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" When I first started writing music, it was to express that. I was trying to find God and trying to find meaning in my life. That's what my music was about. It wasn't to entertain. "

Mat Kearney

Life

Writing

Music

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" All of my acoustic playing came from my songwriting. All of the chords I've learned and all of the voicings I play them in are a direct result of composing. "

" I played soccer. I was really known as an athlete. It was a shock to people that I was doing music. They thought it was really odd. "

" I am a micromanager, and I love being involved in every detail of my life, but in the big picture, you realize how little control you have. 'Air I Breathe' is about those moments of surrender where you get to something that is bigger than you, and you don't have answers for it. "

" Minneapolis has always been a very special place for me. "

Mat Kearney

Always

Been

" I started writing music in a season of my life where people were telling me I wasn't defined by mistakes, and God really loved me and was fighting for me, and there was a journey to be had with that. And I don't know of a more important message. "

" New Yorkers are historically tough crowds. "

" There are people I love in Nashville and would not want to go a day without talking to, but I want to see the world. "

" 'Nothing Left to Lose' was an album that I wrote in my bedroom, and you don't know who is listening or who cares. "

" I read about two reviews early on when my first record came out, and it just freaked me out, good and bad, so I've never really kept up with that side of it. "

" When I set out to write, I want to write something that will rip your heart out and connect with you. Great songs connect beyond genre and style. "

" I've had moments in my career when I've made more money and had more success than at other times, but I've realized being happy has very little to do with any of that. "

" I don't know how much I'm connected to the hip-hop scene, but I definitely lend from that urgency. "

" With 'City of Black & White,' I wanted a record that would make you feel good, that would sort of take you up in its hand and sweep you along. "

" My first album was hip-hop influenced, and my second was more of a singer-songwriter album. "

Mat Kearney

First

Second

" Ultimately, when you write from a vantage point of faith, humility, and openness to the world around you, people have to respond because those same truths are instilled in them. "

" I think coming from the Northwest is something that's born in your blood. On my mom's side, I'm, like, a sixth-generation Oregonian. My family came over in the covered wagons, 'Oregon Trail'-video-game style. Maybe the pioneer mentality runs in my blood because they were all pioneers. "

" As an artist, you tend to gravitate to the opposite. I know, when I finish a song or an album, I'm interested in doing something completely new. It doesn't always happen, but that's the idea. My poor fans - I don't know if they love that or hate that. "

" I was an English major in college, so I really liked spoken word and poetry; it was what I did before I wrote music. "

" The first year I moved to Nashville, I started playing these songwriter nights with people like Nickel Creek, Duncan Sheik, and even Ryan Adams... That was the first place I really started playing music, and I had to really step up my game. Really quick. Or get kicked off the stage. "

" I was always into poetry and writing. So the urgency of spoken word is something that really has always appealed to me. "

" I would sit in my dorm room and write songs. I loved it. I was learning to sing and play guitar. I was becoming a musician. I was the beginner who somehow could write a song. "

" It's a job, and it's challenging. But I love music and creating. That's why I got into music. "

" Being from Oregon, it's part of who I am. "

" When 'Young Love' came out, I was really excited, and it has been really special. "

" I didn't start writing music until I was a sophomore in college. I would steal my roommate's guitar and sit on the front porch and kind of blend this weird spoken word and these little melodies over simple chords; that really started my whole journey as a musician. "

" There's this song called 'Brad Chester,' which is like the depths of my family. It comes from a very personal place. "

" Songs like 'Learn To Love Again' and 'Rochester' and some of the more gut-wrenching ones deal with the pain of the younger times of your life... trying to make sense of some the stuff we probably all went through. "

Mat Kearney

Love

Life