Matt White 'Do You Believe' album

Take one listen to the music of Matt White and you’re hooked. His songs are relatable—you’ll think of the one who got your heart, the pains and pleasures of growing up and the remarkable journey in discovering just who the heck you are. Drawing inspiration from Elton John, Jeff Buckley, and Coldplay, (He’s like Maroon 5 in one person), Do You Believe, marks the arrival of a gifted songwriter who draws from his own experience. Matt White delivers a song with a smooth voice that will immediately put the listener at ease.

Music is in Matt’s DNA—his grandmother was among the first jazz orchestra leaders in the 1930s. He grew up in New Jersey and started taking piano lessons when he was three-years-old. Sure, he was a member of the swim and lacrosse teams throughout high school, but it was making music that made him happiest. Being the romantic he is, he followed a girl to the University of Wisconsin where he taught himself to play guitar since he “couldn’t fit a piano” in his room. Upon graduation, Matt returned to his favorite place in the world, New York City, and had a different kind of education. Knowing the streets of the city as well as he knows his own songs, he took his guitar to Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village and Bleeker Street, performing on the sidewalks and in the parks. “I think I always knew deep down I would be a musician but after graduating, I was still trying to figure things out,” he says. “I think everyone around that age does.”

He started playing with local artists in clubs like Joe’s Pub and the Living Room and gradually built up a strong following on the net—he currently has over 45,000 friends on his myspace.com page. Soon after, he signed with Geffen Records and released the EP Bleeker Street Stories. Released in the spring of 2006, Bleeker Street Stories has sold over 15,000 songs on iTunes.

It also only takes one time for you to meet him to know that you already like him. Tell him your name once and he’ll remember it. He cracks jokes and can laugh at himself with a raw honesty that’s refreshing and his album is proof of that. Getting dumped, being spontaneous are the themes on the album, along with his favorite topic of all: girls. “I fall in love easily and the album is almost like a diary about my different relationships” says Matt. “My first girlfriend thinks the whole album is about her and she tells everyone that and it drives me crazy. Actually, all the girls I dated think the songs are about them.”

His first single, “Best Days,” is “about a girl, whom I cannot name, who challenged me to go camping—I’m the guy who’d rather sleep in a hotel and watch Spectra Vision,” Matt admits. “So we went but she never called me after that. Maybe my second album will be about abandonment.”

“I’ll Be There” has a darker melody, and the grand piano will remind you of The Fray. “It’s about a girl who wanted to leave me and follow her dreams. It’s a love letter to her telling her I’d be waiting for her,” he says. “But I didn’t stay there,” he pauses. “Get it?”

The melody to “Miracles” came to Matt one night and the lyrics were inspired by a “very pretty girl who was out of my league,” he says. “So I thought it was a miracle in and of itself that I got her!”

Since Matt spent so much of his youth in New York City, it was inevitable that the people there would have a major influence on his life, hence the song, “New York Girls.” “I felt that all these New York girls were kids that had adult problems and I’m like dude these girls are crazy.”

“Love” is a different and classic love song describing “how crazy and stupid and silly and kind of absurd the whole game of love is.” It was also prominently featured in the 2005 film, Little Manhattan.

Matt’s a doer. He’s played over 100 shows this year alone and hosts weekly online chats. Chances are you’ve already heard his songs on Laguna Beach, The Hills, Men in Trees and in the 2005 movie, She’s The Man. His album asks, “Do You Believe?” and chances are once you listen, you will.

Old biography

From the rarified air of Lincoln Center to the down and dirty streets of Greenwich Village, Matt White has long been on a journey towards finding his ideal form of musical expression. Now, with Do You Believe, the New York City-based singer/songwriter has crafted an album that brilliantly captures the depth and breadth of his artistic vision. Marked by an organic, acoustic-based sonic approach that matches perfectly with White’s vivid vocals and earnest lyricism, songs such as “Miracles” and the buoyant first single, “Best Days,” are alive with raw, heartfelt emotions that are simultaneously deeply personal and wholly universal. A truly extraordinary debut, Do You Believe represents the arrival of Matt White as one of today’s most intriguing and gifted new artists.

