Matt Ngesa introduces For the Road, an album born from vulnerability and shaped by four years of writing and reflection. Rooted in love for family and friends, the project considers how a deeper appreciation of those relationships can lead to a greater understanding of ourselves.
The album’s beginnings trace back to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the artist’s parents contracted the virus. During that period of worry and uncertainty, four songs emerged: “Muse,” “August,” “Kintsugi” and “Bright.” Those early compositions laid the foundation for a project centred on connection, gratitude and personal growth.
At its heart is focus track “August,” whose guiding message resonates throughout the album: “Do what you love, with who you love, for who you love.” This sentiment anchors For the Road, celebrating the people who give life meaning and the importance of nurturing those bonds.
Across the project, this project reflects on the growing awareness of the value of family and friendship, and how that awareness shapes both identity and intention. What began during a moment of fear has become a love letter to the people who accompany us through life.
For the Road invites listeners to reflect on their own relationships: who they hold close, what they cherish and what they choose to carry forward.
Tracklist
1. Enough
2. Bright
3. When She Calls
4. August
5. Muse
6. Tea
7. 2am
8. Hearts on the Ceiling
9. Kintsugi (feat. Joy Ocholla)
Stream For The Road on all music stores now: https://mattngesa.lnk.to/fortheroad
About Matt Ngesa
Matt Ngesa makes music for the road. The road we take to become ourselves, shaped by the places we’ve been and the people who changed us. Born and based in Kenya but raised between Uganda and the U.S., movement is both the subject and style of his music: it’s taught him to observe, remember, and translate experience.
His sound sits where indie pop, rock, and soul would, if they could, meet, and arrives with disarming honesty, expansive melodies, bold instrumentation, and first-person accounts that travel the way memory does. He records with the intimacy and immediacy of live performance, preserving the spontaneity, texture, and momentum of the moment.
Matt found his voice in Soul Mind Scars, a band formed with his sister, before launching a solo career with his debut EP, Rem Me, featuring “Problems” and “Twende Kazi,” followed by the singles “Oh Shoot,” “River” and “Muse”, the latter earning him a COLORS performance. A collaborative EP, Let’s Draw, with Itha and Clark Keeng, and a feature on Muthaka’s “masala tea,” brought him closer to the project his life had been building toward: his debut album, For the Road.