Matt started playing guitar at the ripe age of 14 back in his native small town of Terre Haute Indiana. He was fortunate enough to find a fanatastic guitar teacher by the name of Mark Cook. (www.markcookmusic.com) Mark drilled Matt on theory, scales, soloing and rhythm techniques, making young Matthew very good very fast. Matt played his first top 40 gigs at age 15 with some of his fellow schoolmates. His first fully functioning band was called "Deja-Vu."\r \r After high school, Matt made 3 attempts( over the next years) at trying to play music in Los Angeles and make a name for himself as a writer and performer. He came incredibly close 2 times, one being with a trashy glam rock outfit called "Guttersluts." The SLuts tore up the Sunset Strip and even supported their own tours in the mid 1990's. Matt, or Ash, as he was known on stage, traveled the California Coast and even to Colorado and other Western states spreading the Kiss/Motley mantra of party all night! The band was even approached by A&R like Rod Kukla of Columbia Records fame. After about a year and a half of intense writing, recording and touring, Matt left, being incredibly unhappy with their debut record, which he had a HUGE amount of writing credits on. Matt carried on.\r \r The next few years, Matt played guitar and has written with such artists as Whirlwnd, Kelly Mantle, S.O.S.,Veronica Puleo(veronicapuleo.com) rapper "El Ameca" (myspace.com/elameca) and many more! He has even got back to his Indiana roots and written a collection of traditional Country inspired songs! He still loves his rock, glam, and Metal, but he's somehow come full circle by playing the music he was surrounded with as a child. Influences range from Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Roger Miller and Hank Williams Jr.