Matt Maltese
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40 free Matt Maltese trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Matt Maltese writes wry, tender songs about heartbreak and the end of the world, and a few of them have travelled much further than anyone expected. Curl Up & Die remains a fan favourite, while As the World Caves In found a huge second audience years after it first came out. This quiz covers the stories behind those songs, his studio albums and covers, the producers and guests he has worked with, and his detours into theatre and running a label. There are questions about his early life too, from his family to how he paid his way into the business. It is written for fans who know the deep cuts as well as newer listeners who arrived through one viral song. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more than when you started.
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Q 01Matt Maltese's As the World Caves In imagines Donald Trump romancing which British prime minister?
Theresa May
Theresa May was in Downing Street when the song came out in 2017, and Maltese hoped the pairing would feel romantic, sinister and stupid all at once.
Q 02Which Last of Us star sings under an alias on a 2025 version of Matt Maltese's Cure for Emptiness?
Bella Ramsey
Bella Ramsey records as Bello, and Maltese said the two had been making music together for about a year before the duet appeared.
Q 03As a teenager, Matt Maltese funded his move to a small room in Camden by buying and selling what?
Vinyl records
Vinyl records paid his way to the capital at 17 or 18, where he worked in a café while writing his early songs.
Q 04Matt Maltese says he missed a university place by one mark after getting a D in which subject?
Music Performance
Music Performance, of all things, cost him the place, a detail the now-professional performer recalled with an eye-roll.
Q 05Which Matt Maltese album, home to Curl Up & Die, is named after shop signs he saw from London buses?
Krystal
Krystal is not a real person: Maltese said he kept seeing the name on shopfronts near his home off the Old Kent Road in South London.
Q 06On which app did Matt Maltese's As the World Caves In blow up in 2021, four years after its release?
TikTok
TikTok gave the 2017 single a second life, yet Maltese says he was not even on the app when it went viral.
Q 07Matt Maltese wrote his first stage score for which Royal Shakespeare Company comedy in 2024?
Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night opened in Stratford-upon-Avon that December with his original music, including a Christmas song written just for the production.
Q 08Matt Maltese said his single Curl Up & Die is about the disgusting, absurd force of what?
Love
Love drove the first song listeners heard with Maltese's own production, after outside producers had shaped his debut.
Q 09A chat with which relative about his breakup inspired Matt Maltese's first Driving Just to Drive single?
His mother
His mother felt the split too, and Maltese realised a breakup spreads change and grief through everyone around a couple.
Q 10In Matt Maltese's As the World Caves In, two leaders share a final evening before triggering what?
Nuclear war
Nuclear war was on his mind because Britain's leaders were talking about renewing the Trident missile programme when he wrote it.
Q 11Matt Maltese was born to Canadian parents but grew up in which large town west of London?
Reading
Reading still surfaces in his writing: memories of rail replacement journeys there fed the nostalgia of his single Buses Replace Trains.
Q 12Which American singer's cover of Matt Maltese's As the World Caves In went viral in 2021 and later went gold?
Sarah Cothran
Sarah Cothran first posted it as three short clips before a full release, and she later wrote the song Funeral with Maltese in Nashville.
Q 13Which title did Matt Maltese give his 2018 debut album, produced largely by Jonathan Rado?
Bad Contestant
Bad Contestant swings between heartbreak and jokes at his own expense, and NPR noted how much apocalypse runs through its songs.
Q 21Which major label released Matt Maltese's debut album, then dropped him before his second?
Atlantic
Atlantic had signed him through its Café Bleu imprint, and Maltese says being dropped turned his second album into proving himself to himself.
Q 22Jonathan Rado, producer of Matt Maltese's debut album, is best known as half of which indie rock duo?
Foxygen
Foxygen were long-time favourites of Maltese, who called it surreal to work with their guitarist.
Q 23Hugo White, who produced Matt Maltese's As the World Caves In, played guitar in which London indie band?
The Maccabees
The Maccabees also gave Maltese an early break, booking him as a support act for some of their farewell shows.
Q 14Matt Maltese recorded and produced Curl Up & Die in which room of his Elephant & Castle home?
His bedroom
His bedroom doubled as a studio after he lost his major-label deal, and he made nearly all of that second album alone there.
Q 15Which songwriter did Matt Maltese name as his obsession when he was younger, alongside Joni Mitchell?
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen stayed with him: an interviewer later spotted the sleeve of Death of a Ladies' Man pinned to his wall.
Q 16Which British pop singer recut her single Cate's Brother with Matt Maltese as Matt's Version?
Maisie Peters
Maisie Peters chose the subtitle as a nod to the re-recorded albums of Taylor Swift, her main musical influence.
Q 17Which Sixpence None the Richer hit was Matt Maltese's first single from Songs That Aren't Mine?
Kiss Me
Kiss Me opened a run of covers Maltese called his favourite songs since childhood, recorded at home with friends.
Q 18A cover of Matt Maltese's As the World Caves In plays in the first episode of which teen drama?
The Summer I Turned Pretty
The Summer I Turned Pretty used the viral cover in June 2022, and The Morning Show featured the same recording the following year.
Q 19Which Avril Lavigne hit did Matt Maltese rework for his 2024 covers album Songs That Aren't Mine?
Complicated
Complicated became a song about looking back on a past relationship in his hands, one of thirteen covers on the album.
Q 20Matt Maltese recorded most of his debut album over twelve days in which American city?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles left him with nothing but good memories: his producer kept calling in musician friends, including a drummer who was a part-time actor.
Q 24Which Frank Ocean collaborator produced Matt Maltese's Jupiter, a single released after Curl Up & Die?
Vegyn
Vegyn was a rare outside pair of hands on a record Maltese otherwise wrote and recorded almost entirely alone.
Q 25Which American indie-folk artist was the first signing to Matt Maltese's label Last Recordings on Earth?
Searows
Searows, the alias of Oregon-raised Alec Duckart, had toured with Maltese a year earlier, and his single Older was the label's first release.
Q 26Matt Maltese covered My Funny Valentine for a 2025 tribute album to which jazz trumpeter and vocalist?
Chet Baker
Chet Baker made the ballad one of his signature songs; Maltese set his version against shimmering guitar and hazy keyboards.
Q 27Matt Maltese features on Orla Gartland's So Perfect, written for the soundtrack of which Apple TV comedy?
Trying
Trying reached its fifth season with a soundtrack by Gartland, who wrote eight songs for it including this collaboration.
Q 28Matt Maltese co-wrote and played guitar on Thank You, from which songwriter's The Theory of Whatever?
Jamie T
Jamie T released the album in 2022 as his fifth, with Maltese also singing backing vocals on the track.
Q 29Which singer did a 2018 Vice headline call Matt Maltese a new and improved version of?
Morrissey
Morrissey comparisons follow him: asked whether anyone had noticed how alike their voices can sound, Maltese said he gets that on YouTube a lot and is a big fan of the singer's work.
Q 30Matt Maltese's satirical, apocalyptic lyrics are most often compared with those of which fellow Jonathan Rado client?
Father John Misty
Father John Misty is the comparison Maltese hears most, though he stresses that, unlike Josh Tillman's alter ego, there is no persona behind his own songs.