of country and gospel vintage lore, a Southern homecoming marks the past year as a return to the roots. With a contributing cast of musicians he released two EPs, The Family Tree and Your Light My Dark, a collection of songs that were no doubt inspired by the way he paints his Episcopalian youth: Sunday bands with Elvis slick backs and sideburns, pedal steel and banjo players, running, screaming, dancing, and speaking in tongues.

“As soon as I started writing songs that style came naturally; the imagery, the Christian allegory,” Hectorne says of his early years. “I started delving into outlaw country like Merle Haggard, Guy Clarke, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn. When I play now, it’s nothing I ever really think about any more. That’s just what comes out.”

The result was February’s Family Tree EP, written and recorded over an inspired two week span. Its spontaneous live recording added an immediacy to Hectorne’s antiqued Americana, a human quality that parallels the songs’ themes of questioning and denouncing faith that ends with a stand-out bonus track of a sparse, arresting cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Downbound Train”.

“What I love about classic albums, when bands like the Byrds or the Animals would record live back in the day, is they just took everything off the floor, did a take and said that felt good, let’s just keep that,” he explains on producing the EP. “It’s not so much that every song should be pristine; I think the idea of recording isn’t so much getting it perfect as getting it right for that moment. It should be a portrait of the time you were in.”

Hectorne spent the next months penning Your Light My Dark, an EP that expanded into moments of shimmering pop and choral sing-alongs. With the hushed harmonies of Nina DeRubertis becoming fully realized on the chanting hymnal “(Will There Be a Time When I Will Not Be) Lost Without You” and the release of the stark black-and-white video for “Coming Around”, Your Light My Dark is a project steeped in minimalism, an unembellished effort that finds beauty in subtlety.

“I never set out to make the simplest video or the simplest sounding recording. To me it’s just being honest and almost a necessity. I’m not necessarily a prolific musician; I learned my instrument to write songs and it’s all I know,” says Hectorne. “But when you strip songs down, the only thing that stands up or holds anything together is the lyrics. You have no room for any other pretense. You have the song or you have nothing. “

In late June, Hectorne will move to Nashville with a two week tour planned for this year and demos in the works that he hopes to turn into a full-length album to be released by early 2014. “I love the hospitality of the South,” he says about the move. “I love the dynamic and that’s where I want to be. I just feel like it’s the right time and I feel very good about it.”

Matt Hectorne & the Family Tree plays at the Market Avenue Wine Bar. Stream the Family Tree’s album Your Light My Dark on Bandcamp and keep up with them on Facebook and Tumblr. - Brite Winter Festival


"Matt Hectorne of Humble Home Premiers Video, Readies Release"

Yesterday, Matt Hectorne and The Family Tree released a video for their latest track, “Coming Around” from the forthcoming effort Your Light My Dark. While you may recognize Matt as one of the members of one of our favorite local bands Humble Home, this isn’t his first offering as a solo artist. In February, he released a 4 track ep called Matt Hectorne and The Family Tree. It had a very loose and live feel, almost as if you were sitting in the room while your friends played and sang together.

With “Coming Around,” Matt seems to be taking things to a new level. The lush arrangement, additional instrumentation, and fuller mix capture a more confident and realized artist while still maintaining the organic energy of a live performance. If this track is any evidence, Your Light My Dark, out November 2, will definitely be something to keep on your radar. Catch Matt Hectorne and The Family Tree at their album release show on November 3rd at The Cove in Cleveland Heights. See the Facebook Invite for more details.

Check out the video below and then make sure you head over and “like” their Facebook page to stay updated on what’s to come from Matt and co. - Cellar Door Records


"Matt Hectorne & The Family Tree // Your Light My Dark"

Not much is known by me about Matt Hectorne. Usually I would spill a short explanation, some back story or the current happenings in his life when it comes to his music. But he’s a mysterious man to me, and so I’ve had to get to know him through his music. And I haven’t minded it in the least.

His latest album, Your Light My Dark, is a good piece of music. The songs are part honesty and part fragility. A true take on the intimacy of song writing, and good pictorial of how an artist can place a portion of themselves into their music and make a real connection with the listener. His guitar playing is carefully country in parts, constrained to a degree where it’s soft before finally being let out to breath alongside his own howling chorus as well as The Family Band’s. - Yankee Calling


Discography

Days While Away LP- September 18, 2015
Show Your Love EP- December 3rd, 2013
Your Light My Dark
EP- November 2nd, 2012



Photos

Bio

From http://thewildhoneypie.com/

"You dont have to be told that Matt Hectorne  is a Nashville band [his] Southern roots jut out onto the surface, evident in every aspect of [his] music from the sound to the lyrics. Hectorne sings of whiskey and church altars in mellow tones, backed by a solid wall of guitars and drums. The formula is simple, as it should be, but also highly inviting. True to its name, Show Your Love is a collection of Americana/folk rock love songs that flirt with country, but never fully commit the exact opposite of how Hectorne feels about the subject of these songs. I just wanna be a man in the frame/No I dont care if they remember my name/I just wanna be a moment in time/When I was yours and you were mine.

Everything on Show Your Love feels real, believable and relatable some of the best qualities music aims for. This is meat and potatoes music, as in slow-cooked all day long, falling to pieces, mom knows what shes doing meat and potatoes. That reference might not make sense to you at all if youre not from the South, but you dont have to be Southern at all to enjoy the easygoing warmth of Matt Hectorne."

Band Members