Singled Out: Matt Tiegler's I Wanna Start A Religion

10-29-2023

Matt Tiegler recently released a music video for his song "I Wanna Start A Religion", from his new album "Hands Free Down Hill", and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

"I Wanna Start a Religion (With You)" is a song that I had started a few years ago. Some songs come to me like a crashing wave and I try to write them down and record the initial version the same day that the inspiration hits. With this song, the music and first verse were basically improvised and immediate. Fortunately, I recorded that verse and years later sat down to hammer out the rest of the tune.

Religion is such a daunting and touchy subject to write a song about, so I tried to make it into a conversation between two people so I could more freely express my thoughts. The idea of starting a religion is pretty ridiculous, and yet all of the 4,000 + religions in the world were started at some point.

When we got to the studio, producer Tommi Zender played guitar on the song and expanded on the arpeggio guitar part I wrote, bringing a harder edge to the tune. The rest of the band followed Tommi's lead and, after a couple of times running through the tune, we recorded the version that ended up on the record in one or two takes.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here