Matt Death and the New Intellectuals

Matt Death was born 3 generations into the blood line of a cursed eastern european side show manager. The original last name of his family was Domkus, a Lithuanian name. His great grandmother died during child birth, and his grandfather, after immigrating to America, changed his last name to Death, presumably to accept and claim his poor fortune.



Matt Death traveled around for most of his youth, unable to hold down any long term jobs on account of being a contrarian and suffering from self diagnosed A.D.D. As a young adult he found a home in music, teaching himself to record in the early 90's. This was not because he liked recording, but because he liked the smell of analog recording tape and secretly hoped he would get shocked and killed while misguidedly replacing capacitors in vintage gear.



Even though Matt Death tried his damndest to not record anyone ever, he has to his credits various projects such as the Cold War Kids - Up In Rags EP, the single Hang Me Up To Dry and Hospital Beds from their full length, as well as 3 Havalina records, 2Mex's latest, and various others. Most of these bands hate him now and will not record in his studio. This is ok as Matt Death hates them back, but only the existential them, on a deeper level, he loves them the way the FBI coronor loved Harry Truman on Twin Peaks.



Matt Death also photographs under assumed identity of Matt Wignall.



The Nieto brothers come from Ecuador where Erick attended clown school as a young man and learned to juggle and drum. Orlando played in a Yes cover band in the same town. David Maust, the Keyboardist of the New Intellectuals comes from a Mennanite farm in Kansas, where he and his brother Matt took a vow to never return for their love of rock and roll. Dave is also a Hurdy Gurdy luthier.