Matthew Hoover

For Matthew Hoover, writing and recording songs comes naturally. It’s his way of conveying his experiences, both good and bad. Matthew’s sound is mostly influenced by his surroundings, such as the rural industrial town of Bucyrus, Ohio in which he grew up. As a young musician, it was this very upbringing from which he rebelled. Hoover found himself in numerous bands playing everything from hard rock to obscure independent noise outfits. It was only after moving away from his home town and immersing himself in the Columbus, Ohio music scene (New Bomb Turks, Gaunt, and Greenhorn) with his rock band, The Peachbones that Hoover found himself returning to his roots. Hoover went back to the influence of his grandfather and rediscovered his record collection of old classic country and traditional folk. By this point, Hoover was well versed in the surge of alt. country bands such as The Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, and Son Volt. With this new perspective, Hoover went back to the woodshed, and starting carving out a new, yet familiar sound.
The result of Matthew’s diligent soul searching is his latest release, “Talking to Ghosts”. This is a record crafted with both honest song writing about the familiar muses of love, loss and regret, as well as his passion for the traditional – sometimes haunting - sounds of pedal steel, fiddle and acoustic guitar. The writings of his experiences and patch work of influences have quilted a collection of songs that listeners will find as familiar as the back roads home and as new as fresh cut hay in August.