Releasing today! Realign is an instrumental album by local artist, Matt Penny. We talked to Matt and asked for some information about his album and honestly, he said it best:

“Realign has been the longest project I’ve ever worked on. I started initially in late 2015. I realize now I was way too ambitious when it came to my expectations. I had released some stuff in high school, but I wanted something that sounded a little more professional. I had been in recording studios before and thought you basically just turned knobs until it sounded good. I had no idea that mixing/mastering/engineering music was a whole other level of skill. It’s an art in itself, just like song writing.

So, for the majority of three years, I spent most of my time trying to educate myself on what went into recording a project like this. I watched thousands of hours of tutorials. I read as many articles as I could, looking for anything that could help me out. It got to the point where I was so burnt out, and just unhappy. I was disappointed that my songs weren’t sounding like my favorite records. Once I finally realized that my year of internet education wasn’t going to compare to someone who had been doing this for 30 years, I just thought “I’m going to make it to the best of my ability, and that’ll be good for me.”

I’ve always listened to a lot of different genres of music. I love everything from Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne, to John Mayer and Katy Perry, to death metal. I love it all. I think Realign plays to that. It has elements of pop, punk, metal, and rock. I wrote songs that I wanted to write and wasn’t concerned whether all of the songs “fit” together or not.

Although the music is instrumental, I tried to keep the songs interesting, but I wanted them to “flow”. The song titles also tell a story. “Outset” (another word for “start”) was the first song I wrote, back in 2015. I wanted to write music that corresponded with chapters in my life. “The Fear” is the heaviest song I’ve ever written, and reminded me of a time where I wasn’t sure what direction I was going in. It’s very aggressive, and it has brief melodic parts. You could compare that to just feeling like your life is in turmoil. “Back to the Start” is the feeling I had once I got over “The Fear“. I love early 2000s pop punk, and this was my homage to those songs. It’s my ‘hey, it might be rough now, but it’s going to be ok’ song. “Save Your Day” is the second song I wrote. I got the inspiration from wanting to be a positive influence in people’s lives, and having the ability to make someone happier, which is where the title comes from.

On any project I’ve ever recorded, I’ve always put a mellower song as the closing track. I wanted to keep up with that tradition. You always hear the expression “All hope is gone”, but I’m at such a good place in my life right now, I just kept thinking “All Hope is Here“. To me, it feels very euphoric. Very positive. I think the title and music fit very well together. This project is my experiences of the last 10 years. Instead of telling the story verbally, I’m telling it musically. “

You buy his album here:

• Amazon
• iTunes
• Spotify
• Google Play

Also look for the album on Pandora and Apple Music!