INTRO BY MELISSA TUCKER
INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY
PHOTO COURTESY OF SIDEWAYS MEDIA TEAM
In a world filled with great talent, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. One way to make an impression is by making music that is authentic. The lead singer of Belle Mt does just that with his latest song “Loving You.” Matt Belmont found his angelic sound in a friend’s unfinished family home in the French Alps. After collaborating with award winning Nashville-based producer Femke Weidema, the London born indie artist began releasing awesome tracks like “Hollow” and “Let Me” in 2017. As Belle Mt enters 2018, fans can expect more captivating lyrics and beautiful vocals to echo deep in their hearts and minds.
When was the moment that you first realized that you wanted to pursue music?
"I’ve always worked towards making music my career, for as long as I can remember I’ve been convincing people that I would make it happen. I don’t know where that internal self-belief comes from but I’m so grateful to have it. I guess part of it is trying to prove doubters wrong, everyone has those early on and it’s something you have to get used to because it seems that the more doubters you convince and get onside as you pick up momentum, the more you seem to pick up along the way!"
In your own words, how would you describe your music?
"I’ve thought about this one a lot and currently I’d say it's atmospheric, cinematic, lyrical indie folk-pop... when I use the term ‘pop’ it's such a wide genre encompassing everything from the Beatles (Rock Pop), to Marvin Gaye (Soul pop), Bob Marley (Reggae pop) that it without a doubt encompasses what I do. If you’re writing music that connects with enough people, you’re writing some form of pop. It’s not a dirty word it just means ‘Popular'."
At one point when you first started this project, you retreated to your friend’s unfinished family home in the foothills of the French Alps to experiment with your music. How do you think this environment helped you as an artist?
"It gave me a distraction-free space where I could be simultaneously inspired and bored enough to find that spark. I wrote there at the end of an 18-month period where I'd banned myself from writing songs for my own projects until I was overflowing with ideas. After a while the ideas started to come out in my dreams... daydreams and night dreams. At this point I drove a car full of recording stuff to this house in the south of France in Autumn and locked myself away in one of the least finished rooms known as ’The Batcave’ ...because of the bats. In 7 days, I came up with new songs, the basis of a sound and the name of the project - Belle Mt [Beautiful Mountain]. It was a total relief after all of that time."
You recently released your song Loving You. Can you tell us a little about the song and the inspiration behind it?
"It happened in the middle of the night after an argument, a pretty heated one. My girlfriend slammed the bedroom door and went to sleep and I sat in our living room wide awake, eventually picking up my guitar and playing around some chords I had, just to get out of my own head a bit. The lyrics that came were based around what I wanted her to know at the point when I’d calmed down and escaped the heat of the moment, but now it was 4am and she had work the next day so all I could do was to write them in that song. I didn’t ever think it’d get released at that point, it just felt like therapy but then my producer Femke heard the song and loved it, we edited it together and added the falsetto bit at the end of the chorus and suddenly it was a real song."
What lyric of yours would you say you are most proud of/has stuck with you the most?
"I love the line "Lonely is her favorite place to be" from 'Hollow'. It somehow manages to be melancholic and dramatic and to paint an all too familiar picture in just 7 words. Those types of lines seem to just be delivered up by your conscience and because of that they’re certainly the purest. I also like “…oh I can’t even help myself, so how do I handle someone else?” from 'Loving You'… complete vulnerable desperation."
What do you hope people take from your music?
"I hope they connect with it and feel something. Sometimes that should be elation, sometimes reflection and sometimes sadness, those are all healthy emotions! I don’t really think about other people and what they may think when writing but I’m so grateful when the music connects."
Is there anything else that we can expect from you in the near future?
"There are two tracks coming in January and many, many more in the rest of 2018. Also, LIVE, we can’t wait to bring this music to you live!"