Mawzy

A “mawzy” day begins before dawn. It’s a foggy early morning, the sunlight never rising above a bare simmer. The Newfoundlander term is the perfect word for singer-songwriter Matt Cooke’s psych-pop project which burbles with hazy vintage synths, misty vocals and a message of love and longing. Growing up in Newfoundland, Cooke cut his teeth in pentecostal church bands, jazz, and folk before packing up and leaving Atlantic Canada for Toronto where Mawzy was born. You can hear that maritime fog transposed to the bright lights of the big city in Mawzy’s discography. Driving forward with a disco edge, bright guitars, vocals reverbed into the sky, Cooke’s musical project is alight with an eerie groove. It’s a canted pitch of supercharged pop urgency and nostalgic nigh-on crooning psychedelia mixed into a fog of lush analog synths that echo into oblivion. Emerging from the mist is Cooke himself, fading into view in bursts of light amidst the gloom. Mawzy is a distinct portrait of a constantly inventing artist who stretches over landscapes and warmly molds them into the size of a song.