Matthew Barber
His music has been classified as indie pop and pop rock with folk and alternative country influences. Barber was born and grew up in Port Credit, which is part of Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto, attending Lorne Park Secondary School before moving to Kingston, Ontario to attend Queen's University, where he volunteered at campus radio station CFRC-FM and performed at campus pubs. While at Queen's, he released his debut album A Thousand Smiles An Hour..
Matthew Barber
Martin Cathrae · Matthew Barber · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Matthew Barber
- Birth Name
- Matthew Elliott Barber
- Born
- 10 January 1977
- Birthplace
- Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Occupation
- Singer-songwriter
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Matthew Barber. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q111565
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
Independently in 1999. After graduating from Queen's, he went to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario for his master's degree in philosophy, and here he began to take his performing more seriously. Gaining support from the small but committed Hamilton music community, he released his breakthrough album Means and Ends independently in 2002. The album soon caught the attention of Paper Bag Records, who re-released it to a wider audience in 2003. After two years in Hamilton, Barber moved to Toronto. Barber has been a featured guest on >play, Go and Open Mike with Mike Bullard. He has toured extensively with artists including Buck 65, BOY, Joel Plaskett, Emm Gryner and Matt Mays and El Torpedo. Barber's sister, Jill Barber, is also a noted Canadian musician.
They had him nicely spotlighted, it took me a while to get a shot I liked.
Martin Cathrae from Charlottetown, PE, Canada · Matthew Barber Harmonicaing
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Matthew Barber • Birth Name — Matthew Elliott Barber • Born — 10 January 1977 • Birthplace — Mississauga, Ontario, Canada • Origin — Toronto, Ontario, Canada • Genre — Indie pop Pop rock • Occupation — Singer-songwriter • Label — Outside Music Warner Music Canada • Website — matthewbarber.com
Documentary record
Matthew Barber, a musician, was born on 10 January 1977. The birth is recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Career
Career
Signed to Warner Music Canada, he released the EP title The Story of Your Life in 2004 and the full-length album Sweet Nothing on September 27, 2005. Sweet Nothings debut single and music video, "Soft One," became a major hit in Canada, reaching number one among most-added tracks and the top 20 tracks overall at hot adult contemporary radio in Canada, and receiving regular play on music video channels including MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic and MusiMax. On March 4, 2008, Barber released his fourth album on Outside Music, Ghost Notes. Numerous guest musicians are featured on the 10-track album, including Sarah Harmer and Barber's sister Jill. His fifth album, True Believer, was released on February 23, 2010. The self-titled album Matthew Barber was released June 7, 2011, on Outside Music. In the same year, Jill and Matthew Barber collaborated on a cover of The Hardship Post's "Your Sunshine", which appeared on the charity compilation album Have Not Been the Same – Vol. 1: Too Cool to Live, Too Smart to Die. In 2014, he released Big Romance. Barber returned to work in 2018 with Phase of the Moon, his first solo LP in four years. In 2025 Jill and Matthew Barber contributed a cover of Joel Plaskett's "Light of the Moon" to the Plaskett tribute album Songs from the Gang. He has also produced two albums, Artefact (2022) and New Kind of Familiar (2024), for Clever Hopes.
Discography
• A Thousand Smiles An Hour (1999) • Means & Ends (2003) • The Story of Your Life (2004) (EP) (Released as "Matthew Barber & The Union Dues") • Sweet Nothing (2005) • Ghost Notes (2008) • True Believer (2010) • Matthew Barber (2011) • Songs for the Haunted Hillbilly (2012) • Big Romance (2014) • The Family Album (2016), with Jill Barber • Phase of the Moon (2018)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Matthew Barber (singer-songwriter), revision 1371014272 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. AWFUL DREAM. ASCAP.
- 2.Matthew Barber: Rawly Melancholic Songwriter Experiences a Major Growth Spurt , NOW cover story by Sarah Liss, July 17, 2003
- 3."'Have Not Been the Same' Book Spawns Covers Comp Featuring Kevin Drew, the Hidden Cameras, Great Lake Swimmers, Bry Webb". Exclaim!, November 14, 2011.
- 4.Matthew Barber Returns with 'Phase of the Moon'. exclaim.ca.
- 5.Allie Gregory, "Sloan, the Sheepdogs, City and Colour, Bahamas Wish Joel Plaskett Happy Birthday with 'Songs from the Gang' Covers Album". Exclaim!, April 11, 2025.
- 6.Brendyn Creamer, "Clever Hopes meditates on memories in sophomore album, ‘New Kind of Familiar’". The Coast, June 7, 2024.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
43,975 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Matteo ZocariniPerson
- Matthäus StegmayerPerson
- Mattheus Le MaistrePerson
- Matthew AucoinPerson
- Matthew BestPerson
- Matthew BroderickPerson
- Matthew BrunsonPerson
- Matthew DeweyPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Matthew Barber?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.