The sound they make together is a woozy, day-dreaming Americana, filtered through a distinctly English folk sensibility – with Hegarty’s extraordinary bruised and raw vocal the glue that binds it together.

The band came together when, in late 2009, Communion Records called Matthew and said they wanted to record an EP of his songs. It was the coldest of winters and so he rounded up some old friends and they hid from the snow in a candlelit studio in North London. When they came out it was still snowing, but they had a record – they called it ‘To the North’.

They decided to try and play these songs together live. It turns out that once they started it was pretty hard to stop – so they haven’t. Their first ever headline show was a sell out at The Lexington in London in April 2010, and since then they’ve toured the UK twice (once with The Shivers and once with Mumford and Sons) and played headline and support slots in some of London’s most iconic venues.

Matthew and the Atlas returned to the same candlelit studio in September 2010 to record their follow-up EP ‘Kingdom of Your Own’, which is also out now on Communion Records.