American musician
Mat Kearney
|
---|
|
|
Born
| (
1978-12-01
)
December 1, 1978
(age 45)
Eugene, Oregon
, U.S.
|
---|
Origin
| Nashville, Tennessee
, U.S.
|
---|
Genres
| |
---|
Occupation(s)
| Singer, songwriter
|
---|
Instrument(s)
| Vocals, guitar, piano
|
---|
Years active
| 2003?present
|
---|
Labels
| |
---|
Spouse(s)
|
Annie Sims Kearney
(
m.
2010)
|
---|
|
Website
| matkearney
.com
|
---|
Musical artist
Mathew William Kearney
[1]
(
; born December 1, 1978) is an American musician born in
Eugene, Oregon
, and based in
Nashville, Tennessee
.
[2]
So far, he has a total of five top 20 hits on the Adult Top 40 Chart.
Just Kids
was released on February 24, 2015. The album's first single, "Heartbeat", was released on November 4, 2014.
[3]
Crazytalk
was released on May 4, 2018, and January Flower was released on Jan 29, 2021.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Kearney was born on December 1, 1978, and raised in
Eugene, Oregon
, with his two brothers.
[4]
At
South Eugene High School
, Kearney was a soccer player.
[5]
He attended
California State University, Chico
in
Chico, California
, on an athletic scholarship and majored in literature, playing soccer until his junior year. Kearney first became interested in music after traveling to
Nashville
with music producer Robert Marvin.
[5]
Using a roommate's guitar, he tried covering songs by other artists, but realized he was not very good at it, and began writing his own. Though things were going well for Kearney at school, the partying atmosphere at Chico caught up to him. In an interview, Kearney said, "I guess I lived it up and did what everyone said you should do in college. I discovered the depth of depravity, the bleakness of that lifestyle. It just wasn't working. I finally started understanding there must be more to life."
[6]
Kearney began focusing on music fusing his simple guitar playing with spoken word or rap. He started to play at coffee shops and soon began to make small amounts of money. At this time, Kearney had met friend and future producer, Robert Marvin. The two began to make music together, but Marvin had plans to move to Nashville, Tennessee. Marvin asked Kearney to help with the move and he accepted. Kearney says, "I helped him pack up his trailer and we put a mattress on the back of his truck. We basically drove cross-country and slept in the back. When we pulled into Nashville we slept in a school parking lot for three days until we finally rented this apartment where the roof was caving in and mice were crawling all over." Kearney decided to stay in Nashville to record a few demos with Marvin and after a few months, Kearney had no plans on returning. "By the end of the summer, we had three or four songs and I realized this is what I wanted to do. It just clicked. So I called home to Oregon and said, 'I'm not coming back' and I never left Nashville."
[6]
Recording career
[
edit
]
On April 18, 2006, Kearney's second album and major-label debut, titled
Nothing Left to Lose
, was released. It contains several reworked songs from Kearney's first album
Bullet
, as well as some new material, and has sold over 450,000 copies to date.
[
citation needed
]
The title track "Nothing Left to Lose" was the first single from the album, peaking at No. 41 on the
Billboard
Hot 100
for the week of February 10, 2007. The single has sold over 500,000 copies and won numerous BMI awards.
[
specify
]
The track "All I Need" was featured on
Grey's Anatomy
and
NCIS
. It peaked at No. 94 on the
Billboard
Pop 100
. To promote
Nothing Left to Lose
, Kearney toured with
John Mayer
,
Sheryl Crow
,
Train
,
Mutemath
,
Meiko
, and
Cary Brothers
throughout 2005, '06, and '07; he also headlined VH1's first ever "You Oughta Know Tour" in early 2007.
Kearney's following album,
City of Black & White
, was released through
Columbia Records
on May 19, 2009. He collaborated with Nashville artists such as
Trent Dabbs
,
Matthew Perryman Jones
, Kate York,
Paul Moak
, Daniel James, Will Sayles, and Josiah Bell. Robert Marvin (
tobyMac
,
Britt Nicole
), the producer of Kearney's previous albums and EPs, joined him yet again. The lead single was "
Closer To Love
", and it received much airplay, on both secular and Christian outlets. His second single is "All I Have", the last song he wrote before releasing the album.
In May 2009, Kearney toured with
Keane
and
The Helio Sequence
for several weeks to promote
City of Black & White
.
[7]
It debuted on the
Billboard
200
at No. 13. He toured with
Owl City
and
Unwed Sailor
on Owl City's "All Things Bright and Beautiful Tour".
Young Love
was released August 2, 2011. The album's first single, "Hey Mama", was released on May 10, 2011. "Hey Mama" charted in the Top 40 of Adult Pop Songs at No. 22. The second single "Down" charted as high as No. 23 on the
Christian Songs
chart.
[8]
Just Kids
, was released on February 24, 2015.
[
non-primary source needed
]
The album's first single, "Heartbeat", was released on November 4, 2014. He toured with both Judah and the Lion and Parachute during his "Just Kids" tour in 2015.
[3]
From August 17, 2016, through November 12, 2016, Kearney toured with
Needtobreathe
for their second annual Tour de Compadres, where he performed songs from his albums
Nothing Left to Lose
,
Young Love
, and
Just Kids
.
