Based: Johannesburg
Matthew Mole is a singer/songwriter from Cape Town, South Africa. He has been described as “a multi-instrumentalist blending Mumford-honouring nu-folk and layered production”. Matthew’s first release was an independent EP entitled ‘You Did Well, Kid’ in 2011. In 2012, he won the ‘Converse Get Out Of The Garage’ contest and subsequently signed to Just Music, releasing an EP called ‘Same Parts, Same Heart’ shortly afterwards. In 2013 Matthew released ‘The House We Built’ on Just Music, which became an iTunes No.1 album in July – the first time a native South African had ever reached the top spot. The album spawned a number of successful singles including ‘Take Yours, I’ll Take Mine’, ‘You & Your Crown’ and ‘Autumn’. In 2014, a deluxe edition of ‘The Home We Built’ was released and in 2015 Matthew released a live album ‘ITunes Sessions’.
On his musical style Matthew says “I have always had an attraction to folk music – happy guitar rhythms, thousands of vocal harmonies and random percussion is what I’m all about. I’m not the best at speaking, but through music, it’s completely comfortable. Music – It takes up a lot of my time, it drives me, it makes me who I am. I try to live my life a little differently to the way most people think it should be done. For me, music is very closely linked to that. I like to try and bring my hopes and beliefs through that. What I aim to achieve is for people be affected by my music – in a great way, a way that will make them think about where they’re at. Something that everyone can relate to. If you had to force something out of me, I’d tell you that I play folk music – folk music with an electronic back bone. I have so many influences, ranging from the people everyone’s heard of, like Mumford & Sons, to people like Gold Panda. I hope that this musical adventure, way of life if you will, that I’m taking will help you to enjoy whatever adventure it is that you are taking.”