Westport musician to release debut single this week

Well-known Westport singer-songwriter Matt Rowley is releasing his debut single ‘World’s Apart’ this Friday, February 2. 

Rowley is an accomplished musician and singer-songwriter, whose bombastic energy on stage has won him many fans.

The track will be available on all streaming platforms, speaking about the inspiration behind the song, Rowley said: “The whole idea of the song is the grip that social media and phone technology has on all of us, not only on teenagers, but like adults alike; and even toddlers. I have a 2-year-old son and he knows how to swipe up and use the Ipad.

“I’m a full time SNA, I  work with teenagers fulltime in the secondary school, so I see the effect it has on them. [The song] was actually written during lockdown so everyone was overusing social media to get us through the day” he continued.

The accompanying music video, shot by Director and Cinematographer Ian CJ Ryan, will follow in the coming weeks. Rowley tells The Mayo News: “We were shooting the video and saying ‘lets pretend you're hooked to your phone and on the phone no matter what’, and sure what was everyone doing while waiting for the camera’s to roll- everyone was on the phone! It’s ironic”.

With an already growing fanbase from playing pubs and festivals both here and abroad, Mr Rowley made the single announcement to his nearly 3000 social media followers.

Having travelled the US and Europe playing solo, and alongside The Clew Bay Pipe Band on their Pipe-Versity Show, picking up accolades wherever he goes, Rowley’s solo music career is about to hit the next level, with his debut album set for a summer release. 

“Yeah so we're gonna release this track, and then in the next couple of weeks then we're gonna release a different track… to just gather a following, like I’ve done the pub scene and weddings and all that craic for years and this has been brewing in me for a very long time so it has but I’ve never really had the confidence to, or the team around me, to push toward it.

He added: “It was actually COVID that got us in a great place, just because no one was doing anything or going anywhere so I was just spending a lot of time writing, not just me, myself and my guitarist David O’Regan as well, he was helping write the songs and stuff.”

The influence of the album is ‘not what people will expect’ , said Rowley.

“I think with this album everyone is expecting me, because they see me with an acoustic guitar, but at heart the people that know me know that I love my rock, my metal, and stuff like that. It's going to surprise a lot of people”, he added.

“I love 80’s movies and synths and stuff like that so there’s a lot of that 80’s mix, Miami vice kind of style and influence in it. I’ve always been an 80’s rock fan at heart so we had to add as much of that as we can.

“I think, even with the single, people aren't going to expect this from me, I think they're expecting acoustic, slow, very folky kind of bits but this is the complete opposite.” concluded Rowley.

You can presave ‘World’s Apart’ now.