Matt Maltese: "It was a mix of not giving a fuck, but also really giving a fuck"

Hailed as the schmaltzcore king we all deserved when his debut came out, Matt Maltese is back with album number two. Moving from a studio to his bedroom and focussing more on his love for ballads, Things are a little bit more intimate this time around. We lit a few candles, cooked a romantic meal, and asked: why are so many South London shops named Krystal? Hi Matt, first things first: How's this album been different to your debut? I guess the main thing is probably the number of people I had involved in the making of it. It was more insular this time around, fewer people to bounce ideas off of. I guess it was a more lonely experience, but in a good way. The more it went along, the more I realised it needed to be like this and I wanted to go as far with it as I could. And was it your first time producing as well as playing? I've been doing home demos for quite a while, but never really trying to get them to a place where it could be considered a finished song. This was the first time where I can actually say it's a song that I've produced, rather than just a demo which I finished with someone later. Did that give you more freedom? I think so, definitely. There's a lot to be said for the non-performance of it all. When there's someone in the room with you, no matter how comfortable you are with them, you still kind of perform when they're there. You're singing and playing a part for them, and without that middleman, everything was the most honest it could be. Were there any themes you wanted to touch on that you didn't with the first album? I think there was a lot I wanted to do differently. I wanted to just embrace the ballad a lot more with this one, I really love writing love songs that maybe two or three years ago I would've thought were too cute, or too sweet. I just wanted it to embody the fact that I feel a bit more comfortable writing those kinds of songs. It was a mix of not giving a fuck but also really giving a fuck, in that I had a lot to prove to myself, but also I was just in my room doing what I feel good doing. There's more intimacy there, and it just felt like less of an event, so there was less pressure, and I think - I hope - that benefitted it.