Houndmouth's Matt Myers: You Don't Have to Be Sad to Write Great Songs

Matt Myers, the 38-year-old lead singer and guitarist of Houndmouth, has released a new album, Lordy, on Dualtone Records — one of the centerpieces of the label's 25th anniversary year — and he wrote it from a place of contentment rather than pain.

The timing is unusual for an indie-rock songwriter. Myers married two years ago, his second marriage, and has two young daughters from his first. Falling in love, he says, reframed everything.

"That changed everything. To finally be accepted, no matter what, by my wife and my friends," Myers told Rolling Stone near the end of summer, walking up Main Street in Burlington, Vermont, ahead of an evening show opening for the Head and the Heart at Waterfront Park. "Because I've always shown the same thing to people, and to get that reciprocated, that fucking rocks."

What does Lordy sound like?

Myers describes the record as being about recognizing the face in the mirror and making peace with the eyes looking back at you. He now acknowledges the salt and pepper in his hair and the well-earned wrinkles of tours across America. It is a long way from his baby-faced appearance when he formed Houndmouth in 2011.

"It's not that you have to be sad to create, but I'm happy at home," Myers said. "Now when I'm writing, the song doesn't have to be grandiose. You don't have to overthink. You can just write, edit, and then let the song be what it is."

Where did the band come from?

Myers still lives in New Albany, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky — the geographical and musical crossroads that incubated numerous Louisville rock acts. He started out doing what he calls "the standard cover band thing" at spots like Huber's Winery and local bars.

"You play for four hours and your fingers are just toasted. And then you try and throw an original song in and it never works," Myers said. "So, eventually, I was just like, 'I'm going to get my friends together. We're only playing songs we write and we're not making any compromises.'"

The band's name came from an internet name generator. Things moved fast: a South by Southwest performance caught the ear of Rough Trade Records, a contract was signed, and the group was booked at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Newport Folk Festival. Their 2015 album Little Neon Limelight broke them nationally, powered by "Sedona" and "Darlin'."

"It really was just bearing our head and believing," Myers said of the rise. "It's not the path I thought it would be. At first, you're like, 'Oh yes, the rocket ship,' and it just doesn't work out like that, and I feel like I wouldn't be grounded much at all."

Later songs like "McKenzie" and "Miracle Mile," from the 2021 release Good for You, reinforced his musical DNA: shoegaze indie-rock wrapped in a thick thread of blues and alt-country. "I naturally tell stories and don't embellish stuff, [where] it's more personal," Myers said. "I didn't have the drive to make up elaborate, lavish stories."

Who is in the band now?

Myers is the only remaining founding member of Houndmouth. Keyboardist Caleb Hickman has been onboard since 2016, and Myers points to the blues element as the bridge to the group's earlier versions.

That night in Burlington, he sang "Sedona" — "Well hey little Hollywood/You're gone but you're not forgot/You got the cash but your credit's no good/You flipped the script, you shot the plot" — a lyric that, intentionally or not, maps exactly where Houndmouth stand today.

"I remember being in that 24-year-old mindset [where] you really just don't care about anything," Myers said, stopping in front of Burlington's City Hall Park before parting ways. "And getting back to that mindset now at 38, but also having way more wherewithal about it, and perspective. It seems more intentional this time."

With Lordy out on Dualtone and a nationwide tour underway, Myers suggests the second act may prove the more deliberate one.