Aqualung

Artist's Website

Aqualung is Matt Hales. His performance moniker reflects the underwater breathing device, not the Jethro Tull character. Matt spent his life immersed in music, having been raised above his parents’ record and book shop in the south of England. The Aqualung project was born at a time when the artist was full of self doubt. After the split of his band The 45s, Hales was broke and troubled by his growing disillusionment with music. But after taking in a transcendent musical performance he experienced a moment of clarity that led him to recapture the joy he felt while making music as a kid. “I just thought that I’ve got to make music the way I used to make it – not to get on the radio or get a record deal – just for the joy of it,” he says. “I just wanted to write songs that were totally from the heart.” “Strange and Beautiful,” the first song he wrote under that approach, was snatched up by Volkswagen for use in a U.K. television ad. Before he knew it, his career was back on track and his creative spirit reborn.