An Okotoks musician and teacher has put some of his own work out in the world.
Matthew Ellis released Floorboards on July 19 and Ashes on Aug. 11 on most streaming platforms.
“Floorboards came from a change in perspective,” said Ellis. “I was wrestling with what I believe in, what I think of the world.
“Everything came from this change in perspective, changing ideas and faith, and instead of leaning into things I can’t see and don’t know, leaning into things I do know, so my wife, my kids, my friends."
Currently a music teacher at the Foothills Composite High School and Alberta High School of Fine Arts, Ellis has been making music most of his life.
The second single, Ashes, was actually a renewed piece Ellis wrote earlier in life.
“It’s actually an old song of mine, I think I wrote this one a couple of years after I graduated high school,” he said. “It’s all about looking back at the town you grew up in – which is Okotoks – and the opening line is ‘lying in the ashes of my hometown.’
“It’s all about how we move on and things change and grow up and you live somewhere, and you come back and this mix of how things are completely different after you’ve been gone for a number of years, and after a closer look it’s all exactly the same.”
A version of the song had originally been released by his band Featherstone around 2009, where the new release is a much simpler acoustic arrangement.
The songwriter has a few more up his sleeve, with another single coming in September.
“This one is called Come Now Sleep, which is probably my favourite song I’ve ever written,” Ellis said. “That was probably written in 2012 or so, and there’s a version of that that also came out when I played in this harder rock band, and I released that song with them.”
Originally written for an acoustic rendition, but recorded with a band at the time, he always envisioned getting back to basics.
“Part of it is this is how I first envisioned the song: just acoustic guitar and vocals,” Ellis said.
“Floorboards is a four-piece band and I recorded everything but the drums, because I’m not a good drummer.”
Floorboards and Ashes can be found on major streaming services, such as YouTube and Spotify.
