My music is the place where soul intersects with rock, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, electro and folk. This is the future of the singer/songwriter genre: unformatted, fearless and capable of encompassing a wide palette of musical styles.
Raised on a steady diet of sweet radio pop and singer-songwriters such as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Prince, Matthew has been surrounded by music since his earliest days. Son of 60s R&B singer Phil Flowers, he spent his childhood years onstage alongside his father, singing in church with his mother on the weekends. His uncle played bass in the 70s funk band The Blackbyrds and provided the basement studio where Matthew recorded his first demos. During high school he trained in opera and gospel at the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
His passion for performing led him to New York, where he studied at the New School, sang in a techno band and appeared at legendary cabaret spots like Rose’s Turn. Later he ventured out to San Francisco, where he met engineer Josh Roberts (Ben Harper). Together they recorded Matthew’s first album, “A perfect life”, independently released in 2001. The video for the title track was picked up by AOL for a national marketing campaign.
Longing to explore the territory beyond the US singer-songwriter scene, Matthew relocated to Paris, where he immediately started singing in the city’s mythical jazz bars and took a definitive step back from pop music. During a trip to Berlin, he discovered the album Piano Solo by indie superstar Gonzales (Feist, Jamie Liddell) and decided to adapt one of the songs for his own project. Matthew ended up contributing vocals to several songs from the upcoming Gonzales solo record, and Gonzales played piano on two tracks on Matthew’s record (“What I’ll do”, “Do you still love me?”).
I'm just starting to play out in New York. I'm not a big fan of bars, I'd like to play galleries, parties, concert halls...places where people are not too drunk to appreciate it.
I love classic soul music - Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Stax, Motown - as well as David Bowie, Prince, Ani DiFranco, Feist, Arcade Fire, Joni Mitchell, Jeff Buckley...
I like Yamaha guitars and pianos but I really want a Gretch to get that woody, jazzy sound