Mat Hughes

When he returned to the east coast after a spell on BC’s Sunshine Coast, Halifax-based
singer-songwriter Mat Hughes started writing and performing homespun songs on his
keyboard in an attic-turned studio and makeshift music venue. Two years and two EPs
later, he’s since upgraded from DIY house shows to playing sets across the province,
including the sold-out EP release show for his latest offspring, The Motions, at The
Carleton in Halifax this past March.
Mat’s intricate yet unpretentious songwriting tunes classical technique to a modern pitch
with percussive, piano-driven melodies that can turn any crowd into an audience of
attentive listeners. His sharp, candid lyricism ranges from the playfully slapstick to the
knife edge of existential pathos in topics like eco-anxiety, self-estrangement, and feeling
homesick for a place you’ve never been, or merely passed through.
Mat may well have you laughing and crying within the same set with an inimitable,
genre-defying voice that resonates both sonically and lyrically. He doesn’t tell you the
moon is shining, but instead gathers all the mundane shards of a life, holding them up to
the light to show you what cuts, and what glints. This ability to overlay dualities to their
vanishing point is perhaps the greatest feat of The Motions, an album that gives voice to
the perpetual ebb and flow of life’s tides—the motion sickness of going through the
motions while standing perfectly still.
Mat’s third EP, South-facing Dumpster, will be released on May 23, 2025.