Matt Nathanson

California-based singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson first gained recognition for introspective adult alternative material marked by emotional directness, while fans also appreciate the standup-comedy edge of his onstage commentary. That same playful intelligence surfaces in his lyrics, whether self-aware, yearning, or lighthearted. Beginning with the 1993 release Please, he issued multiple independent albums before making his major-label entrance in 2003 via his fifth full-length, Beneath These Fireworks. Although he soon reverted to independent status, later Hot 100 entries included the 2007 single “Come on Get Higher,” 2011’s “Faster,” and the 2011 track “Run” featuring Sugarland, establishing him as a consistent Billboard 200 presence. Following the shift toward more polished production on 2011’s Modern Love, he achieved a career-best U.S. peak of number 16 with his eighth studio album, 2013’s Last of the Great Pretenders. His albums continued charting through the remainder of the decade, and 2019 brought an adult contemporary success with the song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” His output in the 2020s encompassed the intimate Boston Accent (2022), his 13th studio album.

Born in Massachusetts, Nathanson relocated to Los Angeles County in the early 1990s to enroll at Pitzer College, where he pursued literature studies. His debut, Please, appeared on Acrobat Records in 1993; recorded in Los Angeles’s Van Nuys area, it featured primarily material written during his high-school and college years. He soon moved to San Francisco to concentrate on music. His next effort, the fully acoustic 1997 album Ernst, became his first project tracked in that city. The following year’s Not Colored Too Perfect gathered unreleased recordings made between 1995 and 1997, and 1999’s Still Waiting for Spring attracted attention from television music supervisors, with its song “Loud” placed in an episode of Dawson’s Creek. Although conceived as a full-length, the Acrobat Records EP When Everything Meant Everything was issued quickly in 2002 after he signed with Universal Records.

Nathanson’s major-label debut, 2003’s Beneath These Fireworks, arrived with a backing band that featured Toad the Wet Sprocket’s Glen Phillips and former Pearl Jam drummer Matt Chamberlain and was produced by Ron Aniello. While no hits emerged, several tracks were licensed to series such as Scrubs and One Tree Hill. That year his cover of English band James’s “Laid” appeared on the soundtrack for the American Pie sequel American Wedding. He returned to independent status, and Acrobat released his first live album, At the Point, in 2006.

Signing with Vanguard Records led to his mainstream breakthrough. His sixth studio album, Some Mad Hope, arrived in August 2007 and featured the single “Come on Get Higher,” which became his first Hot 100 entry, reaching number 59 in the U.S. and number 30 in Canada; the album itself debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 60. Retaining producers Marshall Altman and Mark Weinberg, he adopted a marginally more refined sound for 2011’s Modern Love, which yielded two further hits, “Faster” and “Run,” the latter featuring country duo Sugarland. He opened for Kelly Clarkson on part of her 2012 tour, and his eighth LP, Last of the Great Pretenders, reached number 16 on the U.S. albums chart in 2013. Vanguard issued Show Me Your Fangs in 2015, which charted at number 43 on the Billboard 200.

In June 2018 he resurfaced with the Acrobat Records EP Pyromattia, comprising solely acoustic Def Leppard covers and peaking inside the Top 30 on the independent albums chart. Later that September the full-length Sings His Sad Heart followed, reaching number 59 on the Billboard 200. A year afterward he hit number two on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart with “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” later included on the 2020 holiday album Farewell December. That same year Acrobat issued the concert recording Live in Paradise: Boston. His 12th studio album, 2021’s Achtung Matty, delivered a track-by-track reinterpretation of U2’s 1991 release Achtung Baby. He next collaborated with producer Butch Walker on 2022’s Boston Accent, an album shaped by the enduring impact of his Massachusetts roots and relationships.