Father Hell is Mattie Vant, a Sunderland-raised songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who switched off his phone, gave himself seven days and recorded a debut album straight to an analogue four-track.
The point was to make something he couldnāt endlessly correct, so the mistakes stay in, the voices falter and the simple songs are free to unravel. The result is lo-fi and gentle, and all the more intimate for it.
New single āI Still Love You The Same As I Always Didā is built from very little: his voice and guitar, Sophie Sayerās cello and the vibraphone setting on a cheap 80s keyboard, with every part given room.
The melody moves in a repetitive, circular lullaby, heavenly in its simplicity, before the song settles into a long closing coda. āItās one of those that I would have probably overcooked and over thought and given up on if Iād been working on it digitallyā, he says.
Album āTrust Some Machinesā, out in December, is made in defiance of screens, algorithms and Vantās own self-doubt, with nylon-string guitar and cello sharing space with cheap synths, warped tape and treated vocals, so the intimate songwriting gets steadily stranger.
Itās funny too, as the track titles suggest: āBassist Needed For Hardcore Power Violence Bandā and āLive Laugh Loveā both made the cut. āOnce you realise there is no such thing as ācorrectā, you naturally stop questioning every little detail and start to enjoy the bigger pictureā, Vant adds.
He marks the release with a secret hometown show in Sunderland on 4 Dec and a headline show at SJQ in London on 10 Dec, which has already sold out. Phones off, presumably.
š§ Listen to āI Still Love You The Same As I Always Didā