summersets is the duo of Kalle Mattson and his childhood friend and long-time bandmate Andrew Sowka, who sing together in Everly-esque harmony throughout small town story, a 16-track narrative song cycle. “Most people go the opposite way: they have a band and then they go solo,” says Mattson. “But it’s great to have another voice and share the burden.”

Kalle Mattson has won or been nominated for every major prize in Canada for his three consecutive albums 2014’s Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold, 2015’s Avalanche and 2018’s Youth. For someone who had almost exclusively written personal material — including an acclaimed breakthrough about the death of his mother when he was a teenager — the singer-songwriter on the cusp of turning 30 was ready for a new challenge. 

That’s when he wrote “never love another,” detailing the arc of a fictional relationship inside six verses, inspired in part by songwriters who put short stories to melody: John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, and Kathleen Edwards (the latter from Mattson’s current home of Ottawa). 

Mattson wanted to sing and record the song as just a duo with Sowka, who had played in his backing band for years. While touring Youth., the two of them would perform four songs in the middle of the set, calling it “the Simon and Garfunkel section” of the show. The first song they then co-wrote was “fake flowers”; that and “never love another” were released on a six-song EP in 2020, credited to a new name: summersets, a reference to the opening line of “fake flowers” and a recurring theme throughout small town story. 

The story in question follows one couple from the moment they meet as teenagers through various tribulations, including a breakup when one them receives an “acceptance letter” for a college in another town. “afterthought” concludes the first half of the album, flipping perspective between the two characters after their breakup and when one gets into a car crash. The first single, “afterall” brings the characters full circle after years apart and hints at their reconciliation. Closing track “small town story” is the final letter written to the one character who has passed away, a song for a final-credit sequence.

As one season sets, another begins.

small town story is out NOW.