Preface:
A biography is generally about the past, no? However, with an artist like Eric Matthews one has little choice but also to look at the present too, within the context and spirit of what the future may hold. Eric’s future seems very bright, but not just at a glance. He recently completed work on his next album: “Too Much World”. TMW is the boldest and brightest musical statement from Eric so far. As his personal biographer for more than 15 years, I was given an album preview two weeks ago at his (near the mountains) home. And I will testify that this album is something so beyond special and rare that it approaches the unbelievable stage. Perhaps this is what it should be called – “The Unbelievable Stage”. TMW promises for a major splash down (old NASA terminology) in 2009. But for a minute or so now, this biography seems out of order or balance, or something that is uneven. So, let’s get back to the assignment and tell a story that people can understand.

An Introduction:
Eric Matthews is a composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and all-around musical monster (late-seventies/early-eighties jazz club terminology…). Eric’s various records have gained public praise from all corners of the media, as well as from devoted fans at points all around the globe. This praise and devotion is nearly two decades along and still growing.

“Getting Paid” For The First Time:
Since 1992 Eric has been making music professionally as a member of bands like Belt Buckle, Cardinal, Brookville, and Seinking Ships. In 1999 Eric began lending sideman studio-talent on records by such diverse artists as - Tahiti 80, Ivy, The Dandy Warhols, Axe Riverboy, Spookey Ruben, and Pugwash. In 2006 Eric started producing other acts, mostly new bands and young songwriters on the rise and in need of veteran insights in helping to realize their own creative aspirations. But all these wonderful endeavors are secondary to the center of Eric’s creative life, his solo albums. After the worldwide sensation of “the Cardinal record”, Eric signed to the legendary Sub Pop Records label. While at Sub Pop, Eric made two top selling and critically acclaimed solo records: “It’s Heavy In Here” and “The Lateness Of The Hour”. In the minds of many, these two albums have become absolute cornerstones of quality in the field of melody and sophisticated production (along with a few dozen other albums of that time).

The Return Of The Solo Record:
In 2004 Eric signed his second contract as solo artist, but this time with Empyrean Records. The Empyrean label launched this second stage of Eric’s career with a reissue of the aforementioned “Cardinal” self-titled debut in 2004. In 2005 Empyrean released Eric’s return to the solo record format with “Six Kinds Of Passion Looking For An Exit”. It too found an audience and scores of critics eager again for the Eric Matthews sound. Still signed to Empyrean, 2006 saw “Foundation Sounds” released, and in 2008 “The Imagination Stage”. All three EM solo records on the Empyrean Records label proved Eric to be in as strong of voice and vision as ever before, perhaps even stronger.

Addendum:
And oh yeah, that pesky past, and those fog-filled early years about how Eric got here. Eric was born a poor _____ child, on a not very dimly lit street in Compton, California -1969. In 1973 Eric danced and pretended to play guitar while Jimmy Hendrix or Eric’s father’s band blasted in the background. At age 8 Eric discovered the depth and meaning of his parents Beach Boys, The Beatles, and The Bee Gees albums. Eric sat indoors with head pinned to the speakers, studying all the instrumentation, the arrangements, the sounds, the balances, the good parts, the missing parts, and the odd pieces tingling away and revealing so many exciting things. At age 9, Eric went mad yet again by influence of the big symphony orchestra. Brahms, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Brukner (to name but a few) became the next extension of this musical language building in young Eric’s mind. At age 10 Eric began playing the trumpet. Like Burt Bacharach and John Barry before him, Eric started on trumpet and not only excelled on that instrument, but also listened (every step of the way) to the inner workings of the notes that occur within the living nature of any good ensemble. In the group performances Eric came to understand the inner workings of harmony, melody, and counterpoint, but on a level uncommon to the classmates around him. By high school Eric was one of America’s finest young trumpeters. After high school Eric shipped off to conservatory in San Francisco, and later off to Boston for study with the then principal trumpet “chair” of The Boston Symphony Orchestra. But after two quick years of combined institutional classical education Eric realized that playing the works of other men wasn’t for him, a waste of valuable creative spark.
Still in Boston, Eric gathered a few instruments and a “glorious little Yamaha four-track recorder”. There, and with these new toys he built a tiny song empire that sounded like something golden and full of professional promise. Working alone didn’t last long though. It was then 1992 and Eric sat for the first time with the great(s) Bob Fay and Richard Davies. Cardinal (the “Toy Bell EP” trio line-up) was born, an association that lasted almost 20 years. In 1994 the full-length Cardinal record was released worldwide and Eric’s song “Dream Figure” garnered much of the album’s attention, with such honors as “Single Of The Week” in England’s “Melody Maker” magazine and radio play throughout Europe and The UK. There began a path of making his songs in his way, a path and a method that Eric is still keen to follow.
-William Loren

A “Biographically”-Charged Quote From Eric Matthews:
“It’s very strange how all this works out. One day you are an ordinary guy sitting in an orchestra thinking about girls, Mahler, and sandwiches. And the next day you are on a train just wanting to loose your trumpet cases and start all over again, to do something new and personally revolutionary. It was 1990 and the sounds of the movies sucked, the radio sucked, the sound of television sucked, and many of the music fans (myself included) were not being served by what popular culture had to offer. So, I had this odd idea that people like me, who actually knew about something deep and beautiful (you know? the power of a serious 4-minute song), that we should effort to make music that would please that group of people who felt left out in the cold and betrayed by a generation of creative people who were selling cheap easy lies, and getting away with it. And later, I learned that there WERE others like me, creative people (people like Jason Falkner and Neil Hannon - for example) who wanted to rally against the bad sounding trends and mediocre methods being practiced. And being in our young to mid-twenties when getting record deals, we all thought that we might win, that our ways would rise to the top slots, that we might get rich, and in turn put a stop to all the nonsense that kids and mistaken executives claimed was quality in the field of music. We were right but we were wrong. We didn’t win but we have had our voices heard. And now, still to this dark day, we continue to try – each in our own brave way. Hope against hopelessness and wit against shit. The battle rages on…”
-Eric Matthews, October 2008.