by Walter Robert
Photography By Nicholas O'Donnell
Matt Hansen moves like someone who’s learned to hold joy and pain in the same breath.
When we meet in Salt Lake City, he's between tour stops – his biggest yet. A glance at the crowd confirms what the numbers already show: he’s gaining listeners, but truly, he’s building a community. The kind that sings along to every word like they’ve lived the lyrics. Because maybe they have.
“There’ve been so many new faces this year,” he says with joy. “It’s been beautiful seeing people show up and sing along. It feels like something’s growing, and growing strong.”
That strength doesn’t come from spectacle. It comes from sincerity. His music is an ever-evolving blend of pop, folk, and rock, carrying a kind of emotional precision. Songs like “LET EM GO” have struck a chord, especially for listeners navigating their own healing.
“I think I needed that message for myself,” he reflects. “That moment of saying ‘You need to let them go’—it helped me move forward. And when we recorded it, I wanted it to feel hopeful. Like letting go isn’t just an ending; it’s the beginning of something lighter.”
That same sense of clarity comes through in “lifejacket,” a song about finding steadiness in the midst of uncertainty.
“I’ve always had this instinct to carry weight for other people,” he says. “But I’ve had to learn to check in with myself. You can be there for others, but you can’t pour from an empty cup. That song reminded me to stay afloat, too.”
Even in more reflective moments, Hansen speaks with a grounded kind of optimism. He credits much of his calm to the natural rhythms of his upbringing in Northern California.
“I grew up near the ocean, and it’s still where I go when I need to reset. There’s something about being near water—it helps me put things in perspective. That sense of scale, of calm, definitely makes its way into the music.”
While his sound is often described through genres, what Matt is really shaping is a feeling, something honest, intentional, and free of pretense. His creative process, he says, stays close to what first inspired him to write in the first place.
“I try not to let social media guide what I create,” he explains. “The songs people connected with early on came from a real place, and I want to protect that. Being independent helps with that too. My team understands the vision, and we trust each other.”
That trust extends to the sonic palette he’s built over time, a landscape that pulls from the emotional scale of Coldplay, the timeless storytelling of Fleetwood Mac, the clarity of Adele, and the energy of Michael Jackson.
“I’ve always loved artists who blend feeling with sound,” he says. “I want the songs to feel lived-in, but also open enough for someone else to see their own story in them.”
That openness shows in the way he talks about his evolution, less about changing who he is, more about stepping more fully into it.
“At the start, it’s easy to second-guess everything,” he says.
“But I’ve grown a lot more confident in what I make. The key for me has been: do I love this? And if I do, someone else probably will too.”
Even “LET EM GO,” which became an anthem for release, began with a simple idea: write something brighter.
“I’d only put out sad songs up until that point,” he laughs. “So I set out to write something uplifting. And what came out was this track about how the hard things can help you finally make a move. Sometimes you need to feel everything to let it all go. That’s where that song came from.”
We wrap by talking about tomorrow, a word that holds real meaning at tmrw. For Hansen, the idea of what comes next is more than a lyric or a concept. It’s a direction.
“There’s hope in tomorrow,” he says, not as a statement but as a choice.
“Lately I’ve been writing more from that place. I used to sit in the heaviness of things, but now I’m interested in where healing leads. That shift, that sense of a better tomorrow, is something I want to keep exploring.”
It’s not a finish line. It’s a mindset. A creative life built on presence, possibility, and the quiet courage to keep going. That’s what Matt Hansen is making space for. With every song, every stage, and every note aimed forward.
Make sure to follow Matt Hansen on Instagram.
