I love words. I love music. I love telling stories. I love performing. I need these things like I need oxygen. I do not love social media. It’s not what I signed up for when an artistic pursuit through life wooed me into forever. But I’m still here like a silent film clinging to the sweetest of times that are long gone.
Nostalgia, man. It will fuck you up.
I’m a lone analogue-wolf trying to run with the digital pack from time to time… hoping to find a little truth. In life. In you. In myself. In THESE times. But who knows… maybe it never really existed. Maybe it’s a ghost I’m chasing.
As a companion to my podcast, and in my ongoing pursuit of that ghost, I’m going to dance with some words and feelings on Substack. First piece is up.
There’s a lot of noise out there… I hope this doesn’t make it any louder. Link in bio. ✌️ 💛
-Matt
📸: @frontrowlady
(I am) A Sucker for Possibility
Yo! Something new from me. A podcast. Here’s the skinny…
When I say sucker, I don’t mean as in a fool… I mean sucker as in believer. Sucker as in open-hearted. Someone who looks at life and thinks “What If?”. It’s been the fuel that has powered me through a life in music, as a TV host, and now acting.
For most of my life, however, I was getting it wrong. My ‘what ifs’ were about ambition, about the grind, about chasing external ghosts for internal happiness. Instead of being present in my life, I was peeking through the cracks of it. Eventually burnout kicked the door down and took over. I’m still fighting my way through it if I’m being honest.
And that’s what this new pod is. A fight. It’s a journey. It’s about staying playful in a world that wants to age us too fast. It’s about being a sucker for the possibilities of life… not just for the next win.
Episodes are less than 10 minutes. Just enough for us to share a cup of tea or coffee. A small dose of big feelings; stories, lyrics, memories, and quotes - to help shut out the static. To help us stop outsourcing our joy and peace. This isn’t a self-help formula. It’s not a hustle mantra. It’s a gentle reminder that we don’t need to become someone new… we just need to remember who we were before the noise.
I’m gonna keep my Instagram worlds pretty separate. This page will be for my acting and music adventures… but if you’d like to be a sucker with me on this new path - you can follow along @suckerforpossibility .
Show link in my bio. 🎙️
For anyone who came along for the ‘Good Things with Matt Wells’ podcast ride (and thank you), I think you’ll dig this.
Thanks for listening, suckers.
Matt ✌️
Theme song is ‘Fire’ by @seanmccannsings
Photo by @frontrowlady
#suckerforpossibility #podcast
Sometimes a disaster, but eventually happily ever after. Don’t let the journey fool ya when it gets dark. Just let it unfold. It’s on your side. ✌️ 💛
Lemme know if this tune gets stuck in your head. Maybe I’ll record it and throw it up on that Spotify thing all the musicians are getting rich on.
Much love and thanks to ‘Lazybones Tim’ for the bridge of this song, which I lifted from one of our old ones.
Thanks for listening,
Matt
#singersongwriters #acoustic #acousticmusic
Sometimes we wait to work. Most times we wait FOR work. A life in the arts ain’t easy… but I’d pick it every time. It’s like Rumi said: “Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I’ll be mad.”
✌️
#actorslife
Baby’s first billboard. 😏
Not my first loafer. 👞
Too much fun playing cops and robbers (and selling cars) with a beauty cast and crew on #sheriffcountry.
Directed by: @kevinmalejandro
#actorslife
My daughter, Sofia, is one of my heroes. Honestly, both my kids are. Can you imagine growing up with the insanity of social media and Covid? Let alone the darkness politicians on all sides are spewing, or the robotic greed that technology is threatening us with. It’s crazy, man. So… ya, the kids are alright but it ain’t easy.
I started my new podcast (@suckerforpossibility ) because I long for the feeling of peace that came with being a kid, before the world told us who to be. The Taoists call it ‘the un-carved block’… when we were still pure potential. Before life took a piece out of us and shaped us into something. Yes, I know… every generation has to weather a storm. But kids today are facing pressures we have never seen. We ALL are. With each episode I publish, I’m reminded that we are living in an unprecedented time of stress and anxiety. And dudes…we have to fight back. We have to take our peace back. And that starts within ourselves.
The newest episode of my pod is called ‘A Promise’. It’s named after an essay Sofia wrote about her journey through the monster of mental health. From child actor to Neuroscience student. Her resilience at such a young age has humbled me. Her essay has been my roadmap to the strength and courage that I need to fight the good fight. You can hear that essay, in her own words and voice, on my latest episode. Her hope and mine? That maybe it will help you. Maybe it will help someone you know. Maybe it will simply provide a small space to breathe.
It can get dark out there… but wherever there is darkness, the light will soon follow.✌️
I’ve come to understand that I’m what they call a “Lone Wolf Empath”.
It’s not a clinical term or anything like that. More of a pop-psych trend.
But I’ve googled it.
It tracks.
It’s me.
—
That’s one of the (many) reasons I’ve never really connected with social media.
I struggle with the push and pull of wanting to take part… and not wanting to take part at all.
To post or not to post… that is the question.
But social media isn’t going away.
So I can complain.
I can tap out.
Or I can fight to make my voice count in some small way. To feel like I’m offering something.
Which is what I TRY to do.
—
And what does that look like?
A photo that I’ll cringe over later and a caption I’ll overthink for days.
(Did I mention I’m also what they call an over-thinker?)
I have work to promote. So I promote.
I create things that I hope will connect with folks. So I post.
I post therefore I am?
What am I trying to say again?
Right….
—
Your messages and feedback about “A Sucker for Possibility” have been super encouraging.
I want each episode to offer you space to breathe.
I hope every Instagram post helps cleanse your timeline.
It’s as simple as that.
—
In the quest for viral fire, there’s a lot of noise out there. I suppose I should be concerned with cutting through it, and becoming one with the algorithm(s), but I like being a VHS tape in a streaming world.
My body in the new school.
My soul in the old.
—
I’ve spent my entire life in the creative space and survived to tell the tale.
Rejection and reinvention wrapped in resilience has shaped me.
Imagination still fuels me.
Self doubt can’t stop me.
The lone wolf has too much to say.
—
What a sucker.
-Matt 🐺
#suckerforpossibility
Photo taken by the legend - Darcy Langille
@mrdarcyryan
If the answer is you… then the question remains.
(Full version and story posted in reels✌️)
#singersongwriters #acousticmusic #acoustic #newsong #acousticguitar #acousticguitars
Photoshoots have recently become more than taking photos for me. I used to get caught up in the pictures. Ya know? The superficial. Now all I see are the seasons. Past versions of myself. Time travelling. These were snapped not so long ago, but a lifetime ago in many ways. It looks like me… but it’s not anymore. Sometimes when I look back at a photo I can remember exactly what’s happening behind my eyes. I dig these three pictures because I feel like they caught me mid-season. Looking back. Looking forward. Parked somewhere in the middle. Hoping for that good fortune around every bend. But mostly… trying way too hard to look cool on my way to the aura farm. What can I say? I’m still a work in progress. 😏
📸: @mrdarcyryan
(Hire this dude. He’s the best.)
#blackandwhitephotography
Mom gave me some bracelets to offer protection from that old dark energy. She didn’t think I’d wear ‘em. She was wrong. This is da proof. 🐅 👁️
Don’t you give up… and a friendly reminder (for myself too) that we can’t control everything, but we can control how we react to those things. ✌️ 💪 💛
#mamasboy #tigereye #stoicism
