The job of a city councillor can often be all-consuming because the issues they have to deal with are happening 24/7. With that in mind, the most difficult task a city councillor faces is in trying to find a reasonable work-life balance. Most have families. And some, like Orléans East – Cumberland councillor Matt Luloff have young children.

Balancing being a father and a husband and a city councillor is no easy task, but throw in the fact that he is also a talented singer songwriter and you have the makings of a very busy life.

Before he got elected to city council and before the Afghan War veteran joined the Canadian military, Luloff was the lead singer in a number of different bands in Orléans, dating back to the days when he was a high school student at St. Matts.

After graduating from high school, Luloff joined the Governor General’s Foot Guards and eventually enlisted in the regular forces. Throughout his basic training and his tour of duty in Afghanistan, his guitar was his constant companion, as was his notebook in which he jotted down ideas for new songs.

After he received a medical discharge in 2009, he kept writing as an outlet for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which lead to the formation of the band Hearts&Mines, a play on the policy of meeting with village elders to win the hearts and minds of the locals in Afghanistan.

The band played dozens of gigs in Ottawa and even toured along the 401 corridor. They also recorded four albums before breaking up in 2016 when Luloff was elected to city council.

After he was elected, Luloff continued to write and eventually started to record and produce his songs in his home studio, usually late in the evening after putting his daughters Elizabeth and Madeleine to bed.

Over the past year, he has produced five EPs containing 19 songs, all but two of which are original songs that he’s written himself.

The first EP was released last December. The second one in February. The third one in March. The fourth one in May. And the fifth just last month.

The latest EP is made up of five songs, “Over Now For Us”, “So Lonely”, “All Because of Love” “End of Heartache”, and “Let You Down”.

All of the songs, including many from the earlier EPs, can be found on Spotify and Apple Music.

Luloff not only sings and plays guitar on the recordings, but he plays the other instruments as well except for a guest appearance by his former bandmate with Hearts&Mines, Scott Norris who plays lead guitar on “So Lonely” and a cover of Killswitch’s “End of Heartache” which also features the screeching vocals of Michael Labelle on the parts where Luloff didn’t want to wreck his voice.

For Luloff, writing music is both cathartic and a necessary extension of himself.

“I have to write. I write all the time,” says Luloff. “It builds up inside of me and I have to get it out. It’s what I’ve always used to deal with difficulty things, bigger thoughts, bigger feelings and bigger ideas. I often listen to songs after I’ve recorded them and learn about myself from what I’ve written. It’s like self therapy.”

As for any kind of message he’s trying to convey to his audience, he simply wants them to hopefully come away with a view and understanding of the human experience that they might share through the music and words.

“Of course, I want them to like it, but I can’t control that,” says Luloff. “In a way I’m writing for me and not so much for the person who will listen to it. If they can relate to it than that’s great. That’s what I mean by sharing the human experience.”

While his music can be found on Spotify and Apple Music Luloff isn’t planning to perform any of it live anytime soon. For one thing he would need a band which could learn the music with the intention of performing just one or two shows, and for another he would need the time, which as both a city councillor and the father of two young daughters, he doesn’t have a lot of.