Matt Pinfield
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Matt Pinfield is a music personality and TV host, best known for being a VJ on MTV and VH1.
Early in his career, he was an on-air host and Music Director at WRSU-FM, the official radio station of Rutgers University. 1984, Pinfield became a radio DJ on Jersey shore alternative rock radio station WHTG-FM 106.3, and was the main DJ at a New Brunswick, NJ club called The Melody Bar. Under Matt's creative guidance, the Melody Bar became one of the most well respected alternative music clubs in the NYC area. A number of Melody regulars who traveled around the country and even the world would return from time to time and declare that the Melody was the best club they had ever been to, easily topping hot spots in LA, NYC and the UK.
Many of the most famous alternative bands of the time preferred hanging out in New Brunswick at the Melody with Matt rather than stay in New York city, as they discovered they could relax and be themselves in the Melody's authentic alternative music friendly scene. Bands quickly discovered that Pinfield wasn't just another DJ looking to shmooze with the flavor of the month, but realized he was a genuine music fan who knew music inside and out. Most artists, even some of the most guarded developed an immediate rapport with Matt as they instantly realized that he was a kindred spirit, and "one of them".
Matt developed a close personal relationship with a number of ground breaking British acts of the late eighties, including Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Pop Will Eat Itself (PWEI), and most importantly, The Wonderstuff. The Wonderstuff featured Matt in their movie "Welcome to the Cheap Seats", and his mug is on the inside of the movies' soundtrack CD liner notes. This type of relationship with the artist was a hint of things to come later in the nineties.
During his 10 years at WHTG, Matt was the recipient of the Gavin Award (1992, 1993) for National Commercial Alternative Music Director of the Year. Matt sang with several New Brunswick based bands over the years, including The Null Set and Opium Vala. In 1990, Matt helped close friend Stiffy Biceptz assemble one of New Brunswick's strangest bands called Free Parking.
In 1995, Pinfield kicked off his Television career hosting MTV’s 120 Minutes. Within a year, he hosted a variety of MTV shows including “MattRock,” “Pinfield Suite,” “Pinfield Presents”, Rocks Off”, Say What, MTV Live and well over 100 MTV specials. His incredible music knowledge was showcased on TRL’s Stump Matt. 1999, Pinfield joined Universal Television to host and co-write a live television show about music, farmclub.com which aired in 2000 on the USA Network.
In 2001, Matt became Vice President of A & R and Artist Development for Columbia Records, signing and overseeing the making of albums by many gold and platinum acts including Coheed & Cambria and Crossfade. During the same time, he hosted WXRK-FM's The Buzz and made cameo appearances on several albums, including a secret track on Limp Bizkit's Significant Other album. In 2005, Matt was asked by The Rolling Stones to host their international radio interview for Premiere networks. The special featured all 4 band members together for the first time in an interview setting in over 35 years.
In 2006, Pinfield returned to Television to host Vh1’s VSpot Top 20 Countdown and HDNet’s Soundoff with Matt Pinfield, an in-depth interview program in the vein of Larry King Live. Pinfield also made a cameo on the Nickelodeon program The Naked Brothers Band.
On August 22, 2007, Pinfield hosted Projekt Revolution, a free concert hosted on Myspace.com.
Today, Pinfield hosts Sirius Satellite Radio’s Matt Pinfield Plays Whatever He Wants, and Soundoff with Matt Pinfield.
Beginning May 28th, 2008 Pinfield took over as morning drive DJ on New York radio station WRXP 101.9FM. [1]
