MATTHEW LARSEN

Listen to ‘You Were A Cynic’ recorded live at the Music For A Cure House Concert that was held in 2007 with Matthew Larsen, KaiserCartel, and Winterpills:

More music is on www.myspace.com/matthewlarsenmusic

There’s a show coming up at P.A.C.E.

While Matthew was growing up, his father was not only a guitar player; he was also a bargain hunter. An ad in the newspaper from someone who had an old piano in their barn prompted Matthew’s father to respond. He arranged for it to be brought home, dusted it off, tuned it, and gave it new life. He learned to play some old standards from sheet music he had lying around– a pair of books he bought at a tag sale, of course. The piano was painted army green and the only place it would fit was in Matthew’s room. So there it went, filling up the space against the wall. Matthew thought not much of it then, except it was the perfect place to prop his black and white T.V. (anothertag sale find, no doubt).

Years later, feeling inspired, Matthew sat down and started playing it. He didn’t know how to read music, what chords were, or any proper playing methods. He still doesn’t. But he knew he liked music and writing his own songs. Hekept at it and wrote and recorded some demos using a few other 100-year old used pianos. He sang in some bands with obligatory awful names while he was in high school.

While attending college, his friend Adam Dutkiewicz (now in Killswitch Engage) asked Matthew to drive out to Berklee College of Music in Boston to record a demo for a project he was working on. Things went so well that Adam and Matthew, joined by Matthew’s cousin Steve Biegner (guitar, vocals) formed folk-rock group, Smokejumpers. Matthew was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma soon after Smokejumpers was formed, but was resolute. So the three Smokejumpers soldiered on, recording a cd in between Matthew’s chemotherapy treatments
called “Pictures”. It was released in 2002. Since Adam was committed full-time to Killswitch Engage and was also known as a producer for a myriad of other bands, he had his hands full. Steve and Matthew played many shows as a duo, then later assembled a 4-piece band by adding Adam Bach (upright bass) and Bill Belina (drums).

The quartet played quite a few shows at venues like Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA and The Space in Hamden, CT and gained a loyal following. A benefit concert for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society featuring Dennis Crommett (then solo, now with Winterpills), Flora Reed (then solo, now with Winterpills), Philip Price (then solo, now with Winterpills), and Stephen Kellogg (then solo, now with The Sixers) was organized. The four members of Smokejumpers eventually got busy with other things and went their separate ways for awhile.

Matthew started an advertising/promotional products business and was quite dedicated to that for a few years. He still wrote and recorded some quiet folk songs with Rebekah Dutkiewicz (cello, guitar, vocals) though. This was interrupted however, when a recurrence of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was discovered in 2005. He underwent high-dose chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In between treatments, he found some energy to play piano on Steve Biegner’s solo release, “As The Orchestra Swells…The Lights Go Out“. It provided Matthew some much needed catharsis at a difficult time. It was a stepping stone to an ultimate realization that he should focus more on music after he recovered from his illness.

Matthew did just that throughout 2006, recording songs and forming an indie-folk band called Northernly with solo artists Rebekah Dutkiewicz (cello, guitar, vocals) and Aric Bieganek (percussion, glockenspiel, bass, guitar, vocals), playing shows all over the northeast. He booked a music series at Manhan Cafe to bring more music to the area and to meet other musicians. He started a house concert series called Dark Dining Room that breeded quite a camaraderie among members of Sue/Slow Film, Haunt, Swing Caravan, The Low Anthem, Oweihops, Aric Bieganek, Steve Biegner, and other musicians and fans of local music.

Focusing primarily on his solo material these days, Matthew is taking a break from performing on a frequent basis, but still plays live from time to time. He plans to continue writing and recording songs and collaborating with various musicians and friends he’s met along the way.

He organized Music For A Cure II : House Concert, held in September of 2007 that featured Winterpills and a band from Brooklyn, NY called KaiserCartel as well as Matthew. It was recorded, in fact.

More information, show dates, etc. is available on Matthew Larsen’s website at www.matthewlarsen.net