Singer-songwriter Matt Maltese has shared the video for ‘Happy Birthday’ to coincide with Friday’s (16th) release of his sixth studio album Hers via The Orchard. The cinematic visuals were directed by Matthew Dillon Cohen and shot on 35mm film in Taft, California.
‘Happy Birthday’ is a mediation on all the feelings that can be held in such a simple exchange between two people. Maltese explains: “I grew up when writing ‘happy birthday’ 108 times a year peoples Facebook pages without any punctuation was socially acceptable behaviour, and I’ve always thought how interesting it is looking back.. such a plain message but always so much unsaid between senders and recipients in those two words. The socially conventional shell for a million other feelings. And I think in break ups, the ‘happy birthday’ text is the last thing to go. Sometimes it goes on years longer than anything else, and that’s fascinating, I think. Reflecting on this, it started to really interest me to get that into a song. A light title, but all the anguish underneath the surface. Maybe someday, people all over the world will joyfully chant ‘I’d break my legs in half..’ when the cake comes out. Or not.”
Watch the video for ‘Happy Birthday’ HERE
Listen to "Hers" HERE
Order / Save "Hers" HERE
Hers arrives as Maltese’s most insular and intimate project to date, and his first fully self-produced effort since his second album Krystal. Maltese has long drawn from the tried and tested artistic wellspring of romance and heartbreak, but the songs that make up Hers find him reflecting upon a serious long-term relationship and the more grown-up complexities of love through the rearview, with the quiet artfulness for which he has become so beloved. Hers exists in a twilight world, pairing heartfelt songwriting and dry witticism with the gentle quiver of strings, a flourish of woodwind or the sound of a creaking old piano.
“I’ve written a lot of music that comes from a place of infatuation, but this record was written on reflection of a much longer-term love. The complications and wonderful roads that goes through and the more informed heartaches that come out of it. I got to really reflect and slave over it... It’s a bit like having a year to write a really important email,” he says.
“I’m British enough to feel a slight shame of writing so many love songs in the past,” he adds. “Maybe the more interesting thing on paper would have been to go to the other side of the world and write a concept album about prehistoric creatures or something, but at the end of the day, we’re all human, and love and people are things we’re all continually affected by. It’s my job as a songwriter to excavate the things in my life, and that’s what I was going through.”
This week Matt embarks on a tour of intimate record store instore shows in support of Hers, with events taking place in London, Liverpool, Nottingham, Oxford and Brighton over the coming week. Later this year Maltese embarks on his Tour For You My Whole Life run, playing the biggest venues of his career across North America, UK and Europe from September through to December. The 46-date tour commences in Nashville, stopping by major venues including Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre and London’s Roundhouse, before concluding his European run in Barcelona in mid-December. Full list of dates below, tickets are on sale now and available via matt-maltese.com.
Having first established himself as a songwriter with a knack for dry one-liners and a keen eye for self-deprecation, Maltese released debut album Bad Contestant back in 2018. The three albums that followed over the next five years cemented his position as one of the UK’s finest young songwriters. Critics were unanimous; Matt Maltese’s piano harmonies, playful approach and quintessentially British wit saw ‘the mundane transformed into fantasy’.
Since the release of 2023’s Driving Just To Drive, Maltese has been busy in multiple behind the scenes roles, lending his songwriting abilities to a number of fellow artists, and establishing indie label Last Recordings On Earth. Taking a slightly different approach to his own craft, last year saw Matt share covers album Songs That Aren’t Mine, a collection of some of his favourite songs, recorded at home with guest features by friends including Dora Jar and Liana Flores. Elsewhere, he made his theatre songwriting debut, composing all original music and lyrics for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s winter production of Twelfth Night, described by The Observer as “inspired… perfectly balances Shakespeare’s dramatic polarities".
Late 2024 also saw Maltese embark on a headline tour of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, following live runs through the US, Europe and the UK, including his biggest show to date at the Wiltern, Los Angeles, and a sold-out show at London’s Brixton Electric. His global appeal as an artist is undeniable, with sold-out shows from Sydney to Sao Paolo and Jakarta to Tokyo to his name.
"Hers" tracklist
1. Arthouse Cinema
2. Buses Replace Trains
3. Happy Birthday
4. Anytime, Anyplace, Anyhow
5. Always Some MF
6. Cure For Emptiness
7. Holiday From Yourself
8. Pined For You My Whole Life
9. Eternal Darkness Of The Spotless Mind
10. Tangled
11. Everybody’s Just As Crazy As Me
Matt Maltese 2025 EU Tour Dates
Tickets HERE
- 1 December – La Cigale, Paris
- 3 December – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
- 4 December – Tivoli Vrendenburg, Utrecht
- 6 December – Kantine, Cologne
- 7 December – Metropol, Berlin
- 9 December – WUK, Vienna
- 11 December – Legend Club, Milan
- 13 December – Razzmatazz 2, Barcelona