New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Matt Talley, alt-rocker from Baltimore, MD, came to his own conclusions about his religious upbringing. It was just the spark he needed to begin work on something new, himself. What defines you, what kind of person will you be? That's the question he intended to ask with his new single "Excommunicate", and his forthcoming album The In Between. The album will be released on Friday, February 16 via all major streaming platforms.
Talley expressed what it was that stirred him to put it all out there:
"I recently heard someone say that the best art is often painted with gunpowder. That's how I feel about this single and this new album as a whole. I grew up in organized religion. I've played music in churches of 40 people and churches of 4000 people. I've seen the good religion can do, and I've felt, firsthand, the damage that it can cause. This album tells the story of that journey, and this song, in particular, is the tipping point in that narrative.
It seems like everywhere I turn, everything is so polarized. Everybody has a side, and more often than not, those sides are defined by what we don't support, or don't believe in, or even worse - the things we hate. I was sick of taking sides. I was tired of absolutes, dark and light, right and wrong - basing my views on people, and having their views of me painted by ideologies and certainties that I wasn't fully convinced even existed. There's a stereotype, a mold that religious people are known for and I didn't fit into it, didn't want to fit into it, and in all honesty, I wanted to break that mold.
Excommunicate is the realization that religion, evangelicalism in my case, demands a particular type of conformity that I can't, in good conscience, adhere to. It's a demolition of the worldview I was raised in and then pursued into my early twenties, and much like the best art, every demolition requires something explosive. This song and the video for it are my ways of lighting that fuse."
Some facts and useful tidbits you should know about Matt Talley's album The In Between and first single "Excommunicate":
The album was mixed and produced by Tony Correlli of the Deep End Studio in Baltimore, MD. The intro track was recorded at Jack White's Third Man Records in Nashville, TN. Recorded guitars with Stephen Keech of Haste the Day and Matthew Hoopes of
Relient K at Stephens studio in Nashville. Mastered by Paul Leavitt (The Used, All Time Low, Yellowcard) at Valencia Recording in Baltimore, MD.
Track listing for The In Between
1. Acetate
2. Burn Away
3. Stained Glass Smile
4. Excommunicate
5. The In Between
6. Don't Make A Sound
7. Let Go
