Barber is an acclaimed singer-songwriter hailing from Toronto, Canada. A fixture on the Canadian music scene over the last five years, Barber has released three records and an e.p. and toured extensively across Canada and abroad, making inroads into Europe, Australia and now the United States. His sound is largely influenced by the tradition of folk-rock and country singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Hank Williams, Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen, but also by years of immersion in contemporary indie-rock as a college radio d.j. The one constant in Barber's songwriting is his knack for a memorable hook (perhaps owing to his enduring love of the Beatles), and in this way he has carved out a unique sound that often defies categorization.
Barber burst onto the scene in 2003 with the release of his much-loved indie-debut Means and Ends and attracted the attention of Warner Music Canada. He subsequently released the e.p The Story of Your Life (2004) and his major-label debut Sweet Nothing (2005) on Warner and saw commercial success with the singles 'We're Gonna Play' (2004), and especially 'Soft One' (2005) which has remained a staple at Canadian radio since it's release. All this time Barber toured back and forth across Canada, mostly with his band The Union Dues but often as a solo performer as well. Notable long-time members of the Union Dues include bass-player Julian Brown who went on to record and tour with Feist and Apostle of Hustle; drummer Joel Stouffer who now plays in the U.K.-based Dragonette; bass-player Matt McQuaid who now plays with electro-rockers Holy Fuck; and drummer Kieran Adams who still plays with Barber as well as with Sarah Harmer, among others. Highlights of this period include national tours with The Joel Plaskett Emergency and Matt Mays and El Torpedo, and solo tours with the likes of Chris Isaak and Buck 65. Sweet Nothing was picked up by Rounder Records in Europe in 2007 and Barber had the opportunity to tour solo throughout Ireland, the UK, Netherlands and Germany.
With increasing uncertainty in the world of major labels, Barber was thrilled to make his return to the indies with the release of his most recent record Ghost Notes (2008) on the revamped Outside Music label. Self-produced and considered by many critics to be his most accomplished work to date, it has been nominated for a Juno award in the "best roots/traditional" category. The March 2008 release was followed by the sold-out "Sibling Revelry" tour of Canada with Matthew's sister, singer-songwriter Jill Barber. Then came another successful national tour featuring the exciting Peterborough-based three-piece The Spades as Barber's backing band. Ghost Notes was released in Australia later in 2008 on the Code One label and this release was followed by a five-week tour of the country. In April 2009, Ghost Notes will see it's official U.S. release on Outside Music's American imprint, distributed through Red Eye, with American tour dates to follow.
2008 also saw Barber make his first foray into the world of theatre, composing original music for Sidemart Theatre's production of The Haunted Hillbilly which ran at the Segal Centre for the Arts in Montreal in May 2009. Performing in the show as well, Barber and fellow musician Joe Grass picked up the Montreal English Theatre Critics award for "best sound." The show is scheduled to have another two-week run in December of 2009.
