Mat Gibson

Mat Gibson

Mat Gibson is a singer-songwriter raised on the borderland between Herefordshire and Wales. He begins music with piano lessons as a child, then moves on to drums and plays in school punk and grunge bands in the early 1990s. He starts writing songs at 20, after hearing his uncle play fiddle at a Christmas Eve hootenanny at his grandmother’s house in Boston, Massachusetts.

Early life and education

He later graduates from university with a first in French at 29 and moves to Canada to teach English. After a period there, he returns to the UK and continues his music career.

Recordings and releases

His self-released debut, Home Movie (2006), leads to interest from the UK Americana label Clubhouse Records. In March 2010, Lay Me Down (To Rest, To Sleep) appears on the label’s Divided by a Common Language compilation. He later works with producer Rowland Prytherch, who co-produces and engineers new recordings with him at Truck Studios in Oxfordshire. These recordings are built around live vocal and acoustic guitar performances with minimal overdubs, most of them completed by Gibson himself.

Forest Fire and later work

Forest Fire is described as a new musical direction for him and as a reflection of his range as a performer and writer. He also gives a solo performance at the Equi-Truck festival at Oxford’s O2 Academy.

Reception

He is described by commentators as an artist with strong potential, and as one of Britain’s notable exponents of Americana. Another review compares his sound to a youthful Neil Young.