Matthew James

Matthew James Harrou Sivertson (born August 11th, 1996 in Minneapolis, Minnesota), better known by his stage name Matthew James, is a Moroccan-American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and professional pianist located in Los Angeles, California.

Spending his formative years in Morocco with his Norwegian-American father and his African-American mother before moving to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Matthew fell in love with music as a young boy. Introduced by his supportive musician father to the songwriting of The Beatles, the stage presence and undeniable showmanship of James Brown and the epic artistry of Michael Jackson, Matthew didn’t just absorb these influences but symbiotically ingested them. With a natural affinity at age six, Matthew quickly learned piano, and drums, while also excelling at singing, melody, and poetry.

Graduating from the McNally Smith College of Music in Saint Paul in 2014, Matthew enjoyed his first taste of success with the six-piece ensemble, The Common Cassettes, who toured throughout the U.S. with marquee performances in Seattle, Austin, and Rochester, New York. This notoriety landed him at Minneapolis’ largest independent label, Pledge Empire Records, with whom he found himself producing, ghostwriting, composing and featuring on various songs for groundbreaking Hip-Hop/Rap artists such as Ced Linus, Sti-Lo Reel, Prince Carlton and Louis P. During this prolific time, he was nominated “Best RnB Artist of the Year” by the Twin Cities Urban Music Awards while also scoring compositions for “Worldwide Star Search” in Hollywood, performing with 3x Grammy-Award winners, Jamaica Bennett, and Pippi Ardennia, and collaborating with former NFL Defensive Linemen, Esera Tuaolo for “Hate in Any Form is Wrong,” an event to foster diversity in sports and anti-bullying among youth.

In the fall of 2016, Matthew moved to Los Angeles to further his song craft while also pursuing modeling, acting, and LGBTQ advocacy with organizations such as GLADD and The LGBT Center in Los Angeles, which is the world's largest provider of programs and services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Busy writing music for his for future releases, Matthew’s has just announced his anthemic new single, “Right Now”.