Matthew Houck in 2023: “It’s very rivery, this record”
MATTHEW Houck is lost in the Christmas lights. “Where the fuck am I?” he mutters to himself as he squints at the map on his phone. He’s standing on abridge over a fake river, next to abusy ice-cream parlour. Every surface in every direction is covered with lights, blinking and fading in different rhythms. The effect is disorienting, almost psychedelic. Houck has been here many times since moving to Nashville adecade ago, but he still doesn’t know his way around the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. “I love this place, how fake everything is,” says Houck. “It’s weirdly beautiful.”