Matt Costa

Artist's Website

Matt Costa grew up next door to a pet cemetery, played trumpet and piano, gave his first impromptu performance on a houseboat, and focused more on skateboarding than school in his hometown of Huntington Beach, California. He was drawn to the freedom and improvisation of skating, and also says, “I discovered a lot of music through skating — B-sides that nobody else had heard that made me want to find more music.”

A few years later, just before he was ready to turn pro, a life-changing leg break led him to turn his attention to songwriting while he healed from painful surgeries. He wrote some songs on guitar, befriended No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont via the vibrant SoCal arts scene, and recorded Songs We Sing with Dumont as his guide. “One of the first things he told me was ‘stop practicing so hard and let the feeling come out,’” Costa says. “It stuck with me because that’s the key to music. The light went on in my head.”

On the strength of the folky, beautiful Songs, which displays his gentle artistry and skillful acoustic guitar playing, Costa earned a rep as an L.A. buzz act, crisscrossed the U.S. in a van, and performed at all the major North American music festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, and Austin City Limits among others. And on the soon-to-be-released “Unfamiliar Faces” Costa wraps his appealing melodies in increasingly ambitious packages that recall the Shins, Spoon and Ben Folds. Though Costa’s sound has a sunny, bouncy vibe, he’s not afraid to get introspective.