One of his generation’s most fearless singer/songwriters, Matt Maeson has endlessly proven the powerful impact of fully revealing his demons and damage. With the arrival of 2019’s Bank On A Funeral, the 29-year-old Virginia native made history as the first male solo artist to earn two #1 Alternative Radio hits from a debut album, thanks to the smash success of the unforgettably confessional singles Hallucinogenics and Cringe (both of which went platinum). Now boasting over a billion streams, including his collaboration with Lana Del Rey on a remix of Hallucinogenics, the Nashville-based musician returns with his sophomore album Never Had To Leave—a revelatory body of work that embodies a newfound hopefulness, yet reinforces the raw intensity and unapologetic truth-telling that have defined Maeson’s music from the very start.

“The reason I make music is I want my songs to help people feel justified in whatever they’re feeling, especially if they’re going through hard times,” says Maeson. “When I was 17 I started performing in prisons as part of my parents’ prison ministry, and I realized what music could do as far as helping people feel dignified and less alone. It was a way of bringing light into one of the darkest possible places, and right away I knew I wanted to do that for everyone. Keeping that in mind has always motivated me to write as honestly as possible, without filtering anything out.”