Matthew Holtby, Yesterday

With Yesterday, released on March 27, 2026 via Pacifirecords, Matthew Holtby uses the short format to condense three songs that feel more like emotional snapshots than definitive statements. The EP brings together “Be Good,” “Yesterday,” and “This Opportunity,” forming a minimal tracklist that leans fully on songwriting, tone, and intimacy.

The feeling throughout is one of deliberate restraint. Holtby, a Canadian songwriter from Warkworth, Ontario, has a background that includes projects such as The Champion Heartache, The Coachlites, and Say Ritual, and here that experience seems distilled into something more contained, bare, and direct. The result is an EP that moves between indie rock, alternative pop, and singer-songwriter sensibility with a handmade sense of balance.

There is something intentionally understated about Yesterday. The fact that it has been presented as an acoustic EP only strengthens that impression. This is a project built around closeness rather than scale, a small body of work where voice, melody, and the emotional weight of the lyrics matter more than impact. The songs seem to reach for a clear kind of honesty, leaving space for a reflective melancholy that the title already hints at.

Its brevity is one of the EP’s strongest qualities. Be Good opens with a measured tone that sets the atmosphere well, Yesterday places memory and emotional afterglow at the center of the record, and This Opportunity closes with a sense of openness that keeps the project from sinking too deeply into nostalgia. Across only three tracks, Holtby creates an arc that feels coherent, human, and easy to follow. The decision to keep the format concise works in its favor.

On the production side, the same sense of focus carries through. The EP was recorded by Rob DeBoer and Matthew Holtby and mixed by Rob DeBoer, which gives the project a close and undistracted feel. That compactness is reflected in the record’s identity. It never depends on heavy layering or oversized gestures to leave an impression.

Yesterday does not try to dominate through scale. It works because it stays close to the song itself, to its emotional structure, and to its ability to evoke a precise feeling without overloading it. It is a small EP, but one fully aware of its own dimensions. That is exactly why it comes across as intimate, convincing, and sharply focused.