On the Rise
Matthew Hall

It was only when his sister gave him a CD player and introduced Hall to Ed Sheeran's 2011 debut + that he realised there's a truth that can lie in music - but he had to follow a different path first.

Hall started on violin, playing in a couple of school orchestras until he hit high school and decided it was time for a change. "Violin was not cool anymore," he laughs. "It's not an instrument you want to be carrying into school when you're trying to present as someone super cool!"

Picking up the drums instead, and playing in various bands, he followed this through to a degree, studying music at Edinburgh Napier University. When the world shifted in the spring of 2020, Hall found himself back at home, with his practical music course at a standstill. And, similarly, being stuck at home 24 hours a day with a drummer is no one's idea of peace so he move to the guitar. After scrolling TikTok and noticing a stream of faces all recording covers and takes on pop songs, Hall lit up at the idea - if they can do it, why can't I?

"I'm pretty sure it was within the first couple months, I'd gained just under 100,000 followers," he recalls. "Walking downstairs at my parents' house – because I was still 18 at the time – I said, 'oh my video got 200,000 views. And they'd were like, 'that's a lot…And then we all wondered, 'so, what does this mean?'," he laughs. Eventually, however, as the followers grew into the hundreds of thousands, so did the calls for Hall to add vocals to his videos.

"I don't know what it is about someone sitting with a guitar that just intrigues people to ask if they can sing," Hall laughs. "So the comments gradually got more and more: 'Can he sing? Can he sing? Can he sing?'"

Initially adamant that he wasn't going to introduce vocals to his videos, Hall decided to finally set an imaginary wild target of followers to hit and then he'd reconsider. Although the plan was meant to give him ample time to practice and hone his craft, in actuality, it was only a couple of months until that time came – and he hadn't practised at all.

"I posted it, and the first video got like over 300,000 views in the first day, and like 1000s of comments, and it kept going the next day," he marvels to me today. "Friends and family were messaging me like, Where have you been holding this voice? It was a nice moment but then there was also this thing in the back of my head going, Shit, I'm a singer now."

Despite his growing success, Hall returned to university – but in the back of his mind, he knew he'd established something he could build on. After a fallow period, he decided to post a new video: a cover of Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zero's "Home" which cemented his fate. It was a song chosen for no specific reason: "it was the whistle I'd heard, and people have told me I can whistle. That'll bring something different to the video," he explains.

He was flabbergasted at the response – and the video now sits at a cool 20 million views. His email, linked to his Instagram account, was inundated with industry shark looking for their next feed. Not to be shaken by this, Hall set about establishing a close-knit crew with a local manager the first onboard: "He reached out to me and was like, 'What's going on? Talk to me about it!' and he helped me filter through all the chaos," Hall fondly recalls.

When it came to filling the other roles required for any burgeoning artist, Hall put them through a rigorous testing process to establish who had his best interests at heart. He wanted people to help him build a career rather than just cash in: "a foundation of people that I trust to work with, and that I know pull the music out of me, instead of just writing it with me," he explains.

His debut EP Inconvenient, soon followed in 2023. Rounding out his sound, the title track came off the back of songwriting sessions in London - and his first fully-penned song. The rest of its offerings stick close to the playbook of heart-wrenched outpourings fuelled by six-string melodies.

His second EP Lucky Number 2 is released today and sees Hall carve out a wider space in music – one that expands upon his authenticity through songs like "Favourite Spoon" which reveal layered vocals, fiery production and haunted yearns of "I don't want to hurt anymore" offset against intricate verses.

Through it all, he's stringent on only allowing songs to blossom if he can play them on guitar. This second project is "the most proud I've been of my music in a long time," he tells me.

Hall's sturdy work ethic means he always knew where he wanted to take his music, even if his parents had their apprehensions. "When I dropped out of university to chase being an artist, it was quite a long discussion of 'Can you do both at the same time?' so I've had this built-in awareness of what the music industry can be like. My grandpa was a bagpiper for 40 years, but it was never his full-time job. So I was always cautious."

He does believes that things happen for a reason: "If I hadn't posted every day on TikTok for the first two months, I wouldn't be in this spot. So there's definitely a balance between hard work and luck."

He's also keenly aware that you can't rush things – especially a burgeoning music career. Flashes in pans – especially ones lit on TikTok – happen weekly. For Hall, music is more than just a fleeting moment of fame. He's determined to build something lasting – an authentic connection with listeners that grows with him. As he tells me: 'I want to see this as a long-term thing, like the artists I look up to, where people follow their journey for life.'"

Learning to write music is one thing but taking it from a small, rectangular screen to the stage is an entirely different challenge. Hall already had some experience from his younger years in bands as a drummer but his first solo show at Glasgow's King Tut's Wah Wah Hut was a trial by fire. "It was just me and my guitar. I did it fully acoustic," he recalls to me. "It was a really weird experience…doing the music bit was fine, I'm all good to stand there and sing my songs, but having to think of something to say in between tuning…!" he shakes his head at the memory now.

There's one particular moment that stands out – in horror – to Hall. At one of his early shows down in London, wanting to make a good impression, and feeling understandably flustered by it all since he didn't know who was in attendance. "I asked the entire audience what they'd had for lunch, and no one said a word for like, a good 30 seconds," he cringes until being saved by a pitying tech: "And then the sound engineer just shouted out 'A Greggs!'"