music.wikisort.org - Musician

Chad R. Matheny, known professionally as Emperor X, is an American singer and songwriter.

Emperor X
Matheny in 2016
Background information
Born	(1979-04-08) April 8, 1979 (age 43) Louisville, Kentucky
Origin	Jacksonville, Florida, United States
Genres	Alternative noise pop noise rock lo-fi folk indie folk filk
Occupation(s)	Singer songwriter
Instruments	Guitar keyboard vocals
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Bar/None Records Discos Mariscos Snowglobe Records Bakery Outlet Records Burnt Toast Vinyl Plan-It-X Records Tiny Engines[1] Dreams of Field Recordings
Website	www.emperorx.net

Early life and career

Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1979,[2] Matheny got his start in music when he was given a Casio SK-1 by his grandparents at age nine, and recorded his first album on a Tascam four-track before the age of 20.[3]

Matheny tours across the United States regularly and performs around the world as well, including tours in Mexico, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.[4]

In a self-described attempt to "address the diminishing utility of physical copies of music and the expanding role of marketing in the experience of art",[5] Matheny often hides or buries one-off physical copies and associated visual artwork of b-sides at GPS coordinates and posts them online as a part of a geocaching game to unlock MP3 copies of the audio. For the release of the 2011 Emperor X album Western Teleport, 41 "translucent purple audio cassettes" were buried across North America, many of which remain undiscovered. This received a feature on NPR's "Weekend Edition" program.[6]

In 2014, Matheny wrote the song "Don't Change Color, Kitty" for 99% Invisible, based on Françoise Bastide and Paolo Fabbri's concept of a millennia-long nuclear waste warning message in the form of a folk song about genetically engineered cats. Matheny wrote it to be "so catchy and annoying that it might be handed down from generation to generation over a span of 10,000 years".[7]

In 2020, Matheny and Christian Holden from The Hotelier started an artist-managed record label cooperative known as Dreams of Field Recordings.[8]

Personal life

Matheny is a former high school science teacher,[9] and in 2004 he stopped his pursuit of a master's degree in physics in order to dedicate his career to music.[10]

Matheny is a testicular cancer survivor and is legally blind.[11][12]

Discography

Full-length albums

• The Joytakers' Rakes/Stars on the Ceiling, Pleasantly Kneeling (1998, self-released)
• Tectonic Membrane/Thin Strip on an Edgeless Platform (2004, Discos Mariscos)[3]
• Central Hug/Friendarmy/Fractaldunes (2005, Discos Mariscos)
• The Blythe Archives Volume One (2008, Burnt Toast Vinyl)
• The Blythe Archives Volume Two (2009, self-released)
• Western Teleport (2011, Bar/None Records)
• Nineteen Live Recordings (2013, Plan-It-X Records, re-released in 2020 on Dreams of Field Recordings)
• Jetzt Christmas (2013)
• The Orlando Sentinel (2014, The Bomber Jacket)[13]
• Oversleepers International (2017, Tiny Engines)
• The Lakes of Zones B and C (2022)

EPs and singles

• Wuss/Strike/River/Preacher/Magnet/God/Unwuss (2006)
• Dirt Dealership (2007)
• Defiance (for Elise Sunderhuse) (2010)
• Brown Recluse/At a Rave with Nicolas Sarkozy (2013)
• 10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Resettlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories (2014)
• Wasted on the Senate Floor (2016)
• Sad React (2020, Dreams of Field Recordings)
• United Earth League of Quarantine Aerobics (2020, Dreams of Field Recordings)

Tour-only releases

• Gasheater/Raytracer (2004)
• East Coast and Freedom From/Freedom To (2004)
• Everyone in Jacksonville (2006)
• Australia Tour Tape (2010)
• Several New Songs in Various Digital Formats (2011)

References

External links

• "Weekend Edition" Story on Matheny's Burial Project
• L Magazine review
• Interview with Artist Connection Podcast

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