Matt Holubowski Reflects on a Traumatic Experience in “The Weatherman” (premiere)

After ruminating on a frightful situation in central America, Montreal singer-songwriter Matt Holubowski produces an ensnaring number that will stay with listeners long after it's over.

Matt Holubowski’s new single, “The Weatherman (or, the Felonies are Magnets on my Coat)”, slinks and slithers through a brooding, shadowy realm chockful of murky imagery and haunting instrumentation. At its center is the singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, strumming his guitar while in the midst of a powerfully dynamic vocal performance. All in all, it’s a tune that skulks and saunters into its listener’s atmosphere, performed with such poignancy by the Montreal artist that it slowly but surely tends to captivate with all of its offbeat thrills.

The story behind “The Weatherman” speaks to personal traumas, inspired by a trip taken by Holubowski and the ruminations that had entered his mind after that. As Holubowski tells PopMatters, ‘A few years ago I had a two month stint backpacking around central America, and a few hours before taking my flight home from Managua in Nicaragua, I was attacked by two guys holding enormous machetes, in the middle of a bustling well-to-do neighbourhood (which I’d chosen for my last two days because I had just picked up a handmade guitar I bought from a local luthier). I was left unharmed, and though I lost months worth of musings and lyrics, they mostly just got away with a crappy beat up bag.”

Holubowski continues, “Upon my return home, I realized I’d been left with this trauma that had me always looking over my shoulder, especially at night, and becoming tense and anxious whenever I encountered anyone walking home late at night, which frequently happened, coming home from gigs and such. For years, I had heard stories from friends who had told me of the discomfort that women often endure being followed late at night by shady characters, and though I empathized, I could never really say I understood it properly, until that stress I began to feel.”

“So ‘The Weatherman’ is essentially about that creeping feeling you have peaking over your shoulder and seeing a shadow of sorts following you, never certain whether it represents a threat, or is just someone randomly and innocently walking nearby.”

A deluxe edition of Holubowski’s album, Solitudes, will be releasing on 31 August and will mark his official debut in the United States.