Matt Costa

California singer/songwriter Matt Costa blends his affinity for '60s folk, the British Invasion, '70s AM pop, and '80s college rock into tuneful material. Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records issued his first four albums, starting with a 2006 reissue of his 2005 debut LP, and including 2008's Unfamiliar Faces, which marked his Billboard 200 entry. Costa later composed songs and instrumental pop pieces for the 2016 documentary Orange Sunshine, then shifted to Dangerbird Records for subsequent solo work that encompassed his sixth studio album, Yellow Coat, issued in 2020.

Born Matthew Albert Costa in Huntington Beach, California, in 1982, he obtained his first guitar at age 12. Although music had always interested him and he performed in a high-school band, skateboarding remained his primary passion until an 18-year-old accident left him with a serious leg injury that ended his professional aspirations. During the ensuing year-and-a-half rehabilitation period, he redirected his focus toward songwriting and guitar, which produced a sequence of four-track demos. No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont received one of these recordings, responded enthusiastically, and volunteered to produce Costa's work, leading to two independently released EPs—Matt Costa EP and The Elasmosaurus—plus an early iteration of the full-length Songs We Sing.

Brushfire Records founder Jack Johnson noticed the EPs, signed Costa, and added him to the label's 2005 summer tour as an opener. The following year the label reissued Songs We Sing with reordered tracks and one additional song. Unfamiliar Faces, produced by Dumont, appeared in 2008 and reached number 59 on the Billboard 200. Costa handled production on his third album, 2010's Mobile Chateau, whose vintage tone evoked mid-'60s British Invasion and garage rock, while his self-titled 2013 release drew more heavily from '70s AM pop.

In February 2016 he began issuing a sequence of five self-produced, acoustic-leaning EPs across twelve months: Eucalyptus, Cat Mosta, Neon Brain, Live in London, and Anchor & the Albatross. That same year he created the soundtrack for Orange Sunshine, the award-winning documentary chronicling the '60s and '70s LSD distributors known as the Brotherhood of Love. Costa subsequently joined Dangerbird Records and delivered his fifth official solo album, Santa Rosa Fangs, in 2018. Co-produced by Costa, Peter Matthew Bauer of the Walkmen, and Nick Stumpf of French Kicks, the record interweaves biographical and fictional narratives centered on his native California. He tracked the intimate Yellow Coat—shaped by a breakup—with touring musicians and friends under producer Alex Newport, whose credits include Death Cab for Cutie and City and Colour; Dangerbird released the album in 2020.