Mat Kerekes

Mat Kerekes first gained recognition fronting the emo and post-hardcore outfit Citizen before pursuing warmer, pop-inflected indie rock through his group the Flats and unveiling more personal work under his own name. Following Citizen’s Billboard 200 entry with the 2013 debut Youth, both the Flats and Kerekes as a solo artist issued their initial recordings the next year. Departing from the stripped-back acoustic tone of his 2015 set 2011-2014, later solo efforts such as the brighter 2019 album Ruby along with 2020’s Amber Park and Songs for Breanne incorporated fuller band instrumentation. While remaining active with Citizen, he teamed with Turnstile drummer Daniel Fang for the 2022 release Nova.

Before forming Citizen in 2009, Kerekes had played drums in the metal group the Sound of Glory; he assembled the new band alongside fellow musicians from the Southeast Michigan-Northwest Ohio region, among them Nick and Eric Hamm, who had served as lead guitarist and bassist in his prior project. Blending emo-pop, post-hardcore, and densely textured indie rock, the band played its debut concert in Toledo, Ohio, in January 2010 and delivered the EP Young States in 2011, the same year they appeared at Hartland, Michigan’s Bled Fest. Early 2012 brought a signing with Run for Cover Records, leading to the June 2013 full-length Youth, which reached the Billboard 200 during that summer’s Vans Warped Tour.

In the middle of 2014 Kerekes issued a self-released acoustic solo EP titled Mat Kerekes, then later that year unveiled his first album leading the Flats, the full-length Liberation & the House in Blue. The project explored indie rock marked by warm pop touches and what he termed a “Midwestern alternative feel,” marking a clear shift from Citizen’s sound. After reuniting in the studio with Youth producer Will Yip, Citizen returned in June 2015 with Everybody Is Going to Heaven, which climbed to number 132 on the Billboard 200. That August saw the solo collection 2011-2014, a 25-song set of spare, melodic material; the more expansive Luna & the Wild Blue Everything followed in 2016.

Kerekes produced the Flats’ January 2017 EP Auburn in the Everlast, after which Citizen, now featuring rhythm guitarist Ryland Oehlers and drummer Jake Duhaime alongside the Hamms, issued their third album As You Please in October of that year, again working with Yip. The Flats returned with the full-length Nobody People in August 2018. On the solo front, Ruby appeared in April 2019 through Will Yip’s Black Cement Records imprint on Elektra and via Parlophone in the U.K. Two additional solo EPs, Amber Park and Songs for Breanne, surfaced in 2020, preceding Citizen’s 2021 album Life in Your Glass World; the following August brought Nova, Kerekes’ collaboration with Daniel Fang.