Belle Mt. [spoken bell-mont] is a project conceived by songwriter and lead singer Matt Belmont during a period of withdrawal from public performances and releases between 2014 and 2016. During this time, he dedicated himself to introspective periods of songwriting development, beginning a musical and geographical journey as he wrote, co-wrote and produced.

I have spoken with Belle Mt. before about previous releases but, today, we meet again to chat about the latest and greatest!

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

It’s great to hear new music from you! How have things been since we last spoke?

Hello again old pals! I’ve just got back to London from Nashville, we must stop missing each other out there. Things have been great, we have a ton of new music coming and have been very busy but its all behind the scenes stuff that isn’t quite as fun as playing or releasing but very necessary I’m told! I feel like the team we have now is a very strong one filled with great people, building that takes time and care in this industry! I’m excited to be back with Origins.

How is your new release, Origins, different from your previous releases? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

It’s a different vibe, way higher energy and a good track for summer. We let Chris loose to really hit hard on drums for this one and Ben plays such interesting rhythmic guitar parts that it’s resulted in something that sits more in a rock-pop genre than the ambient orchestral and cinematic energy of our last release Hydra. That variation is what this project is all about though, I don’t want to be typecast and forced into making every song soft and friendly in order to appeal to a coffee shop playlist because although yes, that’s where a huge amount of streams come from for independent artists, once you start to worry about that kind of thing you kill the art. The thread linking Hydra and Origins lies in the emotion and lyrical approach, that’ll always be there.

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

New music is a busy space right now, if you sit in one genre and play it safe you’ll be more likely to have short term success in the streaming world (See coffee shop playlists) but it feels like streaming success for artists is a bit like Youtube success is for comedians or film makers, its one piece of a puzzle and it has a ceiling which you must break through if you want to have a wider reach than just one platform. You can reach a ton of people with social media but your audience is also wading through a storm of a thousand others trying to do the same so it’s difficult to even get people to click that play button which is all we ask in the end. Playlisters at big streaming services and radio stations hold the keys to a wider reach, but then I don’t feel there is a formula for success with them so the one thing I rely on is that a truly great song can’t be held back and once you’ve put it out there it will fly one way or another. The thing we’re realising is that in live shows people are connecting with our music and they’re starting to sing these songs back to us and that tells me we’re on the right path, so we just want to get out and play!

What was the last song you listened to?

I’m listening to a Spotify playlist I’ve been making for the Belle Mt. profile and the song that just finished is ‘Thick and Thin’ by LANY. Cool song, even cooler video. 

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

I fluctuate between streaming and vinyl. I listen to new music on streaming services and then if I really fall in love with an album I’ll buy it on vinyl and it’ll become a musical punctuation mark in my life and part of the furniture in my home. 

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why? 

At home we have Subscriptions to Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music. I listen to Spotify mostly but my girlfriend is set on Apple Music. From a release point of view they’ve all been supportive to different songs, Spotify pushed Hollow in a huge way, Apple Music gave a lot of support to Let Me which didn’t land so well with the others and Amazon have been consistently supportive of everything we’ve done since the third or fourth release, it shows why having strong competition in that industry is so important to music. Each service seems to receive and promote music with a different approach, it’s healthy.

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

My addiction is to Instagram so I’m definitely most active on there, but that auto-posts across platforms. I check in on Twitter a lot but I find that the audience is quiet over there compared to on Instagram, its not as conversational as it once was and I like to hear from fans. On our website there’s a contact form and a mailing list signup form and we send updates on there, you can reply to those emails and it’ll find its way to me somehow.

Anything else before we sign off?

I’m back in Nashville in August so anyone who wants to gather 100 people to watch me play a stripped back acoustic set somewhere cool. Whether it’s in a yard, a field or a barn. Get in touch. Thank MTM x