Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon break with our Afternoon Tea curators. Need an extra lump of sugar? One more sip? If you have five minutes more (or ten), we have one more hit.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Matty Simpson.
Hamilton, Ontario singer-songwriter and guitarist Matty Simpson shares “Boxcar Baby,” a melancholic and introspective folk rock single rooted in empathy, observation, and the quiet resilience of people surviving on the margins. Blending organic roots instrumentation with vivid storytelling, the track paints a portrait of loneliness and perseverance while reflecting on the fragile balance between hardship and hope.
Inspired by real interactions in his neighbourhood, “Boxcar Baby” emerged from Simpson’s reflections on the bottle collectors and unhoused individuals he encountered regularly. “Songwriting is a cathartic experience for me, and events and situations that are happening in my daily life often come out when I’m writing,” he explains. “This song portrays a vagrant type character living in desperation.”
The title itself carries symbolic weight. Drawn from a spontaneous lyrical phrase that surfaced during one of Simpson’s meditative songwriting sessions, “Boxcar Baby” references a Great Depression-era term for train hoppers searching for a better life. “Often lines in songs just come out of me, making up sounds and words in a meditative-like state when playing my guitar,” Simpson says. “When I look back on what I was doing, I can get pieces of the puzzle that I’m putting together.”
Stream + share “Boxcar Baby” now:
At the emotional centre of the song is a real-life story that deeply affected him. A bottle collector who kept his shopping cart behind Simpson’s house shared how he would climb Hamilton’s escarpment in freezing temperatures to retrieve carts and gather enough bottles to afford a room and a few beers. “His routine would continue even in mid January, with sub-zero temperatures,” Simpson recalls. Wanting to help, he began collecting bottles from friends and neighbours to help fill the man’s cart himself.
Musically, “Boxcar Baby” leans into an organic and understated production style that allows the songwriting to remain front and centre. Produced alongside Aaron Goldstein, the recordings were captured live off the floor with the band performing together in the room. “The idea is always to get out of the way of the song and just give it as much as it needs,” Simpson explains. “The song can stand alone with me and an acoustic guitar. The production should support that and not try to change or get in the way of that.”
Longtime collaborator and partner Justine Fischer also played an important role in shaping the material. “Together, we are able to bounce ideas off each other and refine a piece of music or edit the lyrics,” Simpson shares. “We will perform songs to an audience to see what works and what doesn’t, and usually you can tell pretty quickly that way.”
“Boxcar Baby” appears on Simpson’s forthcoming album Sky Breaks at Dawn, a body of work that explores uncertainty, healing, love, time, and perseverance. Across the record, Simpson reflects on the tension between decay and renewal; the way time can both heal and wear us down. “We learn to live with that balance,” he says. “Finding moments of peace in a world of perpetual chaos. Hope and acceptance, appreciating the moment while prioritizing love.”
One Tea: Honey Ginger
I wandered into a small grocery store owned by an East Indian family and I found this honey ginger tea that I’ve been hooked ever since. I find it helps open the airway and helps me breathe better, which is very important for feeling positive and being able to focus.
One Piece of Art:
I chose this mural painted by Robyn Lightwalker and Natasha Rose. I used to drive past this piece everyday on my way to work. I would admire it and look forward to seeing it. I later learned that the subject in the piece was actually someone I had met in real life. After learning that, it was so obvious to me. I knew I had recognized this face, but I never put it together. I love how art can connect with real life and community through realism and still be completely imaginative and take you to profound places.
One Piece of Music:
I chose the piece “Serious Mind” by Martin Verrall. To me, Martin seems like a lone wolf kind of character and I can relate to that. I can envision him in an apartment somewhere, writing these words, maybe sipping tea, just like I am now. I get a real sense of longing from this song. I can imagine him writing and pondering the phrasing or something to put it together. Maybe similar to the way I’m pondering on it as the listener, trying to grasp what he’s envisioning. I’m not sure if we always receive songs exactly as they are intended by the writer. That itself is a “Serious Mind F&$@“. Martin’s work has so much beauty in it, I could spend hours taking in the lyrics in different ways, allowing my mind to wander and run with different concepts that I come up with while I listen. I think that’s what great writing does.
Tea + Me 