Mat Hook On the Making Of “Won't Let The World”
Credit: Edward James
What was the creative process like for this particular song?
A friend of mine, Paul Fletcher, who has a history of songwriting for established acts, came to me with a song he'd written for his daughter, to see if I fancied taking it on and recording it. As he'd stopped performing and publishing music, he said the song would "end up on the scrap heap" if not.
I really liked the song on a quick listen, so we decided through him to go to James Fosbury at Big Dog Studios in Sheffield. James impressively laid all the instrumentation down which saved a lot of time and we put together the arrangement, while I made some minor lyric tweaks and voila! It was all pretty plain sailing.
What impact do you hope "Won't Let The World" will have on your audience?
I never think about this. I just make records that I like and hopefully, how I like. What other people make of it, if they make anything at all, I'll never know for the most part.
It's always nice when playing live though if you can tell people know a song, or even the lyrics if they're riding or dying bruh!
Can you describe your experience in the recording studio? How do you capture the emotion of your vocals on a recording?
I love being in a recording studio, for the most part I love just being there and doing nothing. They always have a particular smell as well that is just unique. You don't need to go to therapy, just sit in a studio for a day every so often!
On the topic of the vocals, I don't know? I guess what comes out, comes out! There's definitely something raw emanating, what it is or from where, I can't really describe... From feedback over the years I think I have a style of voice you either really like or don't care for. There's rarely an in-between.
How do you approach collaborations with other musicians and maintain creative synergy?
I very rarely do. Usually, my songs are fully written myself with (mostly) the various parts in mind well before I head to a studio. Then it's kinda like cooking a meal, you go in with all the ingredients and hope it turns out something like you envisioned.
Because this song wasn't born of my own spark to say, I could approach it a lot more relaxed and sorta went with the flow of where it was going and where we ended up, the shackles were off nicely in that sense and I think it's turned out great! Paul told me it brought tears to his eyes on his first listen, so that will do for me.
