Newcastle-based songwriter Mat Hunsley has shared his debut album, The Things We Need. Blending folk intimacy with subtle alternative textures, the record arrives shaped by a dual path- years spent navigating the emotional weight of medical training while quietly refining his craft as a songwriter. Now fully qualified as a doctor, Hunsley brings a perspective that feels both deeply personal and outward-looking, drawing from lived experience to explore themes of care, fatigue, connection, and resilience. Inspired in his late teens by artists like Ben Howard, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Bon Iver, he began teaching himself guitar through open tunings and layered chord voicings, elements that now underpin a sound defined by warmth, restraint, and emotional clarity.
The title track “The Things We Need” captures that balance, opening with delicate acoustic guitar and a near-weightless vocal before gradually unfolding into a textured, yet subtle arrangement. “There’s Been A Death” stands as one of the album’s most poignant moments, drawing from Hunsley’s time within the NHS to offer an unvarnished reflection of overburdened hospitals and exhausted staff, reflected by the track’s emotive, melancholic sound. Elsewhere, “Passenger” leans into a more ethereal palette, its shimmering guitars and wistful tone creating a quiet sense of drift, while “Just The Family Inside” shines with its orchestral feel, pairing swelling instrumentation with a sense of reverence that feels deeply felt rather than overstated.
Across The Things We Need, Hunsley shows a clear understanding that simplicity often carries the greatest weight. The album’s most stripped-back moments land with particular force, allowing space for reflection while maintaining a consistent emotional throughline. It’s a measured, thoughtful debut- one that positions him as a compelling new voice within the UK’s folk and alternative space, grounded in honesty and shaped by experience rather than excess.
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