M. Ward

Matt Ward, better known by his stage name M.Ward, started his solo career as an experienced musician who had achieved particular results with the band Rodriguez. After this formation had released their first album, Matt quit the group and became a solely working music performer. He delivered his debut long player in 2000. This one was called Duet For Guitars #2 and, predominantly because of poor promotion, failed to draw considerable attention and reach high sales.

This did not keep Ward from the direction he had chosen. The subsequent effort, End Of Amnesia, appeared a true breakthrough. Issued in 2001, it presented a music that produced an impression of being recorded in the distant seventies in the surroundings of a poorly lighted and smoked through garage. As far as smoking, Ward’s singing, featured on the album, raised suspicions over the artist’s heavy addiction to cigarettes. Bu the secret was revealed by the singer himself. The peculiar manner of singing originated from his youth period. As he started practicing music regularly at home when he was fifteen, Matt played and sang quietly trying not to wake anybody else up. Therefore, his slightly hoarse vocals raised inevitable associations with the performances of the bluesmen from the American South. Generally speaking, Matt has on many occasions stated that he has never strived to emphasize his voice as the central component of his music. His words are showcased by this album, where Matt’s singing seemed to follow the guitar sound. The singer said guitar was the passion of all his life.

M.Ward’s new studio work, Transfiguration Of Vincent (2003), spellbound critics and listeners. Again, he ignored all stylistic patterns and limitations, presenting the music inspired by the ideas of such splendid songwriters as Neil Young, Bob Dylan or Brian Wilson from Beach Boys. The follow-up album by M.Ward, released in 2005, brought the audience back to the times when the commercial radio was a vital part of everybody’s life. The songs from Transistor Radio were recorded in the old days fashion and appeared beautiful tributes to the hits of long gone years. One more time, the presented material bore a strong influence of Brian Wilson’s concepts. In a year, M.Ward delivered another album of his own. This was a thought provoking conceptual long player, Post-War, widely seen as the artist’s most prominent piece in his career. Matt Ward had too much energy for his solo career alone, which motivated him to cooperate actively with other performers. One of the most successful collaborations was the project She&Him that he formed with actress Zooey Deschanel ti produce the Volume One album in 2008. Matt kept surprising the music community with the stability of his studio activity. No matter how packed his concert schedule was, he always found the time to prepare a good album. Early in 2009, M.Ward released his sixth record already, Hold Time. It was one more collection of songs embracing variety of genres, perfect guitar play and easily recognizable singing.