Matthew Good

Matthew Frederick Robert Good (born June 29, 1971, Burnaby, British Columbia) is a Canadian rock musician. He was the lead singer for the Matthew Good Band, one of Canada's most successful alternative rock bands in the 1990s, before dissolving the band in 2002. Other band members included drummer Ian Browne, guitarist/keyboardist Dave Genn, and original bassist Geoff Lloyd, later replaced by Rich Priske. In the years since the Matthew Good Band's disbanding, Good has pursued a solo career and established himself as a political activist.

Solo Career

Good released his solo debut, Avalanche, in 2003. The album featured major stylistic differences from those recorded with the previous band, and featured the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on several tracks, including the first two singles, "Weapon" and "In a World Called Catastrophe". Good recorded the album with long-time MGB producer Warne Livesey, who earned a Juno nomination for the effort.

Related Topics:
2003 - Warne Livesey

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Good and co-director Ante Kovac were also nominated for a Juno Award for Best Video of the Year for "Weapon". Ante Kovac received the award alone on stage. Good later revealed in his blog that he had actually fired Kovac half way through the making of the video. In later commentary, Good related that Kovac's first edit of the video was far too standard, with gratutitous and generic fades. After firing Kovac, Good flew to Toronto and worked with video editor J.D. Shaw to re-craft the footage. While working on the edit, Good began to experiment with overlaying text and adding still frames and stock photos to help deliver the message. Good noted that he felt that the video was his favourite from his catalogue.

Related Topics:
Blog - Toronto

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Good's second solo album, the politically-charged White Light Rock & Roll Review, was released June 15, 2004. Video singles included "Alert Status Red" and "It's Been a While Since I Was Your Man". For the album, Good elected to take a decidedly stripped-down approach. Rather than record each instrument separately, Good and his band (including Priske and drummer Patrick Steward) recorded the songs as a unit, with Good adding vocals and additional guitar parts later. Good later noted that he loved the freedom of being able to write a song, enter the studio, and have a recording completed almost immediately, rather than having to deal with the sometimes arduous process of recording layers and layers of music for a single song.

Related Topics:
White Light Rock & Roll Review - June 15 - 2004

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Good encountered controversy with the video for "Alert Status Red". Initially, the video was intended to be a concept piece, directed by Good. However, upon entering the editing stage, he realized he hadn't shot enough footage to make his concept work. He opted to turn all of the footage over to Kyle Davison, who directed the video for "In a World Called Catastrophe", to see if anything could be made out of it. Davison came up with his own concept, edited it together, and sent the finished product to Good. Good approved of the video, and made it available for download on his website. Good, however, was unaware that Davison had utilized several short clips of surveillance footage of the Columbine High School shootings in the piece. Upon hearing about the clips from individuals who felt the use was insensitive, Good pulled the video from his website. After watching it again, he decided to enlist the opinions of others, including MuchMusic, to see if they had any objections. Most felt it was reasonable, granted that the use wasn't exploitative and helped to support the message of the video, a message that they believed was decidedly relevant. Good agreed. He then returned the video to his website and expressed his support for the work of his co-director.

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In March of 2005, Good brought in Ryan Dahle and Meegee Bradfield of Limblifter to join his band (replacing Christian Thor Valdson and Rich Priske). Good noted that he was concerned his previous line-up had run its course creatively, and that, as a solo artist, he was graced with the freedom to change direction by involving different musicians. He hoped that Ryan and Meegee might be able to lend a new perspective to familiar material. In April, the lineup entered the studio and recorded two tracks for the Matthew Good best-of, "Big City Life" and "Oh Be Joyful". However, when Good undertook a brief tour of Ontario in July of 2005, he was rejoined by Priske and Valdson.

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A compilation of Good's work with the Matthew Good Band and on his own was released in September 2005, titled '. The first single from the album, "Oh Be Joyful", was released at the end of July.

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Good took particular care in the production of the expanded deluxe edition of In a Coma, which included an additional CD and a DVD. In April of 2005, Good entered the studio and recorded nine songs from his catalog, reworked and performed acoustically. As a nod to fans who were unable to find them, the CD also included the out-of-print EPs Lo-Fi B-Sides and Loser Anthems. The DVD featured the complete library of Good's music videos, including a new video for "While We Were Hunting Rabbits" from Avalanche developed by animation students at Sheridan College.

Related Topics:
Lo-Fi B-Sides - Loser Anthems - Sheridan College

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