Matt Maltese Shares New Single and Video “Museum”; New Album Out April 28th

London artist Matt Maltese has today shared his new single “Museum” and its accompanying video. “Museum” is the latest taste of the upcoming fourth album Driving Just To Drive – out April 28th. Driving Just To Drive is the first major body of work from Matt Maltese since his acclaimed third album Good Morning It’s Now Tomorrow arrived in 2021.

Matt has now racked up half a billion streams across all platforms with over 5.3 million monthly listeners; viral single “As The World Caves In” accounts for over 270 million of them. Matt’s audience also continues to grow on social media with 500,000 followers now on TikTok where global superstars like Doja Cat and BTS’ Kim Taehyung have become firm fans – the former even hosted an Instagram Live singalong of “Curl Up And Die.” Frank Ocean has also featured Matt’s single “Rom-Com Gone Wrong” on his Blonded Radio. Matt is credited as a songwriter on Jamie T’s 2022 #1 record All In Good Time, with Jamie naming him one of the UK’s best young songwriters in multiple press interviews around the album’s release. Matt has also recently co-written music with Joy Crookes and Celeste for their new records.  

“Museum” is a self-professed ode to his hometown of Reading, and features backing vocals from Sorry’s Asha Lorenz. Matt says: “This song, along with [previous single] “Mother”, was really a building block for the album. It came from really reflecting on my relationship to my hometown of Reading. You change a lot but these places hold those different versions of yourself that you were and that you can’t change. I always couldn’t wait to leave Reading… it had that middle-ground feeling between city and countryside, and I craved the city. It’s funny because I have often felt like my life didn’t really begin until I moved to London at 18. In some ways that’s true, but also there’s a whole life lived in this other place that I’ve frankly never really wanted to think about or write about.”

Watch Museum [Official Video]:

He continues: “I like my current self-more than my teenage self, but I also realised it’s a shame to not see how the present is so intertwined and indebted to the past. Every day you’ve lived shapes who you’ve become, and Reading has been home for a lot of those days, even if it isn’t now. Even reacting against it has shaped me. I think I finally feel a lot more like I want to embrace it, even if I can’t relate to those years as much anymore.”

Matt will be heading to the US this summer to perform at Shaky Knees festival in Atlanta and at Governor’s Ball in New York City.  His previous single “Mother” and title track “Driving Just To Drive” have received plaudits from the likes of Notion, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash, DIY, Dork, and more.

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Everybody is searching for happiness – and although it might be impossible to find, Matt Maltese is getting closer. For his fourth album, in order to look forward the musician finally let himself look back to the past. Reflecting on a sense of place, the meaning of where you grew up and the secret to being able to just enjoy the moment, Driving Just To Drive finds Maltese at his most free. 

The album’s lush, almost cinematic sound in part comes from Maltese working with a producer for the first time in a while – a first-time producer at that, in Josh Scarbrow. It was only after thriving in a songwriting space, collaborating with Joy Crookes, Celeste, Etta Marcus and more, that Maltese better realised how he wanted to write for himself. “I’m bad at letting go to make someone else help me, but I’ve got better,” Maltese says. “Sharing those moments in real life with another person is just really nice. Josh hadn’t made an album before which I loved, and also working with someone my age ended up being really important.”

Driving Just To Drive finds Maltese at his most open, and settled, embracing new sounds but returning to the most organic version of himself he knows. He’s always wanted to find a way to make people laugh, but finds ways here to charm while somewhat letting his guard down. The result is something bittersweet and deeply, authentically emotional. 

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See Matt Maltese live in 2023:

May 5 | Shaky Knees Festival, Atlanta, GA

May 26 | Lido Connect, Bangkok, Thailand

May 31 | Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane, Australia

Jun 2 | Northcote Social, Melbourne, Australia

Jun 3 | The Landsdowne Hotel, Sydney, Australia

Jun 9 | Governors Ball Festival. New York City, NY

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Matt Maltese – Driving Just To Drive – out 4/28/2023 on Nettwerk