The latest edition of The Cocoon Project welcomes rising star Matt Joe Gow back to MOTH on Friday 2 July for his first show on Australian soil since you-know-what happened.

“I managed to keep relatively creative through the period,” Matt shares of how he spent 2020’s lockdown isolation. “I released a single with The Weeping Willows called Too Far To Go that went to number one on the Amrap chart, then mixed and finished this new album, from which we are going to play some songs live at the MOTH show for the first time ever.”

Matt’s career was gathering momentum pre-Covid, his fourth album Break, Rattle And Roll collected Best Country Album at the 2019 Music Victoria Awards and he hit the road with his band, The Dead Leaves, playing some highlight festival slots. After recording a new album entirely in the band’s own studio for the first time, Matt booked a 30-date tour that would take in Australia, New Zealand and Europe and then flew to Indonesia to recharge his batteries for a couple of months. Enter Covid and then Matt basically got trapped in Bali. He was forced to mix his upcoming album remotely.

While in hotel quarantine upon his eventual return to New Zealand, Matt also wrote enough material for yet another whole new record.

For this upcoming MOTH show, Matt will reunite with two members of The Dead Leaves to perform with his bandmates for the first time since travel restrictions became a thing.

“We’ll do a trio version, which we’ve done before at Music On The Hill,” Matt explains, “and it works really well, because the focus is on the three-part harmonies and some of the subtle nuances in the songwriting that maybe don’t get the spotlight as much when you have a five- or six-piece backing band.”

Matt Joe Gow. Music on the Hill (MOTH), Friday 2 July. Red Hill Community Pavilion from 7pm.
Tickets and more info available HERE.