#60 Matt Costa - Yellow Coat
Matt Costa came to fame in 2007 when his folk-pop single Mr Pitiful featured on an iPhone advert, giving him worldwide exposure. The same single was later used in a scene of I Love You Man, a blockbuster film starring Paul Rudd. His reputation grew further after securing a track on Jack Johnson’s album Bushfires, and his new album Yellow Coat meets this same high calibre of music.
Yellow Coat was released on Dangerbird Records and produced by Alex Newport. Writing letters to himself at the end of a decade long relationship, the songs within are stamped with honesty and intimacy. Costa draws inspiration for this stunning new album from Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Dear Theo’ and John Steinbeck’s ‘A Life in Letters’.
“I think every other record that I’ve written, I wrote knowing that the songs would have an outlet, and for this one I really didn’t. It was just a process I was going through, clearing myself of these feelings and thoughts” – Costa.
Yellow Coat depicts raw emotion channelled into gently swinging love songs, most of them awash in strings, mellotron, harmonies and groove. The acoustic lead single Avenal is no exception.
“When we pulled over near Avenal it was early in the morning. Chase, my close friend, was strumming a few chords as the gas was pumping. I sat under a tree, humming a melody and frantically writing down lyrics. By the time the car was fully fuelled I asked him to play back the chords to me as I sang the song. I wondered what to call it, I looked at a road and it said Avenal” - Costa.
Whilst Yellow Coat may have started as an album about heartbreak, its sense of sadness and hope feels completely universal in these uncertain times.
