Matt Hales is a songwriter, musician, and record producer who has performed professionally as Aqualung since the early 2000s. Aqualung is best known in the UK for the song "Strange and Beautiful", which was featured on a television advertisement for the new Volkswagen Beetle during the summer of 2002 and went on to become a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart later that year. In the United States, Aqualung is also known for the song "Brighter Than Sunshine", which had considerable airplay and was used in the film A Lot Like Love and various television spots.
As a songwriter and record producer, Hales has collaborated with Lianne La Havas, Tom Chaplin, Lucy Schwarz, For King & Country, Leona Lewis, Jason Mraz, Christina Perri, Sara Bareilles, Diane Birch, Paloma Faith, Disclosure, Alex Clare, Birdy, Mikky Ekko, Bat For Lashes, Olivia Dean and many others.
Matt continues to work on his own music as well as his writing collaborations and production work. He is also involved in a side-project called Søren Lorensen where he has collaborated with Italian violinist, string arranger and composer Davide Rossi (Goldfrapp, Coldplay). They released their first album ‘Lake Constance’ in 2020.
A brand new Aqualung album called 'Dead Letters' was released worldwide on 28th October 2022 to much critical acclaim and can be ordered here
Also in 2022, the first 2 albums 'Aqualung' and 'Still Life' were released on vinyl for the very first time, both with bonus live albums. They are available here
Aqualung performed a sold out show at London's Bush Hall in November 2022 and there are plans for more live shows in the UK, US and Japan in 2023.