Achi news desk-
Calgary’s Matt Masters has been putting out music for almost two decades, but he experienced something new this week – one of his songs has gone viral.
The YouTube video for his latest song How Many Days Until Tomorrow collecting almost 45,000 views in just over a week.
“This is the first release of my upcoming new album. I recorded it a little over a year ago and finished working on it last summer. I put the song out on Spotify and I wanted to make sure it was on YouTube as well,” explains Masters, adding that he crafted the video with a slideshow of images from a photo shoot with photographer Terrance Houle.
“I quickly threw the pictures into a slide show, stuck the song on it and threw it up on YouTube without thinking much about it.”
That was on Thursday, April 25. By Saturday, April 27, the video had gathered 23,000 views, a fact that Meistri learned as he quickly checked his phone before a performance.
“I was like, ‘23,000 views? That can’t be right.’ But I was going on stage, so I didn’t really think twice about it,” he said. “When I came off the stage an hour later, I looked again. And it said 28,000 views.”
Masters could not believe his eyes.
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“I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ Because 5,000 views in two hours? That’s not my usual experience,” he said, adding that the video had climbed to 40,000 views within the first week.
That’s exciting enough for the Western singer-songwriter, but it’s where the video is being streamed from that is the most mind-blowing.
Masters noticed that many scenes increase between 1 am and 2 am
“The question then is, ‘Who is listening to this thing at one in the morning? Why are there 3,000 people listening to one in the morning?”
Masters discovered that its streams come from unexpected places around the world.
“Interestingly enough, the best place we’re actually engaging from is Mexico, and the place that does it at one in the morning is Poland.”
“The tune itself has a unique mariachi feel to it. When the horns kick in, the trumpets are inspired by the sounds of Mexico in a lot of ways,” says Masters, adding that there’s also a violin section.
Masters believes that the online algorithm has picked up on the Mexican sound and that is reflected in the demographics of the audience. The video has also been shot in Brazil, the United States, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
The video has nearly 45,000 views just over a week after being posted. While that actually tied for Masters’ biggest song on Spotify, that song took a lot longer to get there.
“It’s honestly taken 10 years to get there,” he said, adding that it’s been exciting to watch the audience grow. “It’s really great. As an artist, when you make new music, you hope people will hear it.”
The new album, out later this year, is called A burger (which is his legal last name) and contains six songs including the lead single getting all the attention.
“This is a bit different for me because the songs are more personal. Historically I have written from more of a storyteller’s position, but in this album, I write more from the heart, from personal experience. And I think that emotion comes out in this special song.”
The song is already in rotation on a couple of radio stations, including CBC Kelowna and CJSW Calgary, and is getting coverage on more mainstream stations as well.
Masters performs on May 8 at The Blues Can and on May 10 at Congress Coffee.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
