Pop-Culturalist.com

Pop/R&B singer-songwriter Conor Matthews is an artist on the rise. With over thirty-eight million streams already under his belt, Conor has proven he knows how to connect with an audience.

His latest EP, Fool’s Elegy, finds the gifted storyteller tapping into another side of his creativity and artistry, exploring themes of vulnerability and failure.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Conor about his career, Fool’s Elegy, and what he learned about himself while working on the project.

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Conor: I’m one of four kids, and when I was five, my parents bought us all this Casio keyboard. No one else in the family ever touched it. I would always go to it and I would play songs I heard. I played “Star-Spangled Banner” one time, and that’s when I realized I loved music and I started taking piano lessons.

When I was nine, I started an acapella bus band. I wrote little jingles on the bus. Then when I was thirteen, I wrote my first real song for my girlfriend at the time. That was the moment I decided I wanted to write songs and perform them forever.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Conor: I would say moving to Nashville—that’s probably what has shaped my career the most. It was realizing how tiny of a fish I was compared to everyone else and how much work and growth I needed to compete. That realization coming from a real, real small town to the music city really set me on a trajectory. It taught me work ethic. I’m always trying to grow and better myself as an artist. Being surrounded by the incredible songwriters that are in Nashville and learning the craft from some of my songwriting idols when I was a kid had a huge influence on my life. Those experiences are definitely still shaping my career today.

PC: You’ve spent years writing for others before you began writing for yourself. How have those experiences prepared you for this chapter in your career?
Conor: The craft of songwriting has always been something that I prioritized and still do. Being able to write for other people helped me find my own voice. Ultimately, writing for other people wasn’t fulfilling me how I initially dreamed when I was a kid because I always wanted to perform my own songs. Being able to write for other people for so long really solidified in my head that I wanted to be my own artist. When I started writing my own artist project, I already knew how to write songs well, and I already knew how to find my voice because I spent so much time writing different voices for different people.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success already in your young career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Conor: There are a few of them…there have been a few career-defining moments for me. The first is when I signed my publishing deal with Keith Urban. The second is my first time writing with Sam Hunt because he’s an idol of mine. The third is when I started putting out my own music. I was freaking out the first time my song hit Today’s Hits and New Music Friday. I didn’t expect it and I didn’t know anyone to pitch my music to them, but they just found it and me. That was a really big moment.

PC: Tell us about Fool’s Elegy and the inspiration behind the collection.
Conor: Fool’s Elegy is definitely a reflective work. I wanted to do it because the other songs I’ve released definitely tell true stories. I always try to write from a place of experience, but they’re less of an internal look at myself and more so telling stories about external things.

For Fool’s Elegy, I wanted to search my own heart and write about things that aren’t necessarily fun to write about and that you don’t really want to acknowledge, but are necessary. When I set out to make the project, I decided every song that I was going to write for it was going to search through all the different parts that I’ve ignored for a long time. It’s a story of failures, I guess. The reason I wanted to do that is because I wanted my listeners to hear it, and if they identify with it, feel okay with their own personal battles, because I always feel like everyone’s always talking about, “Keep going. You’ll get where you’re meant to be.” I wanted people to stop and be like, “It’s okay to be who you are now. You don’t always have to feel like you’re looking for the next thing.”

PC: That’s a great message. If you had to pick a song off Fool’s Elegy that best encompasses who you are as an artist, which would it be and why?
Conor: That’s tough because this EP was a departure. It’s definitely a side of my artistry that I wanted people to hear, but I wouldn’t say any of the songs encompass all of it; it’s more like parts. I would say the song that encompasses the project and the song that encompasses what I’ve been going through the last year and a half would be “How Many Times Can a Heart Break”. It’s the pinnacle of it and is the first song I released off of the project.

But that’s speaking to me more as a person and less to me as an artist. It was more of a moment of my life that I put into a song: an area of my life that I hadn’t fully explored, which was the failures, the struggles, recognizing depression, and stuff like that. When I explored those areas of my life, that song came out, and I would say that’s the theme of Fool’s Elegy. As an artist, we’ve done a lot of different things that are all equally as true to who I am, so I would say the artist side is a little broader than this project.

PC: With this being a departure for you, did anything surprise you while putting together the EP? What was the biggest takeaway?
Conor: What surprised me the most was that I got to explore different parts of my creativity. I produced a lot on this record, which is different than the past. I always have creative input on production, but I was very hands-on with this one—playing the instruments in the room the whole time, coming up with drum sounds—so that surprised me the most.

It was a massive growing experience and I’m definitely going to be producing a lot more on my records in the future. That was the most striking different between the process of this EP from my others.

PC: As we look ahead to 2021, what does the year hold for you?
Conor: Hopefully some touring. That would be awesome. I’m planning on putting out my first album, an actual album instead of just EPs, and I’m hoping that’ll be out sometime next year. I’m working on it right now, so I’d love to put out an album. I’d also love to go on tour. In the next couple of years, I hope to have a song go to radio; that’s always been really important to me since I was a kid.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Conor: Joe Diffie.

PC: First album you bought?
Conor: Scarecrow by John Mellencamp.

PC: First concert you attended?
Conor: It was a Rascal Flatts concert when I was twelve.

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
Conor: Heartbreak on a Full Moon by Chris Brown. It was probably the most life-changing album—the sheer amount of music. I didn’t realize you were allowed to do that. It was like sixty-five songs. On top of that, the sonics and sound of the album were so cohesive, and he showcased all the different parts of his voice, from the bottom of his range to the top, shining as an artist. That was the first album that I was like, “I want to be that good.”

PC: A venue on your bucket list to perform at?
Conor: Nissan Stadium in Nashville. I saw Beyoncé perform there when I was nineteen, and I was like, “Dang, I got to do that someday.” That’s where I came up as an artist, so it’d just be so cool to return there and be able to play my music.

To keep up with Conor, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify. Pick up or stream Fool’s Elegy today.

Photo Credit: Slater Goodson