Welcome to our collection of insightful and inspiring quotes by Mat Kearney. As an American musician known for his captivating blend of folk, pop, and hip-hop, Kearney has gifted the world with lyrics that resonate deeply with listeners. His poetic expressions often explore themes of love, resilience, and the journey of self-discovery, making his words both relatable and profound to a diverse audience. Whether you’re seeking motivation, comfort, or simply a fresh perspective, Kearney’s quotes offer a wealth of wisdom to enrich your day. Explore these quotes below and discover the power of his words to uplift and inspire.
I love what I do. I love playing music. Mat Kearney
I was always into poetry and writing. So the urgency of spoken word is something that really has always appealed to me. Mat Kearney
I read about two reviews early on when my first record came out, and it just freaked me out, good and bad, so I’ve never really kept up with that side of it. Mat Kearney
I’ve always been a writer. I’ve always done writing or spoken-word, hip-hop stuff with my friends. Mat Kearney
When ‘Young Love’ came out, I was really excited, and it has been really special. Mat Kearney
I was an English major, and I always wrote poems. Mat Kearney
I didn’t start writing music until I was a sophomore in college. I would steal my roommate’s guitar and sit on the front porch and kind of blend this weird spoken word and these little melodies over simple chords; that really started my whole journey as a musician. Mat Kearney
It’s a job, and it’s challenging. But I love music and creating. That’s why I got into music. Mat Kearney
Golf was big in my family. Mat Kearney
I’ve never shaped or crafted my music for any specific group of people. Whoever connects with it is fine with me. I don’t care where they come from. Mat Kearney
Getting married and really digging in with another human being can point out your greatest strengths and your greatest weaknesses. Mat Kearney
I don’t think, to be a traveler, you have to reject setting roots up. Mat Kearney
I’ve had moments in my career when I’ve made more money and had more success than at other times, but I’ve realized being happy has very little to do with any of that. Mat Kearney
‘Young Love’ is about falling in love and dealing with your past so you can move forward. I wanted it to be a clear record. Mat Kearney
I am a micromanager, and I love being involved in every detail of my life, but in the big picture, you realize how little control you have. ‘Air I Breathe’ is about those moments of surrender where you get to something that is bigger than you, and you don’t have answers for it. Mat Kearney
I had the lyric ‘Chip Don’t Go’ and a few words, and my wife came in and said that it sounded like a good song. I thought I’d finish writing it up and posting it to YouTube. I didn’t realize it was going to take off like it did. Mat Kearney
The criticism people could have of my music maybe is that it’s somewhat schizophrenic at times. And if you don’t like that, it could bother you. Mat Kearney
I don’t know how much I’m connected to the hip-hop scene, but I definitely lend from that urgency. Mat Kearney
From my experience, I’ve been honest about who I am and what I believe and the motivation behind my music. But I’ve played it in arenas that are for all people. I’ve pretty much stuck to that model my whole career. Mat Kearney
When I started forming my own taste, there was a period in high school when I listened to only rap and hip-hop, like A Tribe Called Quest. Mat Kearney
When I first started writing music, it was to express that. I was trying to find God and trying to find meaning in my life. That’s what my music was about. It wasn’t to entertain. Mat Kearney
Minneapolis has always been a very special place for me. Mat Kearney
My goal is to try to avoid a genre. Mat Kearney
You write these songs which are really dear to you about your family or friends, loved ones, and then you get this call, and they say, ‘It’s perfect for two vampires making out in the back of a car.’ It’s some random TV show, and so I say, ‘Oh, yeah, perfect – that’s what I meant it for.’ Mat Kearney
All of my acoustic playing came from my songwriting. All of the chords I’ve learned and all of the voicings I play them in are a direct result of composing. Mat Kearney
I played soccer. I was really known as an athlete. It was a shock to people that I was doing music. They thought it was really odd. Mat Kearney
Growing up in Eugene, Oregon, there was everything from The Notorious B.I.G. to Weezer playing in my car. Mat Kearney
I never got too specialized but did like the Southern Gothic writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor. Mat Kearney
I love Michigan. Mat Kearney
I’m a ’90s music kid. Mat Kearney
More than any other instrument, the relationship between an acoustic guitar and a microphone is super-important. The kind of mics that you use and your placement of the mics to the guitar can radically alter your sound. Mat Kearney
