MATTHEW WEST

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First starting out as an independent musician in the late 1990s, he released three independent albums before signing onto Universal South Records. With the release of his Dove Award-winning debut album Happy (2003) came the success of his first radio single "More" which stayed at number one on Christian AC charts for nine weeks and received two Dove Award nominations.

His second record History (2005) was followed by a 2006 re-release of the originally independent album Sellout. In 2007 he faced vocal issues which threatened his career and two months of prescribed vocal rest. West's third studio album Something to Say (2008) was released in January of the following year and also enjoyed chart success with its number one hit "You Are Everything" in the March 2008.

In addition to his main solo career, West has worked as a songwriter for many Christian musicians and groups such as Point of Grace, Mandisa and Natalie Grant as well as mainstream country acts Rascal Flatts and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Matthew Joseph West was born in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. As a child he was a fan of his hometown's baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, and wanted to eventually play on their team and have a career in baseball. He played baseball through high school, becoming his high school's baseball team captain as a senior. West was hoping for a college baseball scholarship but instead ended up receiving a four-year music scholarship at Millikin University in Illinois. He graduated from Millikin in 1999.

West wrote most of his first songs in the sanctuary of his father's church while he was at home on college breaks. He was a songwriter and independent musician from 1997–2002. During that time, he released three albums: September Sun (1997), Every Step of the Way (1998), and Sellout (2002). In October 1997, he went on a three-city tour to support of the release of September Sun.

Just before graduating from Millikin University in 1999, someone from the college recommended that West attend the GMA Music in the Rockies event for aspiring musicians. Although West was not interested at first, he attended after learning that other people signed him up and paid his entrance fee.

West met a representative from Word Publishing at the event who took interest in him and kept in contact until he graduated. West landed in the finals of a songwriting competition there, and was then offered a songwriting deal in July of 1999, five weeks after graduating from college. After penning songs for well-known musicians like Billy Ray Cyrus and Rachael Lampa, he began touring the United States as an independent artist in 2000 and 2001.

On July 26, 2002, only a week or two before signing a record contract with Universal South Records, West had an injury to his left arm which threatened his musical career and guitar playing. He says, "I locked myself out of my house. But I'd done that before, and I had a way of breaking in through a window. But this time, I had a really hard time getting the window open. I started pushing up on the window really hard and my hand broke through the glass. Blood starting spewing out of my left arm everywhere and I ran down my street screaming for help.

After seeing so much blood, I went into shock and just blacked out in the middle of the street. The next thing I can remember is some construction workers praying over me in Spanish and then being taken to the hospital."

Upon reaching the hospital, West was told that the chances were low of regaining the full use of his left arm, having come very close to severing a major artery. He recovered after the accident, however, and was able to continue playing guitar and record for his first studio album.

After signing onto Universal South Records on August 23, 2002, West released his first non-independent studio album, Happy on December 26, 2003. The album's producers Kenny Greenberg and Jason Houser co-wrote the song "More" with West, which was released as a single. The track was his first and most successful radio single to date, staying at number one on R&R's Christian Adult Contemporary song chart for nine weeks in a row, breaking the previous record of eight weeks. It was the most played Christian AC song of 2004 and went on to be labeled as the Christian Song of the Year by ASCAP.

Two additional songs, "The End" and "You Know Where to Find Me", were also released as singles off the album. Beginning in late September 2004, Matthew West joined Avalon and Mark Schultz on a 40-city fall tour, which concluded at the end of November 2004. In 2005, Matthew West was nominated for five Dove Awards, including "New Artist of the Year" and "Song of the Year". He won the "Recorded Music Packaging of the Year" Dove Award for his debut album Happy.

In early 2005, he was on the WinterJam 2005 tour, hosted by NewSong, with tobyMac, Building 429, Tait and Rachael Lampa.

With Kenny Greenberg and Jason Houser once again as producers, Matthew West began recording for his second studio album in early 2005. History, co-produced by West, was released on June 21, 2005 under Universal South Records. The first single off the album, "Next Thing You Know", was released on June 20, a day before the album was released.

The theme of the album's title track "History" was inspired by a R&R music news headline "Matthew West Makes History", in reference to his first album, Happy. "It's not every day you read a headline like that with your name in it that calls you a history maker" he says.

Beginning on September 14, 2005, Matthew West kicked off the 30-city History 101 tour for the fall. History 101 was his first headlining tour, which included guest musicians Shawn McDonald and Paul Wright. He then joined onto tobyMac's Winter Wonder Slam tour, beginning on December 1, 2005, along with John Reuben, BarlowGirl, GRITS, and DJ Maj. Two additional songs were released off History as singles: "Only Grace" and the title track "History".

His independent album Sellout was re-released in 2006 on Universal South Records with the same track listing as the original independent release.

West said that he began to experience "some vocal fatigue" in April 2007. He said "I had lost some of my vocal range, staying on higher notes and lower notes. I even began having a hard time speaking." At a vocal check-up in response to the issue, West's doctors at the Nashville Vanderbilt Voice Center discovered "some hemorrhaging caused by some polyps" after looking at his vocal cords. He was told by his doctors that vocal surgery was the only option, since a few weeks had passed as the problem was beginning to develop. After the surgery he was prescribed a two-month period of silence for vocal rest. A video documentary titled Nothing to Say, directed and produced by Benjamin Eisner, was released in early 2008, highlighting Matthew West's time of silence and vocal recovery in 2007. In February 2008, the documentary was available exclusively in Family Christian Stores as a CD/DVD combo pack with West's album Something to Say.

Matthew West's next single "You Are Everything" was released in late 2007 from his next and most recent album Something to Say. The song was available as a free download from West's website when it was released. He also recorded a duet song ("Christmas Makes Me Cry") with Christian American Idol finalist Mandisa. The song was released as a Christmas radio single in November of 2007, from Mandisa's Christmas Joy EP.

Matthew West's latest album, Something to Say, was released on January 15, 2008. It reached number eight on Billboard's Top Christian albums chart, and peaked at #159 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it the first of West's albums to chart on the Billboard 200. The album was produced by Brown Bannister, Ed Cash, and Christopher Stevens.

Matthew West said in an interview that all of the album's songs had already been written and the title "Something to Say" had already been decided "months before I found out that I was going to have nothing to say." The first radio single released from the album was "You Are Everything". In March of 2008, the song reached number one on R&R's Christian AC chart. "Something to Say", the album's title track, was also released to radios in early 2008, receiving airplay in June 2008.

West guested on tobyMac's 26-city Boomin' Beyond Measure U.S. tour with Jeremy Camp in early 2008. The tour ran from February 6 through March 21, 2008.Matthew West was featured on the Billy Graham television special America's Dream: Chasing Happiness, which aired in the U.S. on March 1–9, 2008. The appearance included a world premiere of his music video for "Nothing Else", a song from his History album in 2005. On June 29 he hosted GMA's 2008 Gospel Dream show, a televised Christian music talent competition.

In addition to his main solo career, Matthew West has also written songs for other bands and musicians, including Mandisa, Jump5, Sara Groves, Joy Williams, Salvador, Natalie Grant, and Point of Grace, as well as mainstream country acts Rascal Flatts and Billy Ray Cyrus. He co-wrote "Voice of a Savior" by Mandisa and "Thank You" by 33Miles, both of which were released as singles in early 2008.

Matthew West currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Emily West. He married Emily on May 10, 2003 after proposing to her in September 2002. They have a two-year-old daughter named Luella Jane ("Lulu"), born on January 16, 2006. The Wests own a pug named Earl "The Girl".

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