Matthew Moon has hit the ground running in 2008. Recently at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT, Moon was asked to lead the band Velvet Revolver when their singer Scott Weiland missed his flight from Miami. With only an hour until show time, Moon began calmly downloading lyrics onto his Blackberry in route to the gig, where Paris Hilton, Cisco Adler, Donovan Leitch, and Lil’ Jon joined the fray as he took the stage. The experience led to much attention from both online blogs and print media including LA Weekly, Popbytes.com, Blabbermouth.net and Laist.com, causing his myspace page to explode over the following months.
A recent songwriting collaboration with Grammy-nominated recording artists Jesse Valenzuela (Gin Blossoms) and Danny Wilde (Rembrandts) entitled “Don’t Change 4 Me” has been selected from among hundreds of songs to run on NBC for an entire week during the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was also chosen to be the end cap (closing credits) song for the new summer release “Soccer Mom” featuring Emily Osment of Hannah Montana fame as well as actress Missi Pyle (Anchorman, Dodgeball). Moon will perform the song for the Olympic promo as well as the movie. In January, Moon secured a sponsorship with Hyundai Motors, USA. To show their confidence, Matthew was presented with a Limited Edition 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe, and will soon begin a marketing campaign with the automotive giant. 2007 was a busy year for Matthew Moon as well. From a summer tour with Peter Frampton and The Doobie Brothers, to completing his new 4-song EP, “My California” (April, 2008), Moon’s hook-laden pop/rock sound and buoyant spirit have continued to inspire new fans from around the world (just ask any of his more than 50,000 MySpace friends). This collaboration peaked the interest of GB’s lead singer Robin Wilson (Hey Jealousy, Until I hear It From You) who contributed an inspired cameo on Moon’s forthcoming single, “Hideaway”, which will be featured on his new EP. Furthermore, Moon had one of his songs Foghorn Sound, selected for a major motion picture (Truth About Kerry-2008), and placed two of his songs on Facebook Diaries, which boasts 68 million users and growing (2nd behind MySpace).
After seeing his set at California’s Del Mar Music Festival, Larry Richter from Eric Clapton’s management team called it “one of the best performances I’ve seen,” and then signed him to a management deal. Additionally, Grammy winning executive producer Chris Goldsmith (Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama) also caught the performance, which led to a recording session at the historic Capitol Studios in Hollywood.
A current resident of Venice Beach, CA, Matthew Moon is quickly emerging as one of the freshest voices in the west. Moon’s “elastic” voice has been compared to an impressive list of artists from Paul McCartney and Freddie Mercury, to Ben Folds. Moon grew up in Colorado and then went off to study at Boston’s Berklee School of Music with the likes of John Mayer and Susan Tedeschi. He came out of Berklee with an impeccable ear and fully developed sense for song craft. Moon moved back to Denver in 1999 and since then has released three self-produced CDs (4th coming in 2008). His compelling live shows have helped him build a solid touring base throughout Colorado and beyond. His gig calendar now includes frequent stops in New York City, LA, San Francisco, Arizona, Utah, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago..and the list goes on.
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