‘Nothing Left to Lose’ was an album that I wrote in my bedroom, and you don’t know who is listening or who cares. Mat Kearney
There are people I love in Nashville and would not want to go a day without talking to, but I want to see the world. Mat Kearney
I do know great books help shape who I am and how I look at life. Mat Kearney
When I was in college, I wanted to study film. My first passion was to be a cinematographer. So maybe there’s something innate in my music where it partners well with images. Mat Kearney
My songs have a layer of melancholy. Mat Kearney
I love Bruce Springsteen’s writing, but I grew up on ’90s hip hop, like Tribe Called Quest. Mat Kearney
As an artist, you tend to gravitate to the opposite. I know, when I finish a song or an album, I’m interested in doing something completely new. It doesn’t always happen, but that’s the idea. My poor fans – I don’t know if they love that or hate that. Mat Kearney
I started writing music in a season of my life where people were telling me I wasn’t defined by mistakes, and God really loved me and was fighting for me, and there was a journey to be had with that. And I don’t know of a more important message. Mat Kearney
I enjoy changing; I think it’s more fun to try something different than to just do what you did last time. As an artist, you just want to keep creating, keep finding a place that really inspires you that feels fresh and new, and keep it exciting. Mat Kearney
I think the way I love talking about my faith is through my story because I think that’s all we have to work with sometimes. I think it’s the most moving way to share your story, too – is what you know, what you’ve seen and heard and tasted and felt. Mat Kearney
God found me when I was at my lowest point. That was the first time in my life when I really felt like I understood who Jesus was – it was more than just knowing about Him: I felt like He met me in that time and place. Mat Kearney
I never wanted to be on an exclusively Christian label. Mat Kearney
There are a lot of great recording artists, like Jack White and Jack Johnson, who stay confined inside a very small box, but I’m more like Bon Iver, who recorded an album with programmed drums, and the next record was totally organic. I get that. Mat Kearney
I think I have always made really beat-driven pop-rock records. Mat Kearney
For my father, he didn’t know what ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ was. He didn’t know who John Mayer was. But when I showed up on the ‘Law & Order’ TNT promo spot, he thought, ‘Wow, my son has made it.’ Mat Kearney
Even on tour, where I perform songs from ‘City Of Black And White,’ I still do songs from ‘Nothing Left To Lose.’ I never turned my back on that material. On some albums, you change – that’s all. The trick is to follow your heart and do what feels right. Mat Kearney
The problem in this country is people gravitate toward one genre, and that’s what they embrace. I don’t understand that. If you hit me with Bell Biv Devoe meets country, well, I like the sound of that concept. Mat Kearney
I would sit in my dorm room and write songs. I loved it. I was learning to sing and play guitar. I was becoming a musician. I was the beginner who somehow could write a song. Mat Kearney
I think coming from the Northwest is something that’s born in your blood. On my mom’s side, I’m, like, a sixth-generation Oregonian. My family came over in the covered wagons, ‘Oregon Trail’-video-game style. Maybe the pioneer mentality runs in my blood because they were all pioneers. Mat Kearney
My first album was hip-hop influenced, and my second was more of a singer-songwriter album. Mat Kearney
With ‘City of Black & White,’ I wanted a record that would make you feel good, that would sort of take you up in its hand and sweep you along. Mat Kearney
Choosing an acoustic guitar for a live setting can be different from picking out one for recording. One doesn’t always work for the other. The sonic properties can be vastly different. Mat Kearney
There’s something incredibly vulnerable about middle school for me. We’re really impressionable during that period. The cement’s still wet, so to speak, and a lot of things later in life are born during that season. Mat Kearney
I think my faith is a huge part of my music. But for me, it didn’t make sense to be in any specific market. I write songs for a lot of different kinds of people. Mat Kearney
Songs like ‘Learn To Love Again’ and ‘Rochester’ and some of the more gut-wrenching ones deal with the pain of the younger times of your life… trying to make sense of some the stuff we probably all went through. Mat Kearney
I don’t spend afternoons practicing my guitar to get better. I do read, though, to get inspiration for my lyrics. Mat Kearney
I can’t help but do things my own way. Mat Kearney
I love to play the songs that got me to where I am. I like to take a little bit from all of my records and mix it up. Mat Kearney
