I first became aware of Matt York’s music when he released his Americana album Boston, Texas in 2016. I also write and play music, and we had a few friends in common. We played on a couple of bills together, and I got to know a bit more of his history, how he had been part of Boston’s rock scene years before and had quit for a while until he got the bug again. He released a new album, Behind the Bars, in 2017, and it felt like a good time to catch up and explore that history on the mics. His hiatus is something that interests me – how does the artist define their art, and how does it define them? What does it do to someone to be away from their creativity? I explored that a bit in EP35 with comedian Billy D Washington last year.

We talked about that, and about how a relatively settled and happy guy writes a full album about loneliness and heartbreak in which most of the action takes places in a variety of bars. The new album has a lot of different sounds – I hear everything from Built to Spill to Billy Joel. That leads us to Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Steve Earle, and all over the map. York is also a huge comedy fan, and we have a discussion toward the end of the podcast about how the music and comedy scenes in Boston compare. You can find out more about York at MattYorkMusic.com.

As always, we have a featured track of the week after the conversation. This week, it’s a song from Prateek called “Emma.” It is his latest single, and was recently featured on Vanyaland: Music & Beyond. Prateek is a fantastic writer and performer, and you’ll definitely be hearing more from him. You can find out more about him at PrateekSongs.com.

You can listen to and download the podcast from the player below, or subscribe/review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Enjoy!