Matías Roden is a Peruvian-Canadian singer-songwriter living in Vancouver, BC. Signed to Light Organ Records, his first single, “Snow Angel,” was released in November 2023 and followed by two more singles in 2024. Roden has performed at Music Waste and Khastahlano festivals since, as well as the upcoming Summerlight Festival, and his full-length debut album is set for release in early 2025.

Debut EP, The Plea, was recorded at Vancouver’s 604 Studios and serves as Roden’s formal introduction to this world; the official start of his journey as an artist. The Plea symbolizes a mixture of helplessness and resilience – it’s what happens when you’re young and you lose hope in the things that you thought mattered in your life. 

Focus track, “Glowing,” is the moment where things start to turn a bit more hopeful. After a devastating heartbreak, Roden starts to learn to trust someone else and open up a bit more. Produced by Louise Burns, the song combines two very different elements of British pop music from the 80s and 90s – jazzy sophisti-pop and breakbeat.

I think the classic ‘quarter life crisis’ for a lot of young people feels like you’re being put on trial by your own hopes and dreams and others’ expectations for your life. It can feel overwhelming to realize that maybe your life isn’t going in exactly the direction you wanted it to go. So The Plea is a play on words of a plea deal at a trial where you’re both at the mercy of forces beyond your control but also wanting to defiantly assert yourself. It’s like I’m saying ‘I will get my life back together, I will get over this heartbreak or over this failure to live out my hopes and dreams, I will make them happen.’ 

– Matías Roden