‘City Of Black And White’ was me trying to do something more mature, more adult contemporary. Mat Kearney
The first year I moved to Nashville, I started playing these songwriter nights with people like Nickel Creek, Duncan Sheik, and even Ryan Adams… That was the first place I really started playing music, and I had to really step up my game. Really quick. Or get kicked off the stage. Mat Kearney
I think, in a lot of ways, hip-hop is interesting to me because it’s like the modern-day folk music. Mat Kearney
I’m really influenced by ’90s hip hop. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were my heroes growing up. Mat Kearney
I think you can hear all my hip hop influences in ‘Just Kids.’ Mat Kearney
Paul Simon is the king! Mat Kearney
I’ve never been one to learn scales and do exercises. Maybe I’m lazy, but I just don’t take to that kind of thing. Learning other people’s songs is enjoyable, and my fingers tend to go to new places because I’m not playing my music, the stuff that comes naturally to me. Mat Kearney
It’s been awesome going indie. I don’t need to be on a major label. I love not having to walk into a specific radio person’s office to try to convince someone to play my songs. At the end of the day, it’s more work, but I’ve discovered that I like to get my hands dirty. Mat Kearney
There’s this song called ‘Brad Chester,’ which is like the depths of my family. It comes from a very personal place. Mat Kearney
My dad was a scratch golfer growing up. When I’m on the road, I always bring my clubs with me. Mat Kearney
I thought my second record was good, but it didn’t have that smash hit we did on the first one that somehow found its way onto tons of formats of radio stations. Mat Kearney
Generally, the songs that are the scariest ones are the ones that people connect to. Mat Kearney
New Yorkers are historically tough crowds. Mat Kearney
I didn’t know music would end up being my job, but I loved it so much I wanted to do it every day. Mat Kearney
Money definitely does not equal success in recording. Mat Kearney
I started as a writer. I didn’t play music until late in life. Mat Kearney
Being from Oregon, it’s part of who I am. Mat Kearney
The first album was literally the first 12 songs I’ve ever written. Mat Kearney
It’s silly to throw things out or label things. You know, is U2 a Christian band, or was Johnny Cash a Christian country singer? I don’t know, but they’re pretty open about their faith. Mat Kearney
When my first record came out, it was in the middle of the real Muse, Keane, British thing, and that beat-driven thing wasn’t really that cool at the moment. Mat Kearney
When we tour, there’s always this unique quality to every town you visit… Touring, you get a sense of a collective identity for different cities. That’s one of the things I love about my job. Mat Kearney
When I barely got into college, the one thing I could do was write, so I became an English major. Mat Kearney
Owl City is exactly as you’d imagine him. It’s hard to have much on him. He’s like a frightened bunny. I feel like if you yelled at him, he’d just dart to a corner of the room. Mat Kearney
Ultimately, when you write from a vantage point of faith, humility, and openness to the world around you, people have to respond because those same truths are instilled in them. Mat Kearney
I’ve always sought to get after something that’s foundational in people. That comes through my faith, through my belief in life, through trying to hit something that’s true every time. I think that’s really where you move people, when you touch on something that’s true, that’s not based on fluff or based on a moment or a movement. Mat Kearney
When I set out to write, I want to write something that will rip your heart out and connect with you. Great songs connect beyond genre and style. Mat Kearney
You go to a Springsteen show, and half of the people are there to party and forget about their cares, and they’re being drawn to this visceral experience. And then the other half, you know, has lived and died with his ‘Nebraska’ album and considers him one of the greatest poets. Mat Kearney
The first record blew up and sold really well. ‘City of Black & White’ didn’t sell as well, and that’s when you wonder, ‘Did I peak already?’ Mat Kearney
I’m actually named Matthew William Kearney: my middle name is named after my grandfather. Mat Kearney
I grew up in Oregon, so there was always a lot of that folksy, Bob Marley stuff. There was a mural of Bob Marley on a wall at my high school. Mat Kearney
I was an English major in college, so I really liked spoken word and poetry; it was what I did before I wrote music. Mat Kearney
Hopefully, reading and being around great literature inspires me to write songs, but I’m not sure about that. Mat Kearney
I’m painfully a realist but ruthlessly an optimist. I think maybe it’s because of my faith – I’ve always got the hope that there is something out there to make it all worthwhile. Mat Kearney
Somehow, my music really suits doctors making out in the syringe room. Mat Kearney
