30 Mar 2024
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Mat Gat - Single Review: Washed Away

27 Oct 2021 // A review by Kev Rowland

There are times when some music is so personal that the listener feels they are intruding in an area they have no right to be involved with. That is the case here, as Mat Gat and his fiancée suffered the heartbreak of a miscarriage at 3 months. A week after that, he experienced a vivid dream about a young girl, following her day until she was killed in a car accident. This dream came to him for the new few nights as well, until he felt inspired to walk on the beach, where he felt he let her go. This inspired him to write this song, telling the story, about what might have been.

I hope this was a cathartic process for him, as one can feel the emotion within the words as he accompanies himself on acoustic guitar, singing about going to the beach and how he had watched the girl. Was this a representation of what might have happened to their child if she had lived? He accompanies himself on guitar and one can imagine him performing this live in the studio, with just a few keyboards added near the end before it fades out to the sound of waves breaking on a beach. Available on Bandcamp, Mat tells the full story of what happened to his family, the dreams and what led to the recording, and one cannot help but feel empathy for what they have been through.

Consequently, I found this a difficult song to listen to, not because it is poorly sung or constructed, far from it, but rather it is a subject matter which is often hidden away as being very personal. In fact, over the many tens of thousands of songs I have reviewed over the years, I cannot recall any other dealing with this. It is a song which demands to be listened to with respect, as Mat creates an ambience and atmosphere around himself with his guitar and sings to the girl in his dream. You’re in my dreams, time to let you go. Poignant, personal and certainly emotional.

Rating: ( 3 / 5 )
 

About Mat Gat

Mat Gat (MJK) is a solo guitarist/ musician from Taranaki currently residing in Dunedin. Studying at the Wanganui school of music from 1999/2000 gave Mathew a strong grounding in all aspects of music theory and performance. In 2019 he was a member of Trip Change to play the New Plymouth Festival of the Lights event in January. After Covid changed the musical landscape it gave him the opportunity to focus more on his solo career.

Releasing his first single Magnetic on 02/10/2020 Recorded at Arthousemedia Studios Dunedin. Mathew's main focus and love is guitar but he enjoys a vast amount of musical styles as can be heard by his Spotify and YouTube channels. Main influences are - Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Tool, Led Zeppelin, Portishead, Sublime, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and many more.


Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Mat Gat

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