Matthew Ifield On New Album And Whirlwind Debut India Tour

Matthew Ifield had big news after wrapping up the Bengaluru show on his four-city debut India tour on Jul. 19, 2025—he was going to release his debut album My Favourite Place To Be in August.

The 20-year-old Sydney singer-songwriter known for his comforting, vulnerable and charming vocal style and love songs like “I Think They Call This Love,” “Blossom,” “Just Say the Words,” and, more recently, “When I Loved You” was welcomed with cheers in Bengaluru. “Hi cutie!” someone shouted out just as he got on stage. Ifield, just grinning, started off with a melancholic vocal-centric track.

Throughout the set—which traveled to Mumbai, Guwahati and Delhi NCR as part of a tour organized by ticketing company SkillBox—it was clear that everyone who was there was into Ifield’s music, and not just there to be seen. He’s part of the wave of singer-songwriters who emerged as streaming stars during the pandemic, now going on to command a room’s attention just by singing from the heart—never mind that they’re all kind of variations of the same theme of heartbreak and love.

When you hear songs like “When I Loved You,” “Blossom,” “Like I Do,” “Ready For Love,” and his cover of Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I Found You,” it’s clear that Ifield lives to write love songs. “It’s an endless sort of inspiration, right?” he tells Rolling Stone India, just a few hours before going on stage at the Bengaluru show. “A portion of it comes from personal experience. Other songs come from movies or TV shows that I’ve watched. I do, obviously, make it more dramatic than it actually sounds.” When asked about whether he’ll write something else for a change, Ifield laughs. “I think maybe I’ll write a song about coming to India and how amazing it is,” he says, only half-joking.

We’re seated in a backroom office at the Bengaluru venue Gylt, where the staff has temporarily cleared out to make space for the interview. Ifield, dressed in a plain white T-shirt and green cargo pants, comes across as quietly confident and jovial, pausing slightly just before answering each question. For our video interview, he darts up the amphitheater-like steps of the brewery and finds the perfect spot. He ends up liking the space so much, he later films his album announcement video there too, flanked by a few plants and a bird’s-eye view of suburban Bengaluru.

His latest single “Start from Scratch” was also part of the set, performed by bassist Lauren White, drummer Holly Conner and Indian indie act Easy Wanderlings’ guitarist-vocalist Sharad Rao (who was filling in for Tash Wolf). Ifield says on stage by way of introducing the song, “It’s pretty intense, I don’t know if you can handle it.”

While several international artists with varying audience sizes have been making their way to India, Ifield says the country has only recently started appearing more prominently in his fanbase, which is largely concentrated in South Asian countries. He says, “Southeast Asia has always been my main audience, but more recently, in the past six months, India has started [becoming] number one. I’m not fully sure why, but it’s incredible.”

From sampling masala dosa to linking up with Mumbai pop artist and DJ-producer Kayan (“She’s an incredible singer”), Ifield calls his India experience “amazing so far.” He adds, “It’s such a beautiful place and I’ve been wanting to come to India all my life. I’ve only really seen it in TV shows and movies, and things like that. And just the chaos doesn’t translate into the movies—when you’re actually in India and you see all the chaos and the traffic and all of that.”

Releasing music since around 2021, Ifield is among the artists who have built a massive following online (currently at over 820,000 Instagram followers), so he never really had to worry about playing to an empty room. One of his first headline gigs in Sydney drew in at least 300 people.

Ifield quotes the number even while talking about how online streaming stats have converted into ticket-buying audiences on ground. “Even just seeing 300 people in one room is insane. So to think that I have 800,000 people [on Instagram]. When you look at it as a number, you can’t picture it in your head if 800,000 people were standing in front of you, let alone 300 people. So last night we played a show in Mumbai, and that was just crazy. I think we had 450 people and it was just the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced,” he says.

The artist has gone on to support the likes of singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin and alt act Lake Street Dive in recent years. For India, he spoke with fellow Aussie act The Paper Kites who toured India earlier this year and singer-songwriter Anthony Lazaro (the two collaborated on the song “Another You”) about what to expect. “They [the Paper Kites] said it was really fun. He [Lazaro] said it was awesome,” Ifield says.

Ifield tries to guess why India has steadily become his biggest audience online in the last six months, and points out that he saw some signs of it on ground at his opening tour date in Mumbai. “A lot of people at that show said they felt a connection with my voice. It was quite overwhelming for them and they got really emotional. So I think there’s a combination of the songwriting and my voice. Also, I noticed last night: it’s really easy to crack jokes and just have a lot of fun because they’re always super happy,” he says.

Much like his on-stage presence, Ifield’s songwriting is often guided by a “vibe” rather than any genre. That’s probably why you can hear a bit of everything, from pop to jazz to hip-hop, in his discography and features. We might just hear more genre-hopping from Ifield on his upcoming album. Shortly after, he’s determined to do more tours around Southeast Asia, as well as in the US and back home in Australia. He’s quick to add, “I’m definitely coming back to India. That’s a definite yes. I don’t know when. But after that show last night, it was just me thinking, ‘That was awesome.’”