M. Ward

Matthew Stephen Ward (born October 4, 1973), known professionally as M. Ward, is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Portland, Oregon. Ward's solo work is a mixture of folk and blues-inspired Americana analog recordings. He has released 10 studio albums since 1999, primarily through the independent label Merge Records. In addition to his solo work, he is a member of indie pop duo She & Him and folk-rock supergroup Monsters of Folk, and also participates in recording, producing, and playing with multiple other artists. Early life M. Ward was raised in Glendale, California, and moved to Portland, Oregon, after college. Growing up, Ward taught himself songs by the Beatles on his brother's guitar, and began recording demos on a four-track analog tape recorder when he was about fifteen. Ward continues to record only analog, and starts all of his songs as demos on the same recorder he has had since his teens. Solo recordings Duets for Guitars #2 and End of Amnesia (1999–2001) Ward's solo debut, Duet for Guitars #2, was released by Co-Dependent Records in 1999, then reissued by Howe Gelb's Ow Om record label in 2000. Described by Joshua Klein of Pitchfork as "ragged and lo-fi ... recorded on a shoestring and not necessarily worse for it", Duet for Guitars #2 soon went out of print for a second time, before being reissued by Merge in 2007.