It’s always nice to take your mind off what’s bothering you.
Life is too tough to endure without some kind of enjoyment at the end of the day. Yet, when does that enjoyment become a distraction? A tool of avoidance rather than relaxation? When does that positive relationship with your chosen activity turn for the worse?
Distractions are the primary theme of Mat Elliott’s newest single, “Video Games”, an insight into the small escapes from regular life that can occasionally turn into habits.
Elliott’s soulful indie rock has garnered him attention and praise on his last EP, South Endings, which recently won New Artist Recording of the Year at the Nova Scotia Music Awards. This new single carries forward a similar tone to some of the tracks on that album, mirroring introspective reflections with an upbeat, yacht-rock feel.
“I feel like I’ve been going through a lot of burnout over the last year,” Elliott tells The Coast while walking home from work in the rain. “I’ve been writing songs and I’ve been so busy, and I felt like I turned to video games as a distraction, as something to like, take my mind off of how busy I was, and how hard it was to be so busy.”
Burnout impacts everyone, says Elliott, and we often turn to these distractions to find comfort. Although that process can be healing, his new song also shows the other side of the coin. The first verse indicates as much: “That’s the thing, I think I’m stuck/ I’m a pilgrim of habits, and I’ve played enough/ Hackin and slashin until I win this game/ Running from the mess I made.”
“I wanted to have that kind of duality feeling of like, I’m drinking or I’m playing a video game. I’m enjoying myself. I’m having fun, and then the truth would be where the lyrics come in, and like, I’m distracting myself from what I really feel,” Elliott explains. “So I was really trying to centre the music to be energetic and happy, and then the lyrics to kind of be that, you know, how burnout cuts through in those moments, or the next day you wake up after you drank the night before and you feel horrible.”
Achieving this duality is the keys-focused tune bringing a sense of nostalgia, one that Elliott has played up in his marketing of the single, dubbing over old commercials such as the legendary Atari Jaguar ad spot, or even with the cover art of his work: a landscape of rolling green hills sparkling under a hazy purple sky, brought together with the image of a seesaw. Even the title graphic for the single cover uses an Atari-esque font.
Of course, as Elliott says, video games are only one possible distraction. Within the song, he also discusses gambling and drinking with friends, vices that are, of course, fun in moderation but can easily slip out of control if that sense of burnout goes too far.
The way we distract ourselves is only one perspective of burnout from Elliott’s upcoming record, of which he chose to share scarce details at this moment. What he did say was that the 12-track album will centre around the idea of burnout, and “Video Games” is one piece of that grander investigation of how we deal with our problems.
Elliott’s songwriting elevates these concepts into relatable fissures that, with only a glance, we can find ourselves in. On South Endings, those concepts centred around lost love, and his prowess to deliver on those themes earned him his Nova Scotia Music Award. While he was on tour with Daniel James McFadyen during the awards show, Elliott felt the shock from his hotel room.
“I woke up in the Super 8 motel at like 11 o’clock, or 11:30, and my phone had just kind of blown up, and I was so surprised and excited. I really wasn’t expecting it at all,” he says.
While his individual accomplishment should certainly be celebrated, Elliott attributes the success he’s had to the friends and collaborators he’s had along the way. In particular with “Video Games,” he says Jack Murtha (of the band POSTFUN) contributed guitar work, with his three recorded riffs all making it into the final track. He also thanks musicians Tim Hatcher, Avery Dakin, and Mat Hughes for their input.
“I feel so grateful for the community that we all have here in Nova Scotia,” says Elliott. “I’ve talked to so many people across the country, and I don’t think that anywhere is this scene quite as supportive, caring, and kind, and just all around great as it is in Nova Scotia.”
Mat Elliott’s newest single “Video Games” is out now across all streaming platforms.