Matt Maeson has a new studio album called A Quiet and Harmless Living arriving on September 12, and he’s shared the first single, “Downstairs.”
Maeson has scored several hit songs in the past, including a pair of No. 1 tracks: “Cringe” and “Hallucinogenics.”
On the new album, the singer-songwriter chronicles the recent changes in his life, including getting married, moving from Austin to Nashville, and becoming a father. The album channels the complicated feelings, uneasy thoughts, and self-doubt into arresting anthems anchored by relatable and raw emotion. “It was very healing to write this,” Maeson shares. “I was going through a lot. So, A Quiet and Harmless Living is about deconstruction and figuring out who I am now as a person in a completely different season.”
“I was trying to appease everyone by juggling being a good father, husband, and artist,” he continues. “I was failing at all of it, because I was doing too much. It broke me down to a point where it came out in the lyrics. I was writing about all of the ups and downs of fatherhood, marriage, and a career in an industry that demands all of your time and punishes you for the time you don’t give. There was a whiplash of emotions, but fatherhood gave me the punch in the face I needed like, ‘Your job isn’t the only thing that matters anymore’. It actually took the pressure off. My career could fail, but I’d still have the best thing in the world: my son. It gave me the ability to be brutally truthful.”
“Downstairs” echoes these feelings, offering personal insight into Maeson’s changing life.
“Downstairs was one of the first songs I wrote for this album. It was written out of exhaustion and my tendency to isolate myself when things are hard. I’d just had my son, and I was having a very hard time with it. I found myself racing through the days to get everything that had to be done over with so I could go isolate myself downstairs. I ended up having a few buddies come over months after I’d started the song and they helped me finish it in that very same room downstairs.”
Maeson will be hitting the road for a 42-date tour from late September through early November. The tour will stop in cities across North America and Europe, including Austin, Los Angeles, Toronto, Nashville, Brooklyn, Dublin, Paris, Munich and Amsterdam.
Watch Matt Maeson’s Music Video for ‘Downstairs’
‘A Quiet and Harmless Living’ Track Listing
1. A Good Start
2. In My Arms
3. Cursive (feat Manchester Orchestra)
4. Downstairs
5. Halfway to Whole
6. Everlasting
7. Split Personality Blues
8. Stubborn as Religion
9. Year After Year
10. All My Wars
MATT MAESON TOUR DATES
North America 2025
September 26: Dallas, TX – House of Blues
September 27: Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
September 29: Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
October 1: San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park
October 2: Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
October 4: San Francisco, CA – Regency Ballroom
October 5: Eugene, OR – The McDonald Theatre
October 7: Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
October 8: Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
October 10: Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
October 11: Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
October 16: Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
October 18: Minneapolis, MN – First Ave.
October 19: Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
October 21: Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
October 22: Toronto, ON – History
October 24: Montreal, QC – Theatre Beanfield
October 25: New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
October 27: Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
October 28: Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore
October 30: Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
November 1: Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle
November 3: Charlottesville, VA – The Jefferson Theater
November 4: Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre
November 5: Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
November 7: Boston, MA – House of Blues
November 8: Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
