We had a great conversation with Matt Koerner on The Chris & sandy Show. We talked about so many things from family, music, sacrifices, he told some great stories including how he met his wife plus a whole lot more! Click the play button to listen to the podcast!
Matt Koerner is an artist who definitely makes the most out of life and every opportunity that comes his way. He learned to do that as a young child growing up in California in a family that was supportive of anything he endeavored to accomplish, and that burning ambition was further stoked during his school years as an athlete through the discipline he learned to practice. And those lessons have definitely come into play as he launches his budding country music career and releases his latest single, “Better Days,” a song he wrote just before moving to Nashville to chase his dreams in 2014.
The buoyant new single reflects Matt’s never-say-die positive attitude and zest for life, and is the latest offering from an artist who definitely knows how to embrace life with both hands and enjoy each and every day. He recalls penning the song while struggling to make ends meet early in his career working different jobs that didn’t really spark his passion. “I wrote this in my parents dining room actually,” recalls Matt. “I had worked odd jobs for the last three years while living at my parents’ house trying to save up some money and I didn’t particularly like the jobs, they were kind of run of the mill jobs that I knew I was not going to be working in for long. I was very thankful to have the work but knew they were not going to be my career. That was when I decided I was going to pursue a career in music and move to Nashville, and that is what ‘Better Days’ is all about. I was stuck in a rut working jobs I didn’t really like and decided to move on to bigger and better things for myself – and better days!
Matt has always been a disciplined person, and much of that he learned early on in life through athletics as a kid growing up. A gifted athlete, Koerner played baseball through high school and college and even eyed a pro career at one point, but he’ll never forget the wisdom his coach imparted on him that has always carried him through life and served him well. “I ended up playing through high school and then I got a spot on the roster at the University of Arizona,” said Matt. “We had a great team and were ranked No. 1 in the nation then. Being an athlete was just a great experience. To be honest with you, it taught me a lot about life and discipline. There were two things I learned from my college baseball coach and I apply them to everything in my life. The first thing he preached is to always hold yourself to the highest standards, because if you don’t, no one else is going to. And the other one is, with everything in life that you do, try to have poise…you’re going to have struggles in life, and situations where you don’t know how to handle them, but take a deep breath and try to handle them with as much poise as you possibly can. I try to practice both of those.”
After college and a few jobs in the corporate world, Matt began to feel the pull toward music. He had picked up guitar when he was 13, playing a few gigs here and there through the years, and decided three years after college graduation to visit Nashville and see what the scene was all about. He arrived in the city in the spring of 2013, as fate would have it during the annual Country Radio Seminar, and what happened next would make him fall in love with music even more and cement his dreams of becoming a singer.
On his first night in Music City, he went by the famed Bluebird Café and arrived just as the show was about to start and was of course completely at capacity. Without a seat, Matt stood outside waiting and hoping for someone to leave so he could go inside and eventually landed a seat for the sold-out show. Then, he pushed lady luck even further, asking if he could add his name to the open mic night list, he ended up being the last performance of the night and got to play on the legendary stage! But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Asking where he should go after the show ended, he wound up at the Whiskey Jam at a club near Music Row, where he inadvertently bumped into and met Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, who were milling around in the crowd. Later on in the week he ended up meeting several other artists who were out for the seminar, including Luke Bryan, who sat and chatted with him. On his flight back home later in the week, Matt sat across the aisle from several guys, who were obviously in a band, and heard them talking about some TV appearances they had coming up. When the plane landed, they took their guitars cases down with the name “Luke Bryan Crew” stickered on them. Matt could not believe the coincidence until he looked up and saw a familiar face. Three rows ahead was Luke himself. He had gotten up to deplane and acknowledged Matt with a friendly hello. Needless to say, Matt made up his mind he was coming back.
After time spent performing at venues around Orange County, CA Matt began writing songs of his own, including an inspiring tune about his grandfather, “Stayed Alive in ’45,” that came to him one night out of the blue, along with several others. He was always a big fan of country music and the stories the songs tell, having grown up listening to artists like Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, and others when visiting his grandparents’ house as a kid.
He eventually made the move to Nashville and continued working on his career, developing followings playing in regional areas like St. Louis and Birmingham along with Nashville, and happened to meet his future wife Lindsey, (also a California native,) when she came to Music City on a girls trip in 2015. The two reconnected and began seeing each other, and three months into their relationship Matt got dealt a serious blow that would become a part of his story.
He began having bad pains returning home from a weekend trip with Lindsey, and after being rushed to the hospital ultimately discovered he had cancer. The diagnosis, while scary, was a blessing of sorts in bringing people he loved all together as they rallied around him to help, and it cemented his relationship with Lindsey, who he later married. He recovered after treatment and is cancer free today, and the experience taught him a lot of lessons and also inspired his self-penned radio single, “The Race,” which reached the Top 40 on the Music Row Chart. The tune informs with its message of cherishing each day, treasuring the experiences we encounter and the people we meet along the way, and appreciating the journey life has to offer and is a perfect anthem for times of adversity.
He hopes to follow up the success of that song with his latest single, “Better Days,” which is also an anthem on keeping your eye on the bigger things life has to offer and working hard towards reaching and achieving them. For Matt, each and every day is a chance to do just that, and he looks forward to the big things his career hopefully has to offer as he gains momentum and continues to rise on the country scene.
Latest posts by Chris Benton (see all)
- Actor Miguel Gabriel - August 27, 2024
- Unfiltered & Inspiring: Comedian Carlos Mencia Talks Comedy, Life Plus MORE! - August 22, 2024
- Adam Thomas Ziemba Speeds into the Spotlight with Debut in Racing Drama ‘One Fast Move - August 20, 2024
