A native of Washington DC, Matthew has been involved in music since childhood. Self-taught on piano and guitar, he attended the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where he studied classical voice. The son of 60s R&B singer Phil Flowers, Matthew's vocal style is founded on soul music, but Ellington provided exposure to an atmosphere of open experimentation, where parallels among musical forms were investigated freely. Jazz, Italian arias, old spirituals, and hip-hop echoed through the halls all day long.
Raised on a steady diet of sweet radio pop, Matthew also gravitated toward singer-songwriters as diverse as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Prince, James Taylor, Elton John, and Laura Nyro. He developed an addiction to hook-laden, emotive songs. At the age of twelve he entered Washington's Mid-Atlantic Song Contest and placed his own songwriting skills among those of older, more experienced writers. He made it to the top ten that year and the following year as well, and was encouraged by this initial rush of success.
After graduation he ventured on to New York, where he attended the New School for Social Research and experimented with cabaret in Greenwich Village and off-Broadway clubs. Then he took a sharp and brief detour into the world of electronic music, contributing vocals and songs as part of a techno band. He eventually returned to Washington and to the acoustic guitar, honing his performance skills at venues like the celebrated Iota and the now-defunct DC institution Food For Thought.
After relocating to San Francisco, he met engineer Josh Roberts (Ben Harper, Beth Orton, King Crimson), whose studio he was using for demos. The two decided that the best way to present Matthew's talent was to place him in the simplest possible setting. The resulting album, A Perfect Life, was a spontaneous act. The idea was to capture a moment in time, with all of its different moods and possibilities. Inspired by the early recordings of artists like Joni Mitchell and Ani DiFranco, the production is intentionally spare, with an acoustic guitar and Matthew's soulful vocals showcasing his diverse songwriting abilities. Matthew refers to the songs on this disc as "American music," with roots in a wide array of classic American forms: blues, folk, rock, and soul. In short, a sound that contains something for everyone.