[10]
On December 13, 2016, Kearney signed with independent music company Big Loud Mountain Management.
[11]
On February 3, 2017, Kearney released a song with
Filous
, titled "Goodbye".
[12]
Kearney released a self-titled EP on December 22, 2017, previewing new tracks from his forthcoming album,
Crazy Talk
.
[13]
Mat Kearney released his sixth album,
Crazytalk
, May 4, 2018, to average reviews.
[14]
Kearney did a two-month long Crazytalk tour starting the third week of February 2018. The album's single, "Better Than I Used to be", released on November 10, 2017, and reached No. 27 on the Viral 50 chart.
[15]
To celebrate the ten year anniversary of his second album,
The City of Black and White
, Kearney released
The City of Black and White Revisited
EP in June 2019. He promoted the project with an acoustic concert tour beginning that Fall.
[16]
Band
[
edit
]
- Mat Kearney ? vocals, guitar, piano
- Chad Kinner ? drums, percussion (2011?present)
- Fred Williams ? piano, keys
- Adam Keafer ? bass (2010?2015)
- Nathan Spicer ? guitar (2010?present)
- Tyler Burkum ? guitar, vocals (2009?present)
- Phil Moore ? bass (2015?present)
- M.D. Miller ? bass (2005?2009)
- Jeremy Lutito ? drums (2009?2012)
- Aaron Farmer ? keys (2016)
Musical style
[
edit
]
Kearney's music incorporates
hip hop
and
folk-pop
.
[17]
A notable exception to this was on his third album
The City of Black and White
where the hip-hop element was downplayed with Kearney explaining that he was trying to make a "more mature, more
adult contemporary
" album with his next album though he would return to his normal mix of genres.
[17]
He recalls that upon the release of his major label debut, "it got totally trashed by
Rolling Stone
because I was blending hip-hop stuff into my music."
[18]
Inspired by his hero,
Paul Simon
, Kearney tries to make each of his albums have a distinct sound stating, "usually if I did one thing on one record, I tend to somewhat be the other extreme on the next one."
[19]
The album
Crazytalk
notably features the inclusion of
EDM
into his music.
[20]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Kearney currently resides in
Nashville, Tennessee
, with his wife Annie, whom he married in 2010.
Kearney has stated that his legal name is Mathew due to a nurse's error on his birth certificate. He discovered the error while in the 8th grade when he noticed how his mother corrected the error with ink, never legally correcting it. Since then, he embraced the one "T" in his legal name.
[
citation needed
]
On January 4, 2017, Kearney and his wife had their first child, a girl named Olive Sims Kearney.
[21]
Their second daughter was born on March 25, 2020, and named Violet River Kearney.
[22]
The couple welcomed their third daughter, Ruby Josephine Kearney, on March 28, 2022.
Discography
[
edit
]
Studio albums
[
edit
]
Live albums
[
edit
]
Extended plays
[
edit
]
Live concerts
[
edit
]
- Mat Kearney: Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco
(2010)
Singles
[
edit
]
Other appearances
[
edit
]
Awards
[
edit
]
GMA Dove Awards
[
edit
]
Year
|
Award
|
Result
|
2006
|
New Artist of the Year
|
Nominated
|
Rap/Hip-Hop Recorded Song of the Year ("Trainwreck")
|
Won
|
2007
|
Male Vocalist of the Year
|
Nominated
|
Song of the Year ("
Nothing Left to Lose
")
|
Nominated
|
Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year (
Nothing Left to Lose
)
|
Nominated
|
Media appearances
[
edit
]
Kearney's songs have appeared on the following television series:
30 Rock
,
Awake
,
Dirty Sexy Money
,
Kyle XY
,
The Unit
,
Without a Trace
,
Laguna Beach
,
The Hills
,
Bones
,
Jericho
,
Friday Night Lights
,
Wildfire
,
What About Brian
,
South Beach
,
8th & Ocean
,
One Tree Hill
,
Scrubs
,
The Closer
,
NCIS
,
Life Unexpected
,
Grey's Anatomy
,
Parenthood
,
So You Think You Can Dance
,
The Vampire Diaries
and
A to Z
. His song "Runaway" is featured on the
Soul Surfer
movie soundtrack. Kearney's song "Sooner or Later" provides the background music to the WWDC 2013 and Google's Zeitgeist 2011: Year in Review video, which was uploaded to YouTube on December 14, 2011. He was also on
The Today Show
performing the song "Billion".
[40]
In an interview with
Entertainment Weekly
,
Ricky Gervais
included Kearney on his "Must List", stating "This singer-songwriter does spoken word that sounds like French hip-hop."
[41]
Notes and references
[
edit
]
- ^
"January Flower" did not enter the
Billboard 200
, but peaked at No. 29 on the
Top Album Sales
chart.
[30]
- ^
"Undeniable" did not enter the
Hot 100
, but peaked at No. 16 on the
Bubbling Under Hot 100
chart.
