Some Mad Hope
Matt Nathanson made Some Mad Hope on his own terms

By Nicole Roberge

When I get on the phone with Matt Nathanson, he’s very distracted by what’s happening on his street. 

“They’re towing every car my neighbor has! Oh, that sucks! Poor guy,” he says, laughing. And while Nathanson is enjoying a lazy day at home, he’s been quite busy lately at work on his newest album, Some Mad Hope. Though it took two and half years to record, he claims it has been his best experience yet, and he not only learned about his musical ability through the process but also discovered things about himself.

Nathanson is known for his candid lyrics, brimming melodic tunes, and comedic stage banter. His last studio release, Beneath These Fireworks came out four years ago, and he followed it up with a self-released live album in 2006 as he felt that captured the sound and expression he was truly trying to convey. He then left Universal and after writing and recording this album on his own, found a new home at Vanguard Records and couldn’t be happier. Not only was the recording experience different, but the album itself also has a twist from his previous releases.

He explains the album is a theme record that explores the ups and downs of relationships. But he didn’t plan for it to come together that way; it just happened to fall in place. “I was just writing as I was experiencing, and it followed this arc of my life in the end. It was really cool and unplanned,” he explains.
When he took the time to write and explore these issues, the record blossomed.

“Your change as a human being is represented in the stuff you write, and the songs are actually a direct reflection of you,” he says. “I think that if I had written all the songs or made the record in one swoop, I wouldn’t have gotten any of the changes, arc, or dynamic, and that’s where it works.”
Nathanson feels a change took place on this record and though he didn’t have a real vision, the only thing he wanted was for it to be great.

“I felt like I had made so many records where I came up short or had limitations that stopped me from making a record I actually wanted to make,” he says. “Here, I just refused to stop until I had gotten what I needed to get. When someone says, ‘you’ve got to hear Matt Nathanson,’ and they hand them a record, for myself, I want to be irrefutable, because that’s how I wanted that record to be.”

Opening with the first single “Car Crash,” the album provides a breathtaking view of human relationships and what people endure, learn and overcome. It ultimately shows how we have to have “some mad hope” to get by. Nathanson has crafted an album that examines all of his musical, vocal and songwriting skills. He has always had the unique ability to tell a story in a song, but to put it all together as an album is a new experience for him. However, Nathanson says it all happened organically.

“For this record what was wild was that they all ended up being a story. It was this thread. Here’s the middle with ‘Bulletproof Weeks’ and then it descends out to the end.  So it’s neat that there’s this ‘meant to be’ sequence — it just takes time and then it happens.”

Fans know Nathanson’s music as being raw and genuine, and people have a great connection with both the sincerity in his lyrics and his stage presence. 

“To be able to wow myself is the reason I make these records — you want to blow your mind. And that’s what’s so fun about being a creative person,” he says. “The next step that’s great is that you get to share it with people who connect with it. It’s the same with my favorite records. With Some Mad Hope, I have 12 songs that really felt to me as powerful and worthwhile songs. I really wanted this record to be 12 songs that I could stand by and I would really love for people to connect to it in a way where they say, ‘I get it.’ I don’t mean some revolutionary life-changing epiphany has to happen, just this moment of connection where someone knows how I feel and says, ‘I gotta hear that again.’