Making music was the New Jersey-born White’s destiny from the very beginning. In fact, music ran in his blood – his parents played violin and piano, while his grandmother was among the first female jazz orchestra leaders of the 1930s. White studied piano at the Manhattan School of Music from the tender age of 3, training in classical performance, music theory and later, jazz improvisation. He quickly displayed a precocious talent for arrangement and composition, at 11 penning an opera which saw him winning a prestigious Metropolitan Opera competition.

“To be honest, I never really excelled at any of it,” White says. “It was more like I spoke on the piano. Music was my way of articulating myself.”

After high school, White attended the University of Wisconsin, where he taught himself to play guitar, mostly for expediency’s sake – “I couldn’t fit a piano in my college room,” he laughs. He returned to NYC upon graduation and began playing with a variety of local bands, indulging his passion for live musical performance on a nightly basis. More significantly, he started taking his guitar to Washington Square Park, jamming with street musicians and singing his songs for passers-by. The experience proved more of an education than all his years in academia.

“That’s where I really learned my skills,” he says. “It was so free, so liberating. I was the youngest kid there. It was mostly me and all these street people, ex-drug addicts and people like that. But they were also really talented. The Village is incredible – you really feel the spirit of Dylan and all the Sixties folk singers when you’re playing there.”

Proudly inspired by the pantheon of rock ‘n’ roll – Dylan, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin – as well as idiosyncratic tunesmiths like Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, White’s songwriting and unique pick-free playing soon came into full flower. Before long, he was filling New York clubs like Joe’s Pub and the Living Room, a local success that soon spread like wildfire via the net, with his myspace page – www.myspace.com/matthewwhite – logging a remarkable following over 20,000 strong.

It wasn’t long before White flew to Los Angeles in search of a deal. Making his very first visit to Geffen HQ, he literally entered the building guitar in hand, singing his songs to everyone he met, from security guards and receptionists to the label’s top executives. “People were like, ‘Who is this kid?’” he recalls, “but it was what I needed to do. I couldn’t just walk in there and take it out of the case – I needed to feel my guitar in my hands.”

Signed within days, White set to work at Hollywood’s Henson Recording Studios, with legendary producer Thom Panunzio (Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop) at the helm. When the sessions wrapped, White knew he’d largely nailed it, but still felt the need to push himself even further. He continued writing and recording demos, eventually teaming up with renowned producer/mixer Jack Joseph Puig (John Mayer, the Black Crowes, Sheryl Crow), whose involvement provided just the spark White was hoping for.

“Jack was able to give it the kind of mysterious quality I was looking for,” White says. “Not only does he have an amazing ear, he has a team of unbelievable musicians that he works with. I was so grateful to have these people around me, helping me do what I needed to do to get it done.”

White’s studio labors were indeed well warranted. Do You Believe is positively breathing with infectious melodies and lively rhythms, all made indelible via White’s imaginative guitar-playing and vocal stylings, which veer from intimately conversational to soaring falsetto. From the joyous “New York Girls” to the spirited “Play,” the album serves as an aural history of White’s life thus far, touching on themes of love and loss and longing that ultimately become powerful representations of the collective emotions which touch all our lives. One of the album’s highpoints, “Love” – featured in the 2005 film, Little Manhattan – is about “how crazy and stupid and silly and kind of absurd the whole game is.”

“They’re stories,” he explains, “but they’re also autobiographical. In a way, it’s like keeping a diary. I think I define myself through the songs.”

With Do You Believe complete, White is itching to get back to his big love – playing live. His first order of business upon finishing the album was to put together a crack band with whom he says he’d ideally be playing “30 shows in 30 days.” Having spent much of the last two years in the studio, Matt White is now ready to bring his beautiful music to the wide world outside.

“I want to tour for the next two or three years,” he says. “I don’t want to stop until I can sell out Madison Square Garden. I know that sounds crazy, but after all the ups and downs, I think I really made a great, unique-sounding album and now I just want to play it for as many people as I can.”

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Matt White - Do You Believe