Matt Duke (musician)
| Matt Duke | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Matthew Thomas Duke |
| Born |
January 20, 1985 Reston, Virginia |
| Origin | Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Genres | Alternative rock, acoustic, singer-songwriter |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Labels | MAD Dragon Records, Rykodisc |
| Associated acts | TFDI |
| Website | www |
Matthew Thomas "Matt" Duke (born January 20, 1985) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who was born in Reston, Virginia and raised in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey. He released an independent album, Winter Child, through the student-run MAD Dragon Records at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Later he signed to the major label Rykodisc and has since released multiple albums: two full-length albums: Kingdom Underground and One Day Die, and two EPs.
Duke was born in Reston, Virginia to Thomas, a contracts negotiator, and Angela, a teacher. Matt Duke is of Irish, Italian and Polish descent, and had a religious Roman Catholic upbringing. He lived in Reston until the age of 5, when his family moved to Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey, where he lived until adulthood. Growing up in South Jersey he attended the Our Lady of Good Counsel parish grade school until 8th grade, and then Saint Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia for high school.
As a child and teenager, he performed in local theatre productions through school and community programs. In his late teens and early 20s he worked a variety of jobs including: sandwich-maker,framer, gardener and construction worker.
As a child Duke played the piano at the behest of his mother. He then quit playing and picked up guitar at the age of 13. The guitar was his mother's '70s Penco and she left him to teach himself, after he had quit playing piano she said she would not pay for lessons lest he quit again. The next three years Duke spent learning to play the guitar, from internet tablature and playing along with the radio to bands like Alice in Chains and Nirvana. By the time that he was sixteen he started to play live shows at a local coffeehouse in Collingswood, New Jersey, "The Living Room", doing a mixture of original material and cover songs. He performed at open-mic nights at The Point in Bryn Mawr, PA. For his 18th birthday his family gave him a present of recording time to record the songs he had written for posterity. Duke and a friend recorded six songs in two hours at his church, and CD copies ended up being passed around to friends and family.
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