MATT DUKE

From turmoil to triumph to everything in-between, life is rich with incredible stories, provocative ideas, and Matt Duke wants to tap into it all. Ever since he began songwriting as a young teen, Duke found that no topic was too off limits, too taboo to explore, and he has welcomed each with an open mind and open heart if only to relay each through his own unique voice. From teen suicide and conversations of abortion on Winter Child (2006), to addiction and the impish supernatural on Kingdom Underground (2008), to Sex, God, and Rock and Roll (among other things) on One Day Die (2011), Duke personalizes every moment and channels that intensity not only through the songs themselves, but on stage as well – endearing his audiences with tremendous performances and an almost heart-breaking vulnerability. He also plays well with others – be sure to check out When I Stop Running (2011) with friends Jay Nash and Tony Lucca; a collection of songs with beautiful acoustic arrangements and lush vocal harmonies throughout. And while it is rumored that Matt Duke owns the only living Bali Tiger still left in existence, he is a man of few secrets and little appetite for the extravagant lifestyle one might assume a singer/songwriter to have. Sometime between then and the now before just now, Duke was visited by what can only be described as an enlightening vision of epic proportions. “Vision” or “proportions” or “enlightening” - but perhaps “enlightening” - might be the operative word when you consider the hypnotizing stare of dilated eyes as wide as an aye-aye’s, burgeoning amidst a backdrop of stark white light and harmonious overtones. His peyote days long behind him, the troubled musician/gardener/singer/songwriter set out in search of clairvoyance, a quest that would inevitably take him to the ends of the Earth and back again (snuggle sessions with the elusive Snow Leopard in the Himalayas; very special opening gigs for artists such as Adele, Rocco DeLucca, Sara Barielles, Charlotte Martin, etc; finding his missing sock in the swamps of Naples, FL on a search for the mystical Ghost Orchid). A cosmic call from the Lighthouse of Alexandria? A wheel in the sky that keeps on turning? That thing you saw in that movie that was weird and stuff? Haunted by the eye of the shining aye-aye, Duke turned to books, the music of friends and people he’d shared the stage with like Rosi Golan, Matthew Mayfield, Sister Hazel, and wax bottles for inspiration and motivation and tips on transubstantiation. Going back to the time of way back then before the then that came before the now before just now, he remembered being born in the deserts of Roswell, NM (totally Biehn style) as a Saguaro with a pageant sash that read, “Miss America 1406”. Somehow this was all significant, but did it make any sense? The answer is, “Orville Redenbacher.” Songwriting, recording, and touring aside, Duke enjoys participating in the program Musicians on Call, which brings bands and songwriters to the bedsides of hospital patients in the Philly area, as well as the relief program M.I.L.E. (Music Is Love Exchange), which brings service-based volunteering and the magic of the arts into communities both at home in the U.S. and abroad. A lover of food, water, sleds, and soft chuckles, Duke can tell the difference between Oxalis and Trifolium.