Matt McFarlane
Bare Bones (2009)
2023
Welcome! This is a New Section of my website dedicated to my non-children's music. I'm currently working on an album and I look forward to sharing some new stuff soon!
BIO
Matt McFarlane sings in the car at the top of his lungs. He also plays alternative rock 'n' roll. Inspired by simplicity, he plays without many effects or a band, yet still manages to rock your socks. Combine his hard-edged playing style, a powerful set of vocal cords and his poetic lyrics and you get a unique and intimate raw-musical experience. Waaay back in 2009, Matt released a self-recorded album titled "Bare Bones” full of acoustic rock anthems and poetic heartfelt songs. One review called it a fascinating and unique musical offering:
"Frederictonian Matt McFarlane had the fire of music light within him in the 1990s. The spark was rock and alternative music of that decade. This spark is the antecedent of a very raw, aggressive way of acoustic guitar playing, singing, and song construction. That fascinating combination - heavy '90s rock at the core of solo acoustic singer/songwriter craft - makes McFarlane's entirely self-written, self-recorded, self-mixed, and self-produced album Bare Bones a fascinating and unique musical offering. The fusion works for a few reasons. Most importantly, McFarlane is at the core a decent songwriter. The 11 tracks that make up the so-aptly-named Bare Bones are diverse; their power has the dual weaponry of good lyric writing and a furious delivery on vocals and guitar. The whole thing is a stirring one-person offering of the roots of man's musical soul, delivered by a hitherto-unknown local musician who has the skills to make a unique offering work well." - Wilfred Langmaid, The Daily Gleaner, Nov 21st, 2009
Following Matt’s album release, he won second place in a local Singer/Songwriter competition, and then some big new changes happened in Matt’s life… He got married, moved to another province and became a father! These changes led to a new musical direction; children’s music! Since then, under the alias of Matt the Music Man, he released three children’s albums and has had much success. In 2017 he was nominated for Children’s Artist on the Year by Music Nova Scotia and again in 2018 where he won the title. In 2021 he was nominated for Children’s Entertainer of the Year by the ECMA’s. As fantastic as this has been for Matt, he’s realized that it’s also time for him to go back to his roots. It’s time to build on the “adult” music career he began so long ago.
Today, Matt is bursting at the seams to finally bring his best songs (that he’s been working on for the past 10+ years) to the public with his first professionally recorded “adult” album. The album will be a combination of alternative rock and acoustic songs, all with positive and thoughtful messages. His passion for music is what continues to drive him and when you see him perform, it shows! The future looks exciting!