Matt Vend &
The Tender ten

music

biography

I had been touring none stop with Car Boot Vendors around South Africa and also just playing way too many shows in general. I felt burnt out and I was only 26. I needed a change, my brother called me up and said ‘come back to Asia, yet you have to leave tomorrow, I’ll buy you a flight’. I knew that it was probably the wrong decision at the time but how can one turn down a flight to Bangkok and chances of seeing more of the world? So I left, got on a plane with hardly saying goodbye to anyone. I was back in Bangkok living in my brother’s house. Working as a teacher, travelling and writing my debut solo album, it was a really lonely time, but there comes a time when one needs to stand on his or her own two feet and going solo was the best and worst decision I could of made. Still no regrets and on that trip I saw incredible places and wrote an album which I thought reflected what it’s like to be out there on the road alone.