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Matt Hansen doesn’t do nonchalant. On the latest episode of Going There with Dr. Mike, the independent singer-songwriter behind “LET EM GO” and debut album Orchid gets candid about the song he didn’t want to hear and what a relationship built on mandates taught him about boundaries. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch the full episode on YouTube.
Hansen admits he hated “LET EM GO” — his viral, name-making hit — when he wrote it “because it was too true to what I needed to do at the time.” It turned into his first hopeful song, and it’s why he now calls himself a “hopeful romantic” in a culture that prizes playing it cool. “That whole concept of acting nonchalant and acting like it’s whatever,” he says, “I just think that’s a horrible way to live your life.”
But while he argues romance is never “futile,” he knows it’s never easy. “You have to talk about those things. You have to have the difficult conversations,” Hansen advises, highlighting the significance of honest communication. That openness wasn’t something he found intuitive, and was something hard-won. Hansen describes a two-year relationship in which he was handed a “laundry list” of things to change about himself, from what he wore to when he woke up, while every attempt to talk it through was shut down. “I should have set those boundaries and made it very clear that this was a conversation, not a mandate,” he says.
Elsewhere in the conversation, he talks about how the music of Coldplay and Radiohead provided him with the emotional resonance he seeks to offer through his own songs. He reflects on how these artists’ raw expressions of pain and hope have been instrumental in his creative journey, giving him the courage to share his inner world with others.
Listen to the full conversation with Matt Hansen on Going There with Dr. Mike above or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch the convo on YouTube. Having just released a deluxe edition of Orchid, Hansen will head out on “The Orchid Tour,” which kicks off its EU/UK leg on October 4th before crossing to North America for a November 13th-December 13th run. Get tickets here.
Coming from the Consequence Podcast Network, Season 7 of Going There is presented by Johnson & Johnson, who believes that health is everything. Their strength in healthcare innovation empowers them to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through their expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, they are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at www.jnj.com, and @JanssenUS and @JNJInnovMed on X.