When I was living in Florida, I had the great pleasure to play in a band called the Heathens. Besides having a drummer who played harmonica and sang, we also had a real live banjo player! I was in seventh heaven.

The band was lead by songwriter Matt Butcher who had come to Florida from England when he was about 9 years old. This left him with him a curiously crisp accent and rendered him, essentially, a foreigner in a state inhabited by transients fleeing the Great American Somewhere (ask 10 people anywhere in central or southern Florida where they’re from, and maybe 1 will say Gainsville; the rest are assuredly from New England or the Mid Atlantic).

In this atmosphere, Matt soaked up American culture and, having learned guitar through high school, promptly started several grip n’ rip indie rock bands. I still have a 7″ 45rpm from his group On Cassette that is one of my most prized possessions.

Once Matt and several of his Orlando music buddies realized that they were all closet country fans, the cat was out of the bag and the Heathens coalesced around Matt’s songwriting which was already taking on stronger and stronger Americana influences. They came into an open mic I was running, I sat in on slide and they hired me on stage.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the group less than a year later when I relocated to New England. The Heathens went on to release a fine album titled Big White House and pulled some impressive reviews following their debut at the South by Southwest music festival.

The band broke up in 2006 and Matt went on to a solo career, releasing Me And My Friends in 2008.

What’s so striking about Matt’s music is his songwriting, which is shockingly good and only getting better. I was sold on his talent when I heard his song, “Two Chimneys”:

This Christmas is tearing me in half,
Two trees to cut down, to presents to be had,
Two chimneys for Santa to squeeze down.

There aren’t very many young songwriters willing to tackle a subject like divorce via a Christmas song, but that is exactly the kind of songwriter Matt is. He is totally unafraid to take a hard look at any given subject and treat in a way that is accessible to everyone, and he does this without resorting to cliches & meaningless platitudes about his current emotional state. This stuff cuts deeper, like, way deeper.

On Me And My Friends, Matt tackles loss, addiction and the frailty of the human condition. Songs like “Keep It Together” speak powerfully to the malaise that comes with a bad habit:

I’m writing a letter to myself,
To read out loud in times of poor health,
When the urge is strong and resolve is weak,
It reads, “keep it together, boy,”

[...]

Flesh fights the soul,
Like the north and the south poles,
Both desperately reaching for the polarities.

You can hear Me And My Friends in its entirety here:

You can download Me And My Friends at Matt’s website for whatever price you think is fair.

The following is from a correspondence interview with Matt from early 2010.

These songs seem very cohesive. Did you write them all at once?

The songs were written over five or six years. I wrote the title track
when I was eighteen, while Grace on a Greyhound (the last tune to be
written for the record) was written during the recording process.

This record is much darker than your outings with the Heathens. Was that intentional?

I didn’t consciously set out to make a dark record. I did set out to
make an honest one. When selecting the songs, I chose the ones that
meant the most to me personally. My early twenties were somewhat of a
turbulent time in my life and I think the tunes reflect that.

How did your backup band come together?

The Revolvers came about very organically. I knew what I wanted on the
record, instrumentation wise. Everyone came around at the right time.
It was a fantastic bunch of guys… big talent and very little ego. I
am actually playing with some different people on this next record,
but not for any negative reasons regarding the Revolvers. I like to
change things up…

Were there any particular artists you’re inspired by or compare yourself to?

I don’t really compare myself to other writers. I think it can be a
bit destructive to compare one’s art to another..There are certainly
many I am inspired by. Lately I have been listening to a lot of Townes
Van Zandt and reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy.

This record is quite a departure from your earlier band work. What prompted the new direction?

I think the songs dictate the direction of my music. I try to create
the most organic environment for the words to sit in. It has to feel
natural. I don’t think about it too much as it is happening, but I
know I have evolved as a songwriter and musician. I think my next
record will prove to be a bit different [than Me and My Friends]…