DoT EP49 Matt York: From Boston, Texas to Between the Bars plus New Music from Prateek

I first became aware of Matt York’s music when he released his Americana album Boston, Texas in 2016. I also write and play music, and we had a few friends in common. We played on a couple of bills together, and I got to know a bit more of his history, how he had been part of Boston’s rock scene years before and had quit for a while until he got the bug again. He released a new album, Between the Bars, in 2017, and it felt like a good time to catch up and explore that history on the mics.

His hiatus is something that interests me – how does the artist define their art, and how does it define them? What does it do to someone to be away from their creativity? I explored that a bit in EP35 with comedian Billy D Washington last year. We talked about that, and about how a relatively settled and happy guy writes a full album about loneliness and heartbreak in which most of the action takes places in a variety of bars.

The new album has a lot of different sounds – I hear everything from Built to Spill to Billy Joel. That leads us to Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Steve Earle, and all over the map. York is also a huge comedy fan, and we have a discussion toward the end of the podcast about how the music and comedy scenes in Boston compare. You can find out more about York at MattYorkMusic.com.

As always, we have a featured track of the week after the conversation. This week, it’s a song from Prateek called “Emma.” It is his latest single, and was recently featured on Vanyaland: Music & Beyond. Prateek is a fantastic writer and performer, and you’ll definitely be hearing more from him. You can find out more about him at PrateekSongs.com.