Virginia Beach, VA · indie folk · alternative

Matt Maeson

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A gravelled voice and songs shaped by a genuinely unusual upbringing playing prison ministry shows — redemption-arc folk with radio-sized choruses.

Matt Maeson was born in 1993 and raised in Gloucester, Virginia. His parents were juvenile delinquents who became "musicianaries," playing in Christian metal bands, and secular rock radio was off-limits to him until his teenage years. He started playing guitar at fifteen and performed at biker rallies and prisons through his parents' ministry, an experience that shaped the writing on his early releases.

A murdered uncle who had been part of the same ministry left a lasting mark: Maeson's forearm tattoos, "Born a sinner" and "Die a martyr," refer to his legacy. That mix of faith, violence and family runs under the rough, low-set voice that carries most of Maeson's arrangements, pairing folk-leaning acoustic structures with contemporary pop production.

Maeson released his debut single, "Cringe," in November 2016, followed by two EPs, Who Killed Matt Maeson (2017) and The Hearse (2018), before his debut album, Bank on the Funeral, arrived in 2019. "Cringe" reached the top of the Billboard Alternative Songs chart for four weeks, the longest run by a new artist that year, and was later certified gold.

"Hallucinogenics" repeated the feat in 2020, topping both the Alternative Songs and Rock Airplay charts, and brought Maeson to a wider audience through alternative radio and streaming. He later featured on Illenium's "Heavenly Side," and released a second album, Never Had to Leave, in 2022.

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indie folkalternative