Artist: Phoebe Hunt
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Nothing Else Matters”
Album: Nothing Else Matters
Release Date: July 28, 2023
Label: Thirty Tigers
In Their Words: “This song originally came from a title that Maya DeVitry came up with on a co-writing session at my house. We were sharing a cup of tea and I was lamenting the feeling of not being able to call up the guys in my band just to jam. We all used to live in Brooklyn together, but now we’ve all moved to different places in the country. I was sharing with her that I hadn’t realized that a part of me was grieving for that. Maya took those emotions and filtered them into the first verse of the song. When she played me that first verse, I started crying. Zooming out, it feels like it’s a ‘coming of age’ song.
“These songs [on Nothing Else Matters] have never even been played with a full band. It was really a different process to work from the inside out instead of from the outside in. I just realized that there is this tiny little world inside of me, my own little reality. In the past few years, I have gotten to really spend time there, and this album is my way of sharing that tiny little world with others.
“I came to see that my voice and fiddle are enough, that I am enough. And that was our rule: no bells, no whistles, no overdubs, no frills. I believed that standing on my own two feet, with the instrument I’ve given thirty years of my life to, singing the songs that come from my heart can be enough. And I hope this record can give that kind of permission to the listener, allowing them to find their truest expression, no matter what their limitations or circumstances look like.” — Phoebe Hunt
Photo Credit: Nicola Gell