Matt Gresham
Biography Matt Gresham
Matt Gresham
Raised on backyard jam sessions and good surf, Matt Gresham is a down to earth Aussie muso who dreams big. With the likes of Jeff Buckley, Cat Stevens and John Mayer in the inspiration arsenal, Matt’s honest and arresting voice is his strongest weapon, captivating audiences from Perth to Paris and back again—because love of country, friends and family always seems to draw him home
eventually.
Like so many of us, Matt uses music to help make sense of his life. “I get it all out through music” he admits. “It helps me process certain experiences and transform negative emotions into something positive. These days it’s easy to just run away from certain things. In my music, I face these things.”
The result is a thing of beauty—simple yet powerful pop music built around a raw, acoustic core. Full of dynamics, momentum and hope, it’s a soundtrack to the best moments in life that helps you get over the worst.
Though a talkative and sunny personality, Matt wields a quiet intensity on stage that can truly hold a room, his audiences enthralled by a feather-light falsetto that skips the ears and flies straight for the heart.
After years rocking local festivals and practically every watering hole on the west coast, a killer SXSW performance landed Matt a record deal with Warner Germany, prompting a move to Berlin which has seen Matt expand his technical repertoire, channel the challenges and inspirations of life in Europe into his songwriting and learn some good old fashioned German discipline along the way.
“I used to freestyle everything—in music and in life— but last year that all changed, I’m obsessed with rehearsing!” A higher level of professionalism, Matt explains how his new approach shed much of his anxiety and freed him up to lose himself in performance. “A good way to think about it is that it’s like wearing your favourite clothes. You’ve just bought them, and you know they look good, you just know it. That's what it feels like on stage when you've rehearsed.”
Though Matt flies the acoustic flag proudly, he’s not afraid to push genre boundaries, feeding influences from hip hop, RNB and underground electronica into his forthcoming debut album, collaborating with the eclectic likes of LA songwriter Jaymes Young and New York rapper Talib Kweli.
With the album release just around the corner, and support slots on international tours with James Arthur, Guy Sebastien and Shane Filan in the bag, Matt is breaking new ground across the water… but his roots run deep. When touring Australia, he still returns to many of the local venues that gave him his first start. “I’ve been playing these venues since I was 18… it's a really beautiful scene to be part of.”
Full of gratitude, Matt sends a lot of love out into the world—and now he’s getting a lot back, with European audiences waking up to the sandy-haired crooner from the south. A minimalist in life, he applies the same philosophy to his music. “I want to go as far as I can really, but the original goal is just to make music that makes people feel something.” Forget the fanfare, the possessions, the hype and the bullshit. Matt Gresham gives you truth.
