Singer songwriter Matt Maltese today shares the latest teaser for his new album Hers, due for release on Friday 16th May via The Orchard, in the form of new single ‘Buses Replace Trains’.
The song’s title was born from a conversation with a close friend about band names his Welsh uncle had suggested to him when he was a teenager, including ‘Buses Replace Trains’.
The concept felt like the perfect basis for a sweet and earnest love song, with the grandeur of the subject matter brought to life with the swell of strings and twinkling keys. “I know it’s not that simple, but it is”, the song closes.
“There was something touching about the phrase ‘Buses Replace Trains’ out of context. It triggered of course the nostalgia of rail replacement buses in Reading growing up, but I also just couldn’t shake that it was a title for a love song. So plain and ordinary and quotidian,” Matt adds.
‘Buses Replace Trains’ follows the singles ‘Always Some MF’, ‘Anytime, Anyplace, Anyhow’ and ‘Pined For You My Whole Life’ as a taste of the mature musicality and heartache embodied in new album Hers.
This week Matt announced a run of intimate record store in-store shows in the UK and US around the release of Hers, with events taking place in London, Liverpool, Nottingham, Oxford and Brighton in the week following album release, following two shows in LA and New York in early May.
Matt also recently announced his Tour For You My Whole Life 2025 run in support of the release of Hers, playing the biggest venues of his career across North America, UK and Europe from September through to December.
The 46-date tour commences in Nashville, stopping by major venues including Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre and London’s Roundhouse, before concluding his European run in Barcelona in mid-December. Full list of dates below, tickets are on sale now and available via matt-maltese.com.
Matt Maltese’s sixth studio album Hers arrives as his most insular and intimate to date, and his first fully self-produced effort since second album Krystal. Hers exists in a twilight world, pairing heartfelt songwriting and dry witticism with the gentle quiver of strings, a flourish of woodwind or the sound of a creaking old piano.
Though its wounds may still feel tender to the touch, Maltese made Hers with several years’ perspective on the events that inspired it, processing the complexities of a serious romantic relationship and its ending through the rearview.
“I’ve written a lot of music that comes from a place of infatuation, but this record was written on reflection of a much longer-term love. The complications and wonderful roads that that goes through and the more informed heartaches that come out of it. I got to really reflect and slave over it… It’s a bit like having a year to write a really important email,” he says.
“I’m British enough to feel a slight shame of writing so many love songs in the past,” he adds. “Maybe the more interesting thing on paper would have been to go to the other side of the world and write a concept album about prehistoric creatures or something, but at the end of the day, we’re all human, and love and people are things we’re all continually affected by. It’s my job as a songwriter to excavate the things in my life, and that’s what I was going through.”
Having first established himself as a songwriter with a knack for dry one-liners and a keen eye for self-deprecation, Maltese released debut album Bad Contestant back in 2018.
The three albums that followed over the next five years cemented his position as one of the UK’s finest young songwriters. Critics were unanimous; Matt Maltese’s piano harmonies, playful approach and quintessentially British wit saw ‘the mundane transformed into fantasy’.
Since the release of 2023’s Driving Just To Drive, Maltese has been busy in multiple behind the scenes roles, lending his songwriting abilities to a number of fellow artists, and establishing indie label Last Recordings On Earth.
Taking a slightly different approach to his own craft, last year saw Matt share covers album Songs That Aren’t Mine, a collection of some of his favourite songs, recorded at home with guest features by friends including Dora Jar and Liana Flores.
Elsewhere, he made his theatre songwriting debut, composing all original music and lyrics for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s winter production of Twelfth Night, described by The Observer as “inspired… perfectly balances Shakespeare’s dramatic polarities”.
Late 2024 also saw Maltese embark on a headline tour of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, following live runs through the US, Europe and the UK, including his biggest show to date at the Wiltern, Los Angeles, and a sold-out show at London’s Brixton Electric.
His global appeal as an artist is undeniable, with sold-out shows from Sydney to Sao Paolo, and Jakarta to Tokyo to his name.
MATT MALTESE 2025 TOUR DATES
2 May – Fingerprints, Long Beach, CA
8 May – Rough Trade New York, NY
17 May – Rough Trade East, London
18 May – Rough Trade Liverpool
19 May – Rough Trade Nottingham
21 May – Truck Store, Oxford
22 May – Resident, Brighton
16 September – Marathon Music Works, Nashville
17 September – Tabernacle, Atlanta
19 September – Underground, Charlotte
20 September – Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
20 September – The Fillmore Silver Spring, Washington
23 September – Roxian Theatre, Pittsburgh
25 September – HISTORY, Toronto
26 September – Beanfield Theatre, Montreal
28 September – Citizens House Of Blues, Boston
30 September – Toad’s Place, New Haven
2 October – The Fillmore, Philadelphia
4 October – Paramount, Brooklyn
6 October – Newport Music Hall, Columbus
7 October – Bogart’s, Cincinnati
9 October – Deluxe at Old National Centre, Indianapolis
10 October – The Fillmore, Detroit
11 October – Riviera Theatre, Chicago
13 October – The Fillmore, Minneapolis
25 October – Summit, Denver
16 October – The Depot, Salt Lake City
18 October – Vogue Theatre, Vancouver
19 October – Moore Theatre, Seattle
21 October – Fox Theatre, Oakland
23 October – House Of Blues, San Diego
24 October – The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
26 October – The Van Buren, Phoenix
29 October – House Of Blues, Dallas
30 October – Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheatre, Austin
1 November – House Of Blues, Houston
2 November – House Of Blues, New Orleans
4 November – The Ritz Ybor, Tampa
20 November – Project House, Leeds
21 November – O2 Institute, Birmingham
22 November – O2 Academy, Bristol
24 November – The National Stadium, Dublin
26 November – SWG3, Glasgow
27 November – O2 Ritz Manchester
28 November – Roundhouse, London
1 December – La Cigale, Paris
3 December – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
4 December – Tivoli Vrendenburg, Utrecht
6 December – Kantine, Cologne
7 December – Metropol, Berlin
9 December – WUK, Vienna
11 December – Legend Club, Milan
13 December – Razzmatazz 2, Barcelona