“It’s been really revelatory and eye-opening for me,” the musician Matt Southern says of his new project, Live from the Nest, which launched this summer.

Live from the Nest is a video series showcasing a variety of local music artists in a series of intimate sessions; it aims to help platform the diverse range of talent in the Triangle’s varied music community. 

“Over the years, my bandmates and I have been contemplating how to build a better music community and what resources and opportunities might be missing from ours,” Southern tells me. “We are always blown away by the immense talent in this area whenever we see a show or festival. But we know there are so many other talented folks out there who deserve to be heard by more people. We decided to create a platform outside of the typical rock club scene that could highlight and promote music makers in our region.”

Live from the Nest is produced by Southern and six others, and is hosted in Southern’s living room. In the months since Southern launched it, the series has featured local artists Kit McKay, Sam Fuller-Smith, and Lizzie Killian with Teens in Trouble, among others. 

Southern himself has been an active member of the Triangle’s music scene for over ten years, collaborating with a number of local musicians along the way and most recently putting out a swath of new releases with his own band, Matt Southern & Lost Gold. 

“I’ve always been completely DIY with my own music, recording all of my own stuff, […] but after all of the disconnection [from the pandemic], this sort of subconscious hunger for community interaction was very high, creating things where people can share and be a part of a more tight-knit music community,” Southern says of the spark to launch Live from the Nest.

Southern’s ultimate goal for the series is to showcase well-established local artists alongside those who may just be starting out, connecting them with each other and the community they are part of.

“It feels as if something has clicked,” he says with excitement, “and it is so deeply rewarding.”

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