[37]
- ^
"All I Need" did not enter the Hot 100, but peaked at No. 25 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
[37]
- ^
"Hey Mama" did not enter the Hot 100, but peaked at No. 11 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
[37]
- ^
Anonymous.
"Sims-Kearney vows planned in Tennessee " Engagements " starherald.net - Kosciusko, MS"
. starherald.net. Archived from
the original
on February 25, 2012
. Retrieved
September 17,
2012
.
- ^
Sharpe, Josh.
"Mat Kearney Releases Self-Titled LP; See Full Headline Tour Dates"
.
BroadwayWorld.com
. Retrieved
May 24,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Kuchik, Natalie (October 29, 2014).
"Mat Kearney to release new single 'Heartbeat' on November 4 - AXS"
. AXS
. Retrieved
February 24,
2015
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney| Singer, Songwriter| Christian Music Artist |"
. One21music.com. Archived from
the original
on April 2, 2012
. Retrieved
September 17,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
Lamberson, Carolyn (October 27, 2005).
"Hometown boy takes an unlikely path to Nashville"
.
Eugene Register-Guard
. Retrieved
August 24,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
"Mat Kearney"
.
CBNmusic.com
. Retrieved
August 11,
2011
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney"
. Mat Kearney
. Retrieved
July 14,
2011
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney"
. Mat Kearney
. Retrieved
July 14,
2011
.
- ^
"Home"
.
TOUR DE COMPADRES 2016
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"ACCLAIMED SINGER/SONGWRITER MAT KEARNEY SIGNS TO BIG LOUD MOUNTAIN MANAGEMENT"
.
Mat Kearney
. Archived from
the original
on February 13, 2017
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"FILOUS - GOODBYE (FT. MAT KEARNEY)"
.
BEAUTIFUL BUZZZ
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Announces 2018 Album Title CRAZYTALK with News of the 'CRAZYTALK TOUR' Kicking-Off February 19th in the Pacific Northwest"
. Retrieved
January 11,
2018
.
- ^
"Jesusfreakhideout.com: Mat Kearney, "CRAZYTALK" Review"
.
jesusfreakhideout.com
. Retrieved
September 28,
2018
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Announces 2018 Album Title CRAZYTALK with News of the 'CRAZYTALK TOUR' Kicking-Off February 19th in the Pacific Northwest"
.
Mat Kearney
. Retrieved
September 28,
2018
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney's CITY OF BLACK AND WHITE REVISITED EP Out Friday"
.
Broadway World
. Retrieved
October 24,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Bosso, Joe (October 15, 2011).
"Interview: Mat Kearney on his new album, Young Love"
.
Music Radar
.
- ^
Scully, Alan.
"Singer-songwriter Mat Kearney content after a season of change"
.
Detroit Free Press
. Retrieved
October 24,
2019
.
- ^
Drown, Michelle (October 4, 2018).
"Interview with Mat Kearney"
.
Santa Barbara Independent
. Retrieved
October 22,
2019
.
- ^
Law, John (July 29, 2019).
"Finding the balance with Mat Kearney"
.
The Standard
. Retrieved
October 24,
2019
.
- ^
"Mat & Annie Kearney Welcome Baby Girl into the World"
.
Mat Kearney
. Archived from
the original
on February 14, 2017
. Retrieved
February 13,
2017
.
- ^
"Mat & Annie Kearney Announce Birth of Violet"
.
Instagram
. Archived from
the original
on December 24, 2021
. Retrieved
May 28,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Billboard 200"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
May 15,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Top Christian Albums"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
May 15,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Rock Albums"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
May 15,
2018
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Canadian Albums"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
May 15,
2018
.
- ^
"Upcoming Releases"
.
Hits Daily Double
. HITS Digital Ventures. Archived from
the original
on February 11, 2015.
- ^
"CRAZYTALK by Mat Kearney"
.
iTunes Store (US)
. Retrieved
April 30,
2018
.
- ^
"powerless today // january flower 5.21.21. preorder now"
.
Twitter
. Retrieved
January 29,
2021
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Top Album Sales"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
June 5,
2021
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Independent Albums"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
October 12,
2020
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Hot 100"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
March 6,
2018
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Adult Pop Songs"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
March 6,
2018
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Christian Songs"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
March 6,
2018
.
- ^
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Pop Songs"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
March 6,
2018
.
- ^
Ryan, Gavin (2011).
Australia's Music Charts 1988?2010
(PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 151.
- ^
a
b
c
"Mat Kearney Chart History: Bubbling Under Hot 100"
.
Billboard
. Retrieved
October 12,
2020
.
- ^
"New song out now..."
Archived from
the original
on November 24, 2020
. Retrieved
January 15,
2022
– via Twitter.
- ^
"Toxic - Grand Canyon - Single by Mat Kearney on Apple Music"
. Retrieved
June 3,
2020
– via
Apple Music
.
- ^
"Zeitgeist 2011: Year in Review"
. December 14, 2011.
Archived
from the original on December 21, 2021
. Retrieved
September 17,
2012
– via YouTube.
- ^
"Spotligh on Ricky Gervais"
.
Entertainment Weekly
. February 9, 2007
. Retrieved
February 27,
2018
.
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
| |
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Artists
| |
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