The Places You Don't Know Are There released June 18!

With his sophomore CD, Matt opts for a fuller sound and somewhat less high-tech recording process. The tracks were recorded mostly in the bedroom of his home and feature what Matt describes as "portraits of dysfunctional characters." At the album's most straightforward is the two-and-a-half minute acoustic guitar musing on depression; at its most ambitious, the intense, building, nine-minute piano-based tale of a relationship driven to a painful end by addiction. Showing maturity both lyrically and musically, The Places conjures a darker, more tangible world than the previous record. In one of the more biting moments, Matt spits out the line, "I don't know what you wanted and I don't guess I could give it if I did," and in the brooding, driving, "You Said," he concedes, "Your outside was like satin, but your insides were like stone." These lines seem to sum up the theme of the record: resignation with dignity and honesty - a combination that's increasingly hard to come by in the world of singer-songwriters today.

Songs About Real Live Girls, Matt's 2004 debut album...

Recorded in one night and using only a guitar and a piano, Songs About Real Live Girls is nonetheless a surprisingly textured soundscape. Anything but trite or banal, the lyrics are sharp, clever, and direct and the melodies are memorable without sounding forced or intentionally "hooky." Matt's powerful but heartbreaking voice enhances, but never threatens to steal the attention from his truthful and sometimes painful musings on love and loss.