Music Helps, But Some Things Just Don't Need Singing About In Public

For years now Kristian Matsson - under the guise of The Tallest Man On Earth - has been concocting riveting music using primarily just his voice and an acoustic guitar, so it surprised many when his intensely personal fourth album Dark Bird Is Home (2015) arrived rife with synth loops, strings and prominent backing vocals. He explains that this move away from sparsity was more by accident than design.

"I didn't really have a plan," Matsson reflects. "I'd just come out of a divorce and I ran straight into the studio and let things just happen. It came from the heart - I didn't treat it like a career move or anything like that, I just needed to make music so I went in there and just did it. It needed to come out in that way, and it's how it ended up and I'm happy for that."

"I'd just come out of a divorce and I ran straight into the studio and let things just happen."

Matsson even censored himself at some junctures for being too personal. "At one point I realised that I was writing stuff that was not what I should be singing about in public - it just got too graphic of my personal life," he admits. "I don't think I need to do that, because it's a pretty common thing to sing about on a record and I had friends at the time who were also going through separations and stuff like that, so I erased the really super personal stuff."

Matsson attests that this creative process was helpful, but perhaps not in the way he was expecting. "It was helpful that it took up time," he laughs. "It diverted me from thinking about it, though I don't think that songs heal. I talked about this with my ex-wife [Amanda Bergman] because we're still great friends and she's one of the best artists I know, and she agreed that the songs don't really help to heal, they're not really therapeutic in that way.

"But for sure it's great to just get it out of you - that's what I've been doing since I was a teenager and I had anxieties and weird energy that I needed to steer towards music and creating things, and when I did that the energy turned into good energy. In that sense it makes good use of that pent-up energy that arrives during times of turmoil to channel that into making music."

And with Matsson now touring with a full band he can't wait to revisit Australia, particularly the Sydney Opera House. "I was so excited after the show last time but there was no one there to celebrate it with," he smiles. "In the green room there's a panoramic window where you can look out over the Harbour Bridge and there's a massive Steinway piano but I was in there by myself! To go there with the guys so I don't have to high five myself in the mirror is going to be great."