Currently a student at Yale University, skilled and smart musician Matt Jaffe wants a career in music.
So I ask, just an average college kid with a music career? “Something like that” said the young accomplished student/musician or is it musician/student.
“I started playing classical violin when I was 5.” I still play some violin and around 8 years ago started writing my own songs on guitar and writing them out. Over the last 2-3 years I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work with Jerry Harrison and have him produce my music. He’s a member of Talking Heads.”
Wow. Not average at all. Not surprising though. Jaffe, a big fan of English punk rock band The Clash, has got an incredible sound of his own.
After seeing him play solo at an open mic night, Harrison, was compelled to produce some of Matt’s music. Together, and with contributions from Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty) on drums and Nathan East on bass, they are currently working on Matt’s debut album.
And in his spare time, the 18-year old from the San Francisco Bay Area formed a band called The Distractions which according to Jaffe, “has been playing out and been a nice change and upgrade from just playing solo.”
“What’s in the name The Distractions?
“It’s a shout out to Elvis Costello and The Attractions and its also a play on the idea that all the focus is supposed to be on the lead singer.”
What’s next? “My hope is that we will eventually and perhaps even soon, be able to call music a full-time job. At this juncture, it’s not quite something that we can do every single day so my band mates and are pursuing our education as something to keep our minds spry as we make music happen.”
Wow again.
Check out his performance of ‘I Wanna Be Cruel.‘ If he keeps making music like this, his full-time music job will be here sooner than he knows.
