Matthew Friedberger (born October 21, 1972 in Oak Park, Illinois) is half of the indie rock duo The Fiery Furnaces. In the band he contributes the majority of the instrumentation, writes most of the songs and lyrics and occasionally sings. His sister, Eleanor Friedberger, does most of the vocals and writes some lyrics.
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Matthew and Eleanor grew up singing with their grandmother Olga Sarantos and family in a Greek Orthodox Church. Details of events in Sarantos' life are depicted on the Rehearsing My Choir album.
Matthew has been a vegetarian since childhood.[1]
The first song Matt ever wrote was in fourth grade. He was assigned to make a weather barometer for class but didn't feel like doing that, so instead he convinced his teacher to let him write a song on the piano about weather. The song was titled “Cumulous Nimbus Cloud” and was what Matt describes as "mostly pounding on the piano".[2]
Prior to starting The Fiery Furnaces, Matthew Friedberger played in bands including Corndolly, Liquorette, The Mezzanines and The Grand Vizars.
At the age of 17, Matthew moved to Germany only to return shortly thereafter. He attended the University of Illinois for a while and continued to live there, writing comic books, until the age of 26 when he moved back home. It was after moving home that he encouraged Eleanor to start singing. The two wrote the song Duffer St. George one night while discussing a recent trip Eleanor took to England (there's a London store by the same name) and The Fiery Furnaces began.[3]
Aside from his work with The Fiery Furnaces, Friedberger released a two-disc solo album, titled Winter Women and Holy Ghost Language School by 859 Recordings in August 2006. He dedicated the album to his sister, saying later in an interview, "we dedicated all [the Fiery Furnaces] records to our parents, so I thought it was appropriate that this record be dedicated to Eleanor".[4]
In November 2010, Friedberger revealed that he will release eight new albums in 2011 in a vinyl-only subscription series called Solos. The first six albums will ship every two months in 2011 and will each feature Friedberger on vocals accompanied by a single instrument, while the last two will be bonus albums that ship with the final installment and feature "special guests."[5] The first album in the series, Napoleonette, featuring piano, was released on January 18. The second, Meet Me in Marimas, featuring guitar, was released March 15. The third, Old Regimes, was released May 10, featuring the harp. The fourth, Cut It Out, featuring "drums and machines that play drums and things which can be made to sound like drums" was released August 16.[6] The fifth is titled Death-in-Life and will feature the organ, as in a church or classical organ, not a keyboard. It will be released on October 11. It will be the first of the Solos records since Napoleonette to have 10 tracks, two of which share the same name. [7] The sixth and final record is tentatively titled Arrested on Charges of Unemployment and will feature the double bass. Following the release of the sixth album, two entirely new records will be released. These will not feature only one instrument. One of them is said to be a rock album, the other is a story record.
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