It may seem strange to anyone watching him enthrall crowds with his country hits on every stage in Quebec, but as a teenager in his hometown of Maniwaki, Matt Lang was a very shy person who preferred playing hockey to guitar .
• Also read: Country singer Matt Lang: “I like rum and parties with my friends”
In his own words, he had “no ambition” to pursue a music career, let alone become a country star.
Then one day his sister twisted his arm a little so he could compete with her in the secondary show competition.
“I did it as a joke to show my friends that I was up for it. Ultimately I really enjoyed it. “You are not a game” has become a staple,” he says during a discussion with Le Journal.
“At one point I did a show with CHGA Radio, there were people there at the end in Maniwaki. I was green before I went on stage, but it made me even more willing to overcome my fears. I felt the sting even more strongly.”
In red glass
Today, the man who will release his new and third album on May 10th is one of the artists most loved by the public, both for his music and for his image as a party man. “I like rum and partying with my friends,” the man, who even designed and marketed his own rum, told the Journal last June.
Matt Lang has become one of Quebecers' favorite country artists. Photo JF Galipeau provided by Agence Ranch
“T'sé, I don't drink all the time,” Matt Lang would like to correct. Yes, it's talked about a lot in my songs because country music comes back to it a lot, but when I have a red glass in my hand, there's often water in it.
In any case, he can't afford to constantly stock up on hops on stage. How else could he keep up the pace in the dizzying 2024 that lies ahead?
“My biggest one yet,” he predicts.
Busy year 2024
Let's summarize it in more than one paragraph: After Matt Lang released the first excerpt from his album a week ago with “All Night Longer”, the creation of which is not yet complete, he will be part of a winter tour with more than thirty concerts as Opening for Canadian veteran Aaron Pritchett to perform Coast to Coast, in just six weeks.
In April he will take a break with his girlfriend and their young children, then he will treat himself to a big show, starting on May 9th at the MTEUS in Montreal before the start of the outdoor festival season, of which he will once again be one of the main stars.
Farting in your face every night, as you've probably understood, is not an activity recommended for a man who lives out of a suitcase.
“If you hang around all the time, you can't keep up with so many shows. Be careful. When your body speaks to you, you must listen to it. If you don’t listen to him, you won’t make it to the end,” the young thirty-year-old wisely states.
Doors are opening in the United States
Where is Matt Lang until the end? In the USA. Without rushing into anything, because he knows to what extent the music industry, and even more so that of country, is a jungle south of the border, the singer of Maniwaki, who repeatedly travels to Nashville to work there, is currently preparing his American breakthrough years ago.
He half-heartedly reveals to the Journal that the right time is approaching to try his luck.
“It will happen when it happens, but I can say that doors are opening for us,” says the ex-candidate of La Voix, avoiding opening his game even further.
- Matt Lang will be opening for Aaron Pritchett on March 2nd at the Beanfield Theater in Montreal and March 3rd at the Granada Theater in Sherbrooke.
- For all concert dates: mattlangmusic.com.