Biography
Matt Hales, a songwriter from Britain, originated Aqualung after cultivating an affinity for melodic pop through exposure to recordings at his parents’ Southampton shop. He first began composing on the family piano at age four, motivated by the artists he encountered there. At sixteen he received a scholarship to Winchester College and focused his studies on music composition, completing the symphonic work “Life Cycle” in his second year despite the program’s classical emphasis.
He simultaneously pursued popular forms, blending those influences into a contemporary sound. Hales performed with his brother in a Police cover band, then joined the Brit-pop act Ruth, which issued an album on ARC Records in 1999. After fronting another group, the 45’s—unrelated to the Atlanta garage-rock revival outfit—and releasing two singles on Universal, he grew dissatisfied and initiated the Aqualung project in 2002, frequently collaborating on material with his wife Kim Oliver and brother Ben Hales.
Although it started as a modest bedroom recording, Aqualung gained rapid notice when a Volkswagen Beetle commercial aired in the U.K. in 2002. The advertisement highlighted the song “Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You),” which appeared alongside the self-titled debut album that same year. The single reached the Top Ten, driving the record to gold status.
Further singles appeared the next year, as did the follow-up album Still Life. That release yielded the hit “Brighter Than Sunshine” and attracted music supervisors on both sides of the Atlantic, resulting in numerous placements in films and television programs. Hales consolidated selections from his prior U.K. albums into a twelve-track set for Aqualung’s first proper American release, Strange and Beautiful, which Columbia Records issued in early 2005.
Sustained North American touring over the ensuing two years propelled the album to number one on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and pushed sales past 250,000 copies.
Onstage, Hales regularly altered the configuration of musicians, environments, and performance techniques to sustain freshness. Among the varied elements he tested, including an echo device called the Memoryman, were those that shaped the next album, the ambitiously constructed Memory Man, released in March 2007. The more personal Words & Music followed one year later, marking the project’s debut on the Verve Forecast label, while Magnetic North arrived in 2010. In 2012 Hales co-wrote and produced the Mercury Prize-nominated single “Is Your Love Big Enough?” for British singer/songwriter Lianne La Havas and also achieved success collaborating with Jason Mraz and Paloma Faith. Early 2015 saw the arrival of 10 Futures, his seventh studio album issued under the Aqualung name.
He simultaneously pursued popular forms, blending those influences into a contemporary sound. Hales performed with his brother in a Police cover band, then joined the Brit-pop act Ruth, which issued an album on ARC Records in 1999. After fronting another group, the 45’s—unrelated to the Atlanta garage-rock revival outfit—and releasing two singles on Universal, he grew dissatisfied and initiated the Aqualung project in 2002, frequently collaborating on material with his wife Kim Oliver and brother Ben Hales.
Although it started as a modest bedroom recording, Aqualung gained rapid notice when a Volkswagen Beetle commercial aired in the U.K. in 2002. The advertisement highlighted the song “Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You),” which appeared alongside the self-titled debut album that same year. The single reached the Top Ten, driving the record to gold status.
Further singles appeared the next year, as did the follow-up album Still Life. That release yielded the hit “Brighter Than Sunshine” and attracted music supervisors on both sides of the Atlantic, resulting in numerous placements in films and television programs. Hales consolidated selections from his prior U.K. albums into a twelve-track set for Aqualung’s first proper American release, Strange and Beautiful, which Columbia Records issued in early 2005.
Sustained North American touring over the ensuing two years propelled the album to number one on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and pushed sales past 250,000 copies.
Onstage, Hales regularly altered the configuration of musicians, environments, and performance techniques to sustain freshness. Among the varied elements he tested, including an echo device called the Memoryman, were those that shaped the next album, the ambitiously constructed Memory Man, released in March 2007. The more personal Words & Music followed one year later, marking the project’s debut on the Verve Forecast label, while Magnetic North arrived in 2010. In 2012 Hales co-wrote and produced the Mercury Prize-nominated single “Is Your Love Big Enough?” for British singer/songwriter Lianne La Havas and also achieved success collaborating with Jason Mraz and Paloma Faith. Early 2015 saw the arrival of 10 Futures, his seventh studio album issued under the Aqualung name.
Albums
Singles
