MAWZY SHARES “FOREVER WILD” FROM DEBUT ALBUM LONGVIEW OUT APRIL 17th
Mawzy has unveiled the opening track, “Forever Wild”, from his debut album Long View. “Forever Wild” is a song about taking a chance and living your true self and follows the singles “Better Man” and “Long View” from the Newfoundland-born/Toronto-based psych-pop artist. Long View is set for release on April 17th and to celebrate the release Mawzy will be playing a month-long residency in The Cameron House, Toronto.
Speaking on “Forever Wild” Mawzy says,
“I was thinking about a long lost friend when this was written, but looking back it is also a message to myself: it can be tough to pursue the things we truly desire, but if we are persistent, we can make it through. I was living on the west coast of Newfoundland in a small studio that overlooked a vast arm of the ocean at the time of writing. I would get through my days walking the forest and driving to nearby small towns, my surroundings making their way into my songwriting. I was most influenced by the relentlessness of a rushing river to make it to the sea, a metaphor for sticking it out no matter what comes our way.”
Mawzy aka Matt Cooke is a departure from Cooke’s folkier Newfoundland roots which saw him nominated for MusicNL and ECMA awards. The Newfoundland term “mawzy” describes a “mawzy” day which begins before dawn. It’s a foggy early morning, the sunlight never rising above a bare simmer. Mawzy is the perfect word for Cooke’s project which burbles with hazy vintage synths, misty vocals, and a message of love and longing. Growing up in Newfoundland, Cooke cut his teeth in Pentecostal church bands, jazz, and folk before packing up and leaving Atlantic Canada for Toronto where Mawzy was born.
You can hear that maritime fog transposed to the bright lights of the big city in Mawzy’s discography. Driving forward with a disco edge, bright guitars, and vocals reverbed into the sky, Cooke’s musical project is alight with an eerie groove. It’s a canted pitch of supercharged pop urgency and nostalgic nigh-on crooning psychedelia mixed into a fog of lush analog synths that echo into oblivion. Emerging from the mist is Cooke himself, fading into view in bursts of light amidst the gloom. Mawzy is a distinct portrait of a constantly inventing artist who stretches over landscapes and warmly molds them into the size of a song.