Stream: MAWD, ‘Freedom’

Kevin Bronson on July 10th, 2022

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“I’ve been patient a little too long / and I’m tired of the waiting game,” MAWD sings on the opening track of her debut album, “Freedom,” released Friday.

For the singer-songwriter, born Madeleine Mathews, it’s not hyperbole. The album has been six years in the making, delayed by setbacks including chronic health issues, a back injury, depression and the COVID-19 pandemic. At one difficult juncture, she even retreated to her hometown of Placerville for a time.

Mathews applies her passionate bluesy wail to confessionals that mind traditional rock tropes, from sweet, little-bit-country songs like “Behind the Scenes” to plucked-from-the-’70s slow-burners like “Sweet Release” to the explosive “Watch You Burn” and the title track.

MAWD has gotten attention lately for her duo project with songwriter-producer-multi-instrumentalist Josiah Mazzaschi, Child Seat. Their debut album, “Bad Holiday,” is out Aug. 5.

It was Mazzaschi, working at his Cave Studio, who helmed MAWD’s “Freedom” over a recording process than spanned more than four years. A barebones project it was not — the album features horns, strings, accordion and gang’s-all-here backing vocals from the likes of Hannah Crowley and the L.A. bands Livingmore and ALOUD. Contributors on the album include guitarists Aidan Scrivens, Jeff Schroeder and Mazzaschi, bassist Zach Andrews and drummers Tommy Paradise, Trey Everett and Argel Cora.

Some of the album can be read as tales of love-gone-wrong, but as with “Sweet Release,” many of the songs are a different kind of personal. “Written back in 2018, at the height of my health issues, I wrote this song about so badly wanting to be released from my pain,” MAWD says. “Every day just felt like going through the motions to just get by. Luckily, I’ve come a long way in my chronic health journey — but I know many others still suffer. The joke has always been this sounds like a naughty song or a man who did me wrong, but I often like to hide my truth behind my words. ‘Sweet Release’ has grown to mean many things to me over the years.”

||| Stream: “Sweet Release” and “Freedom”