Power in Vulnerability: Matilda Mann Releases “You Look Like You Can’t Swim”
Photo by Caity Krone
Matilda Mann explores her emotional depths through stripped back instruments and a warm energy that radiates her latest EP release You Look Like You Can’t Swim. Throughout the intimate five tracks, Mann’s heavy influence of female folk artists and acoustic roots is best showcased through her multifaceted lyricism.
Even though the title of the project “you look like you can’t swim” is a cheeky insult towards certain men, Mann finds vulnerability in the humor and embraces cathartic personal experiences and brutally honest reflections.
“When I started writing music, it was all heavily based on female folk artists. I wrote most of my songs just me and a guitar and all I wanted to add was harmonies and strings,” Mann says. “Over the past few years, I’ve loved progressing and experimenting with different types of genres and musical instruments and working with other musicians and producers, but I've had such an urge to create a small group of songs that feel so simple, vulnerable, romantic and emotional. The kind of songs I would’ve dreamed of making and releasing when I was 16.”
Photo by Caity Krone
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. You recently released your EP You Look Like You Can’t Swim. For any readers who aren’t familiar and would love to get to know you and your project more, what inspired your EP?
[MATILDA]: I wanted to do something more stripped back for this project. What I started doing at the beginning was minimal production and a lot of live instruments. I wanted to create a bit of a group of those that could be played on a pretty day.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What was the inspiration behind the title of the EP?
[MATILDA]: I actually first heard it as an insult towards specific men saying you look like you can’t swim and I found it so funny. Saying you look like you can’t swim is such an interesting way to describe someone. I look like I can’t swim. It was a lovely little kindness album.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What did the creative process look like for You Look Like You Can’t Swim?
[MATILDA]: They were written out over a year ago and I wrote “You Look Like You Can’t Swim” and pasted the rest of the songs together and they had a similar vibe. I hate recording in a proper studio and I really like going into people’s living rooms. I don’t like the pressure of spending money on a studio.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What inspires your creative style and artistic persona?
[MATILDA]: I love going to live gigs. I think that's what starts up a lot of thought processes and inspires me to write particular types of songs I haven't done before, and movies and characters in those movies.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What was the hardest song for you to write off the EP, either lyrically or emotionally?
[MATILDA]: “The Day That I Met You” took a while because we didn’t really know where we wanted to go musically with it or the bridge. I haven’t written a song like that before which was almost like a waltz. It took a while to get the lyrics to match the guitar chords.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song and why do you love it so much? Is there a certain lyric, message or element that you gravitate towards the most?
[MATILDA]: I personally like “You Look Like You Can't Swim” the most because I just love the string arrangement and when I write songs that aren't about love, I'm proud of myself for that. I also really enjoyed doing the music video for that one and everything came out really effortlessly with it. It feels like an effortless journey.
[UNPUBLISHED]: The music video for “You Look Like You Can’t Swim” is beautifully done. What was your experience filming it and what was the inspiration?
[MATILDA]: I had a whole storyboard and sketches that I wanted to execute. I knew we were gonna be filming it in Brighton, so we actually stumbled on a lot of things that day, so we never planned to do the binoculars scene where I'm on the little pier. I loved doing all of it. I had an amazing team who have filmed videos before and I've never directed something before, so I did have a lot of help but it was a lot of fun to see. Everything I had a vision for came to life.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You experiment heavily with different genres throughout all your work. If you had to choose, which one is your favorite to tap into the most?
[MATILDA]: Probably folk, or I really like classical music as well. I really want to try and incorporate a choral piece and in my album that's going to come up at some point
[UNPUBLISHED]: Have you experimented more or have taken more risks, either sonically or lyrically, in You Look Like You Can’t Swim since your last 2021 EP release Sonder?
[MATILDA]: I've never had a string arrangement before so that was a lot of fun. I really like string arrangements, and I think they sound a bit more me. They're a little bit more of a step up in terms of professionality.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How do you think you’ve matured artistically since the Sonder release?
[MATILDA]: I feel a bit more comfortable the way I'm sitting in life. When I was working on Sonder, I was 21 and the pandemic just finished and I was all over the place. I think this EP feels a bit more settled like I do. I think it's the beginning of getting ready for bigger things.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Say if someone hasn’t heard of your music yet, which song would you show them that best encapsulates your sound and artistic growth?
[MATILDA]: “Paper Mache World,” it starts with a lot of harmonies and it's chill.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song to perform live and why?
[MATILDA]: “Bloom” is really fun. It's one of my easiest songs to sing and play, and it's my most happy song even though it's not necessarily happy. I was happy when I wrote it. It just feels very fun.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Unpublished?
[MATILDA]: I'm writing and recording a lot for an album for next year, so that's very exciting and at the moment, I'm really loving it and trying to figure out what songs I want to put in it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What can listeners expect from this new era of music?
[MATILDA]: Maybe a little bit more of things I haven't done before. Maybe not just indie-folk songs, and a little bit more of an experimental energy, but not crazy.
