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Matty Timmons was going through it in 2024. Not a rough patch. A proper pivotal moment in his life. One of those crossroads situations, except instead of an “X” you’re staring at something more like a super-asterisk with paths going every which way.
While he wasn’t sure where any of those routes would lead, one of them was clearly marked as open to songwriters like him. So, the frontman of Milwaukee band Royal Mill started working on “Denim Jacket,” the latest single off the band’s debut EP coming this April.
A song title like that doesn’t scream “crisis of faith,” yet that’s what brought Timmons to his moment of re-evaluating … well, everything. In the midst of leaving his community, he found himself taking a closer look at “my fundamental disposition toward myself and the world around me.”
“As I felt many core parts of my identity slipping away,” he continued, “I was grasping for a support system that found my questions too difficult and my lack of belief unsafe. It was a season of incredible loss, but I found a bit of security and hope in my amazing partner who has this wonderful ability to see through all the tired, worn out parts of me and love me so fully anyway.”
It’s a relief anytime you emerge with clarity after diving into the bigger elements of your life. For that clarity to be accompanied by a deeper appreciation, especially when it comes to a relationship, is about as ideal as it gets.
So, “Denim Jacket” is a love song at its core, and the hallmarks are there. It starts with a few gentle metaphors sung over equally gentle acoustic guitar, injects more concrete reality with an invitation to “move in and bring the rug from your apartment,” and swells for a chorus in which Timmons issues a mea culpa to himself and an acknowledgment to his patient partner:
I should probably write you and sing you more love songs
I should probably tell you I’m sorry when I’m wrong
But I know that you don’t mind the way that I’m worn
Like a faded denim jacket babe
I know you love me
I know you love me anyway
Laced with vulnerability, “Denim Jacket” continues Royal Mill’s quickly established reputation for honest and straightforward songwriting coupled with a sound that swings between grounded and soaring. You can listen to the track using the player at the top of this page, and it’ll also air on 88Nine throughout today (8:30 a.m.; 12:30, 4:30, 8:30 and 11:30 p.m.).
