Matt White is a US singer-songwriter and guitarist from Englewood, New Jersey, born in 1980. He works mainly in singer-songwriter and pop-oriented acoustic and indie styles, and is known for centring his songs on piano as well as guitar.

Career

White debuts in 2007 with Best Days on Geffen Records. The album reaches No. 4 on Billboard’s New Artist chart and receives attention from Rolling Stone and Details. His music also sells widely in digital form, with 400,000 downloads mentioned, and is used across film, television and advertising. Credits include What Happens in Vegas, Shrek the Third, McDonald’s, The Hills, Brothers and Sisters and One Tree Hill.

His song “Songs of Freedom” becomes the theme for Gap’s “Vote For” campaign and airs during a special electoral episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. White also tours with artists including B.B. King, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Counting Crows.

It’s the Good Crazy

After Best Days, White records It’s the Good Crazy as a follow-up that he presents as a more complete introduction to his work. He writes and helps produce every song himself, returning largely to piano after experimenting with guitar on much of the earlier record. The album is recorded entirely to analog tape, in part at a church in Woodstock, New York, with producers David Baron and Henry Hirsch. White says the recording process keeps mistakes and performances in the finished tracks.

The album includes “Falling in Love (With My Best Friend),” “She’s On Fire,” “Therapy,” “Taking On Water” and “And the Beat Goes On.” These songs range from relationship stories and dating songs to material about therapy and urban anxiety, and the album’s sound is described through references to Elton John and other classic piano-led rock.

Performance and style

White’s live shows are built around piano performance, and he is described as theatrical on stage, using his feet, elbows and fists while playing. He is also associated with flamboyant stage clothing. His playing draws on early piano roots encouraged by family outings to concerts by The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John.

Background

White grows up in a musical family. His grandmother is the first female orchestra leader in the country, and his great-grandfather founds the Hertz School of Music and is said to have given Frank Sinatra his first violin. White describes himself as influenced by instinctive, imperfect art and by Woody Allen and Larry David-style humour.

In 2009, Geffen drops him while he is touring in Canada. He then begins writing the material that becomes It’s the Good Crazy. The album later finds release through Ryko, after White says he values the label’s support and flexibility.