In the clutter of everyday life, Matt Keating’s songs help you to see the stuff that was there the whole time. “He is a cult hero worth cultivating” (Stereo Review)
Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Matt Keating has been playing his “beautiful and honest songs of substance and melancholy” (TimeOut London) to audiences, since his Alias Records debut, Tell It to Yourself was released in 1993. “In a career spanning more than 20 years, Matt Keating has established himself as one of America’s great under-the-radar songwriters.”-NPR Music
Raised in a family that was constantly moving around the country gave him a lot of time to himself. “Always being the new kid in town, I felt pretty confused as to where I fit in and found music and songwriting to offer the reliable internal landscape I’d been missing externally and geographically. When the song is coming together, I feel like I finally understand the workings of the universe and that I belong.”
Keating has a melancholy burr and a downbeat phrasing which adds great dramatic impact to his succinctly observed stories of the lovelorn and broken-down. Sounding jangly and Beatles/Byrdsian in places and depressing the dramatic button when needed, he balances the beauty of abject failure with the hummable excess of impractical success perfectly.
Dave Henderson, Q Magazine
After forming the band Circle Sky (named after the Monkees song) with friends from college in Ithaca, NY. He moved with the band to Boston, MA in 1984 to join the burgeoning live music scene there. To support himself, he got a job playing Hammond B3 in a mafia club on the North Shore 4 nights a week. Circle Sky ultimately peaked in 1989 by being chosen by David Bowie to open for his band Tin Machine at the World in NYC.
The band broke up soon after, and Matt went to Europe where he became a street performer until eventually finding a home in New York City.
In 1992, Los Angeles based Indy Rock label Alias Records heard his music and signed him to a record deal resulting in a series of critically acclaimed releases. Tell It To Yourself (1993) was followed by Satan Sings (1993), Scaryarea (1994), Candy Valentine (1995), and Killjoy (1997). He toured throughout the 90’s, enjoying extensive Triple AAA radio play and MTV exposure with the video for his song, McHappiness.
In 2001 he caught the ear of Alan McGee of Creation Records (Oasis, Teenage Fan Club) and Poptones, resulting in the Poptones UK release of his 6th record, Tiltawhirl. Tiltawhirl was also re-released in 2003 on the American label, Future Farmer Records.
Summer Tonight (Redeye) was released in 2006, followed by Quixotic (Red Music) 2008, Between Customers (Red Parlour) 2010, Wrong Way Home Sojourn Records 2012 and This Perfect Crime (Janglewood Records) 2015.
Matt also is due to release of a collection of re-recordings of some of the best of his Alias Records catalogue called Greatest Misses on his own label Janglewood Records in 2019.
In 2016 he started the band, Bastards of Fine Arts with fellow songwriter/multi- instrumentalist Steve Mayone along with his longtime bandmates Jason Mercer and Greg Wieczorek. Their debut album is due to be released in 2019.
He currently lives in New York City where he continues to write, record, perform, produce and teach music in his home studio, Janglewood.