Mathew Etter Brooke is an American musician, best known as the lead singer of American rock band Grand Archives and a former member of the bands

Band of Horses Band of Horses is an American rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle, Washington. Led by singer-songwriter Ben Bridwell, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes, the band's current line-up also includ ...

and

Carissa's Wierd Carissa's Wierd was an American indie rock band based in Seattle that formed in 1995 and disbanded in late 2003. Their sound has been described as "chamber rock".Ben Bridwell Benjamin Bridwell (born April 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. He is best known as the lead singer of the American rock band Band of Horses and a former member of the band Carissa's Wierd. Early life Br ...

and

Jenn Champion Jenn Champion, formerly known as Jenn Ghetto, is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who performs under the name #S, S. She was a member of the now defunct band Carissa's Wierd. Early life Champion grew up in Tucson, Arizona where, in the ...

. In 1997 the trio moved to

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

for a year before becoming bored with that city and moving to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. Brooke and Champion had met in Tucson aged fifteen and had briefly both lived in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

.Erin Franzman
"Carissa's Weird"
''(sic)'' ''The Stranger'' - From the Dec 9 – Dec 15, 1999 issue.

Carissa's Wierd

In Seattle, Brooke and Champion formed Carissa's Wierd, who released three studio albums, the first two on Bridwell's Brown Records label. The band broke up in 2003, since then three compilation albums have been released. Carissa's Wierd reformed for a one off show in Seattle on July 9, 2010. In July 2010, Brooke announced that he and Jenn Champion had bought the rights to Carissa's Wierd's back catalogue from Sad Robot Records. He said, "Me and Jenn have been working for a while to buy back the rights to all of our records and we finally were able to get them all back." This should allow all of Carissa's Wierd's albums to be re-released soon.

Band of Horses

Following the breakup of Carissa's Wierd, Ben Bridwell formed the group Band of Horses, which he invited Brooke to join. Brooke explained what happened, "So they ended up getting a show opening up for Iron and Wine in Seattle and Ben asked if I would just come up and do a couple songs, just 'cause we're friends. So...I did that. It was fun and then a couple of Iron and Wine tours came up...and then next thing I knew, we were in the studio making a record for Sub Pop." Brooke played guitar on Band of Horses first album, ''

Everything All the Time ''Everything All the Time'' is the debut album of indie rock band Band of Horses and was released on March 21, 2006, on Sub Pop Records. It features new versions of five of the six songs from the band's '' Tour EP'', some with different titles. Th ...

,'' and wrote two of the tracks, "I Go to the Barn Because I Like the" and "St. Augustine." He left the band soon after the release of the album, "I'd never really given the commitment to be a formal member. It was just a spur of the moment...and ''Everything All the Time'' took off really fast...I still didn't feel quite committed. It was still 100 percent Ben's project and I kinda wanted to see what else I could do."Stephen Seigel
Volume and Vigor
''

Tucson Weekly The ''Tucson Weekly'' is an alternative newsweekly that was founded in 1984 by Douglas Biggers and Mark Goehring, and serves the Tucson, Arizona, metropolitan area of about 1,000,000 residents. The paper is a member of the Association of Altern ...

'' - June 19, 2008

Grand Archives

After taking some time off to open a bar in Seattle, Brooke formed the band Grand Archives with fellow Seattle musicians Ron Lewis, Thomas Wright, Curtis Hall and Jeff Montano. They played as support band for notable acts such as

Sera Cahoone Sera Cahoone (born August 4, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Cahoone's music combines elements of classic country-western and modern indie rock and lo-fi music. She works as a drummer, especially with the bands C ...

and

Modest Mouse Modest Mouse is an American rock band formed in 1992 in Issaquah, Washington, and currently based in Portland, Oregon. The founding members are lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. Strongly influenced ...

and were featured by the influential music website

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

. Grand Archives released their debut album, ''The Grand Archives'' on

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

Records in February 2008. They toured the U.S. and Europe to promote the album. They became a four-piece in November 2008 when multi-instrumentalist Ron Lewis left the band. The band's second album, ''Keep in Mind Frankenstein,'' was released in September 2009. The band again toured North America and Europe to promote the album. On the tour, Brooke's former Carissa's Wierd bandmate Robin Peringer played guitar and keyboards. The band played a short tour of Europe and the west coast of the US in July and August 2010, during which Brooke announced that they hoped to record their third album shortly. A demo of four songs from the album, titled ''Villains'', was released as a free download on October 7, 2010. Three more free demos were made available in June 2011.

Personal life

Brooke was the co-owner of the Redwood Bar in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. He married his partner Lisa Jack, who was also a co-owner of the Redwood, in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in December 2009. In 2012, Mat and Lisa launched another business venture in Seattle, a restaurant and bar called The Oak. The Redwood closed in November 2017 and the couple sold their stake in The Oak. The following spring, Brooke and Jack announced they were opening a new restaurant venture in their newly-adopted hometown of

Port Angeles, Washington Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. With a population of 19,960 as of the 2020 census, it is the largest city in the county. The population was estimated at 20,134 in 2021. The city's har ...

. The Spruce, as it will be called, will focus on foods and beer sourced from the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. The restaurant is slated to open in summer 2018.Major, Jess
"Couple plans to open new restaurant in Port Angeles this summer"
''peninsuladailynews.com'' - May 4, 2018

References

External links

Grand Archives
on Myspace
Grand Archives
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Mat American male singers American rock singers Living people Singers from Washington (state) Band of Horses members Carissa's Wierd members Year of birth missing (living people)