Matthew Mayfield

Perseverance has always been at the heart of Matthew Mayfield’s music, but it’s in full focus here on his sixth full-length, PRIZEFIGHTER. It’s a dark, harrowing record that reflects Mayfield’s world today, while casting its eye back over his two-plus decades career. It was almost immediately after his band, Moses Mayfield, was dropped from a major label that the frontman began that solo career, and while the rejection left him deflated, he learned a valuable lesson that that’s stayed with him to this day: if you get knocked down, just get up again. That, in essence, is the prizefighter mentality. That’s been the driving force for Mayfield his whole career, and it’s kept him in good stead. After putting out his debut solo release, The Fire EP, in 2008, Mayfield got a call from the makers of Grey’s Anatomy, who wanted to use one of his songs on the series. He’s since had a number of other television syncs, but that first one really gave him a much-needed injection of self-belief. He kept trying to write, and kept failing. He did, however, have plenty of lyrics, after being encouraged by his therapist to write down and keep everything, whatever he thought of them. Later, when the music finally started flowing, he’d search through those crumpled up balls for lyrics. Mainly written during regular bouts of extreme insomnia and recorded with and produced by Paul Moak. PRIZEFIGHTER balances the identity of anti-hero singer-songwriter and rock’n’roll outlaw perfectly.