South African singer and songwriter Matthew van der Want has been hailed repeatedly throughout his 15 year career as one of the country’s top songwriters.
His debut album, “Turn on You”, was released in December 1996 on Shifty Records. Several of the tracks from the album received widespread airplay on national radio in South Africa, and the album gave rise to two top 40 singles, ‘Turn on You’ and ‘She Can’t Love’.
In 1998 and 2002, van der Want collaborated with London based songwriter and composer Chris Letcher to release two albums. 1998’s “Low Riding” was nominated in two categories in the South African Music Awards for Best Rock album and Best Adult Contemporary Album. 2002’s “Bignity” was nominated for Best Rock album in that year’s SAMA and also listed in the Mail & Guardian’s Top Ten albums of the decade (2000–2010).
Matthew’s second full length solo album “Play My Way”, contained the hit single, One Time, which reached number 6 in the South African national Top 40.
Matthew is a regular on the festival circuit performing regularly at Oppikoppi music festival (South Africa’s largest and most popular music festival), Dranouter Folk music festival (Belgium) and at WOMAD Festival. He has also performed several times at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. He was also the support act for Lloyd Cole on his South African tour in 2006.
Matthew’s music has featured in the documentary about SA music icon James Phillips “Famous for not being famous” and his song “Pianist” was used in the 2010 Canadian movie “the Bang Bang Club”.
His third full-length solo album, ‘Outstanding’, released April 2012, is now available.
Listen to the first single “Hot & Cold” off the new album “Outstanding”