[Cover photo credit to Jason Tippett]
Los Angeles singer/songwriter project Matthew & The Mainstream has released a video for “Can’t Believe (You’re Living With Him)” from the album Rom Core, which will arrive on January 13th, 2023. The album title takes its name from Matthew Lurie’s “affection for rom coms, art that’s centered on love and lovelessness, and the realization that few artists today speak plainly about matters of the heart”. The new song features Reggie Watts of The Late Late Show With James Corden.
The new album was recorded over the course of three years, from Spring 2018 to Fall 2021 at Thundershirt Studios, in Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA and was Produced by Thundershirt (Scott Seiver and Tim Young), mastered by John Spiker, and engineered and mixed by Scott Seiver. It was culled from 25 song demos that Matthew Lurie brought in to workshop and recorded in small segments in between touring and the pandemic.
Lurie has a particular interest in the role of session musicians and how some of the great records of previous eras were made, so after moving to LA in 2008, he began attending concerts to find the session musician all stars of the city. The result was 2012’s Girl Next to The Girl Next Door, which featured the rhythm section of Tim Young (David Sylvian, Beck, Fiona Apple, case/lang/veirs), Scott Seiver (Pete Yorn, Tenacious D, Tears for Fears) and Christopher Thomas (Brian Blade Fellowship). This laid the groundwork for their followup, 2023’s Rom Core.
Recorded just before and during the pandemic, Rom Core expands the Mainstream palette to include string quartet, horn sections, and buzz saw. The album features contributions from Larry Goldings (James Taylor, Scary Pockets), Reggie Watts (The Late Late Show with James Corden), Sebastian Steinberg (Blake Mills, Sara Watkins), Isaiah Gage (FINNEAS, John Legend, Van Dyke Parks) and Steve Scalfati (Ginuwine, The Long Winters).
The next Lurie projects include more composing for film and TV, and an already-in-the-works followup to Rom Core.
