[Music] name is Matthew hael and This song is called diamonds out of coal I grew up in southeast Wisconsin bounced around a couple different towns uh saxophone in school was my first instrument and uh then I started picking up guitar about 13 my first professional show paid show was at 18 and I've been playing ever since uh in southeast Wisconsin [Music] mostly feels like I'm being used yes I've been abused both neglected and often confused a cousin came over one time and I had this old broken guitar with two strings so all we could play Was Nirvana Barco songs power chord songs and uh he taught me a Nirvana song so that I could sing it actually and then after my parents watched me play a two- string guitar for more than a year they finally bought me my own spent a lot of time in my room learning that thing and just fell in love with it take some lessons from a local named Dan Johnston very very good teacher uh but that was years after I had been playing I already knew all the chords and stuff it was more of a it was a chance to play with somebody and and learn more here I am here I am the same I know and I know I play the game that I go that I go the same uh a lot of a lot of what I write is totality of all my influences over the years uh created whatever it is that I my style that is a struggle to to label my sound I I think we mostly go with acoustic rock uh with jazz blues influences uh you know when people ask if they want to take P line or something but to be honest with you I'm kind of averse to genre labels and things I I don't really know what my sound is I can tell you that uh the short answer I usually give to F friends and family is I grew up on Bill Withers Paul Simon Van Morrison Dave Matthews and it's probably this uh you know amalgam of uh of those Styles as far as I can tell I'm under your spell do one too many coins inition will just another trick it's just a common [Music] wish the audience sometimes you're trying to make them happy and dance and sometimes you're trying to make him feel something sometimes there's a lyrical message uh that you hope gets across um in totality at the end of night I hope they just feel good and want to see it again I think the first thing I think of when you ask what's stands out in Milwaukee is just the plethora of great talent in this city but I wish there was a little more embracing of the local original artist a singer songwriter because that's where everything you loved come comes from every every song You Love at some point was in a garage and someone was writing it and it almost feels like um there's so much original music here in this city and it seems a shame that there's not more of a prominent outlet for it I would say most of my stores are intimate whether I'm plugged in or not I mean there's they're always right there uh the types of venues I place so but something like this is even more intimate um it it's stripped bare uh to use the cliche you just you're naked everything there's no help uh with sound or or Reverb or [Music] effects make a diamond out of this oh oh oh no no and uh it it's a it's a test of your abilities and to be able to grab attention of people I think intimate settings are exactly where people need to start as well because I think you learn more lessons doing intimate uh events you get better acquainted with your instrument and the audience you can make a diamond out of make a diamond out of make a diamond out of this [Music] cool