God found me when I was at my lowest point. That was the first time in my life when I really felt like I understood who Jesus was - it was more than just knowing about Him: I felt like He met me in that time and place.
Mat Kearney
When I set out to write, I want to write something that will rip your heart out and connect with you. Great songs connect beyond genre and style.
My songs have a layer of melancholy.
I was an English major, and I always wrote poems.
I grew up in Oregon, so there was always a lot of that folksy, Bob Marley stuff. There was a mural of Bob Marley on a wall at my high school.
I never got too specialized but did like the Southern Gothic writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.
When I started forming my own taste, there was a period in high school when I listened to only rap and hip-hop, like A Tribe Called Quest.
I never wanted to be on an exclusively Christian label.
I'm really influenced by '90s hip hop. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were my heroes growing up.
I thought my second record was good, but it didn't have that smash hit we did on the first one that somehow found its way onto tons of formats of radio stations.
There's this song called 'Brad Chester,' which is like the depths of my family. It comes from a very personal place.
I had the lyric 'Chip Don't Go' and a few words, and my wife came in and said that it sounded like a good song. I thought I'd finish writing it up and posting it to YouTube. I didn't realize it was going to take off like it did.
I don't think, to be a traveler, you have to reject setting roots up.
It's silly to throw things out or label things. You know, is U2 a Christian band, or was Johnny Cash a Christian country singer? I don't know, but they're pretty open about their faith.
I didn't start writing music until I was a sophomore in college. I would steal my roommate's guitar and sit on the front porch and kind of blend this weird spoken word and these little melodies over simple chords; that really started my whole journey as a musician.
All of my acoustic playing came from my songwriting. All of the chords I've learned and all of the voicings I play them in are a direct result of composing.
I do know great books help shape who I am and how I look at life.
There's something incredibly vulnerable about middle school for me. We're really impressionable during that period. The cement's still wet, so to speak, and a lot of things later in life are born during that season.
I love to play the songs that got me to where I am. I like to take a little bit from all of my records and mix it up.
The problem in this country is people gravitate toward one genre, and that's what they embrace. I don't understand that. If you hit me with Bell Biv Devoe meets country, well, I like the sound of that concept.
I enjoy changing; I think it's more fun to try something different than to just do what you did last time. As an artist, you just want to keep creating, keep finding a place that really inspires you that feels fresh and new, and keep it exciting.
I'm painfully a realist but ruthlessly an optimist. I think maybe it's because of my faith - I've always got the hope that there is something out there to make it all worthwhile.
For my father, he didn't know what 'Grey's Anatomy' was. He didn't know who John Mayer was. But when I showed up on the 'Law & Order' TNT promo spot, he thought, 'Wow, my son has made it.'
Choosing an acoustic guitar for a live setting can be different from picking out one for recording. One doesn't always work for the other. The sonic properties can be vastly different.
I don't know how much I'm connected to the hip-hop scene, but I definitely lend from that urgency.
I've had moments in my career when I've made more money and had more success than at other times, but I've realized being happy has very little to do with any of that.
When I barely got into college, the one thing I could do was write, so I became an English major.
You write these songs which are really dear to you about your family or friends, loved ones, and then you get this call, and they say, 'It's perfect for two vampires making out in the back of a car.' It's some random TV show, and so I say, 'Oh, yeah, perfect - that's what I meant it for.'
I'm a '90s music kid.
Growing up in Eugene, Oregon, there was everything from The Notorious B.I.G. to Weezer playing in my car.
I was an English major in college, so I really liked spoken word and poetry; it was what I did before I wrote music.
I'm actually named Matthew William Kearney: my middle name is named after my grandfather.
I've always sought to get after something that's foundational in people. That comes through my faith, through my belief in life, through trying to hit something that's true every time. I think that's really where you move people, when you touch on something that's true, that's not based on fluff or based on a moment or a movement.
Even on tour, where I perform songs from 'City Of Black And White,' I still do songs from 'Nothing Left To Lose.' I never turned my back on that material. On some albums, you change - that's all. The trick is to follow your heart and do what feels right.
I think coming from the Northwest is something that's born in your blood. On my mom's side, I'm, like, a sixth-generation Oregonian. My family came over in the covered wagons, 'Oregon Trail'-video-game style. Maybe the pioneer mentality runs in my blood because they were all pioneers.
Songs like 'Learn To Love Again' and 'Rochester' and some of the more gut-wrenching ones deal with the pain of the younger times of your life... trying to make sense of some the stuff we probably all went through.
It's been awesome going indie. I don't need to be on a major label. I love not having to walk into a specific radio person's office to try to convince someone to play my songs. At the end of the day, it's more work, but I've discovered that I like to get my hands dirty.
Hopefully, reading and being around great literature inspires me to write songs, but I'm not sure about that.
Owl City is exactly as you'd imagine him. It's hard to have much on him. He's like a frightened bunny. I feel like if you yelled at him, he'd just dart to a corner of the room.
Paul Simon is the king!
I think, in a lot of ways, hip-hop is interesting to me because it's like the modern-day folk music.
From my experience, I've been honest about who I am and what I believe and the motivation behind my music. But I've played it in arenas that are for all people. I've pretty much stuck to that model my whole career.
When my first record came out, it was in the middle of the real Muse, Keane, British thing, and that beat-driven thing wasn't really that cool at the moment.
I love Bruce Springsteen's writing, but I grew up on '90s hip hop, like Tribe Called Quest.
With 'City of Black & White,' I wanted a record that would make you feel good, that would sort of take you up in its hand and sweep you along.
I can't help but do things my own way.
There are a lot of great recording artists, like Jack White and Jack Johnson, who stay confined inside a very small box, but I'm more like Bon Iver, who recorded an album with programmed drums, and the next record was totally organic. I get that.
I don't spend afternoons practicing my guitar to get better. I do read, though, to get inspiration for my lyrics.
The criticism people could have of my music maybe is that it's somewhat schizophrenic at times. And if you don't like that, it could bother you.
You go to a Springsteen show, and half of the people are there to party and forget about their cares, and they're being drawn to this visceral experience. And then the other half, you know, has lived and died with his 'Nebraska' album and considers him one of the greatest poets.
