Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Kelly
Hi Matthew, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born into a world of chaos, with slamming doors, fighting parents, and daily drinking and drug use, sometimes right in front of me. I often had to try and resuscitate my mother on a hot concrete patio floor, running down the road and having neighbors assist me in calling 911. This scenario repeatedly happened throughout my life until age 18 when I ultimately lost her to an accidental drug overdose. She had struggled with addiction all her life, attending numerous meetings and women’s retreats in an effort to seek help.
Most of her drug use started like many others during the opioid epidemic. She went to the doctor for pain and was given a cocktail of pills she later got addicted to. She wrote to her therapist once about how having her drugs close by made her feel safe because she could escape at any point in time. At 16, she had been in a terrible car accident, went through the front windshield of a Mustang, broke her neck, and started taking opioids. When she was not on the pills, she was incredible—the type of mom you would see in a movie. She was cultured, taking me all around town to see plays and movies. She would even let me skip school or pick me up from school and take me to the art museum. She is the reason why I am the way I am.
It’s in my blood for sure.
She was a prolific writer, having published a few poems in various newspapers. I believe she could’ve been an incredible writer or poet if she had really applied her energy to that. There were good times, although distinctly hard to remember when your mind is clouded with cortisol and your belly is full of microwave meals. I had full-blown childhood depression by age five.
Music was and always will be something that could keep me grounded. I would put on my headphones and listen to bands like Korn, Powerman 5000, and rappers like Jay-Z, Ice Cube, Nas, and sometimes Insane Clown Posse. A lot of rap rock and angry rager teen music filled my mind at these points in my life. I ran to music and movies for my escape. My mother had really opened my mind to a lot of music. I was also listening to Frank Sinatra, Sting, Metallica, Arrested Development, Radiohead, and bands like R.E.M. I was going to concerts at Cynthia Woods when I wasn’t even a teenager yet. I’ve seen Crosby, Stills, and Nash. I don’t know many people my age that have been to as many concerts as I went to with my parents and older cousins.
I had a sister who was 15 years older than me. By the time I was five, I was a ring bearer in her marriage, and she was moving out, so I was virtually raised an only child. We would visit my family in Oklahoma and Alabama, sometimes venturing off into Florida. All the family meetups also stopped when my mom passed. She organized our entire family to get together. I was skateboarding, riding BMX, doing a lot of outdoor physical activities like soccer, and all that kind of fun kids’ stuff until, at age 10, I suffered a slipped disc. A close friend of mine tried to play a prank on me in a pool by jumping off the side and landing on my back. We are still friends to this day, 27 years later, with no hard feelings. That incident set the course for me to dabble into my own drug use. I would go under my mom’s couch in the living room and dig out a few Vicodin and Soma, experimenting from time to time. I had already been drinking alcohol and sneaking into the cupboard, trying to steal my mom’s Virginia Slim menthol cigarettes. I don’t know why I
had such a lust for substances, but I did. Maybe it’s because it took me away from the reality I was in.
I did really terrible at school, not as a result of drug use, but because I didn’t apply myself to anything I didn’t care about. If it wasn’t the arts or history, I could care less. In PE, I mostly had to sit out on the sidelines. I learned to be fast with my words. Kids would insult me, and I would come back quickly. This skill became something I hung onto later in life when I went to write my raps. I had a study hall class with a close friend named Andre, who would tell me to freestyle rap with him. To my surprise, I was pretty good off the jump. At 17, I went to my counselor and told her I wanted to go to a temporary school program for kids who wanted to get out early and not just get a GED. It was called School of Choice. My first day, the teacher informed us that anyone bringing her school supplies would get all their online work passed, and we would only have to do half the bookwork. I ran out the next day, spent $100 at the store, brought in two grocery bags full of everything a teacher would need for students, and passed. I spent about two months, if I recall correctly, and had my diploma. I did not walk, which I would regret later because it was one of the things my mom wanted to see. But I did get my high school diploma from Katy High School. I would leave Katy at this point and never return. I did not like most of the people I was interacting with there. I felt very misunderstood.
When my mom passed away at 18, my father and I got into a lot of fights. We had never been super close. He worked construction and had to be at work all the time. When he would get home, he would be tired, so we didn’t hang out much. We worked together for 17 years on and off, which did not make things better. I ended up on the street. It was for the best. I was uncontrollable, completely out of control, on drugs and alcohol. When I was 17, my mother made friends with a cable guy named John Sanchez, who claimed to own a music studio. To this day, this man is the reason I’m alive. At first, I completely disregarded my mother. I told her no one who works a job running cable is going to have a studio that I would work in. I had a chip on my shoulder and thought I was Jay-Z. I eventually got around to calling him. He invited me in. I went over to his house, walked in, and found a fully built studio with a partition wall and a room full of rappers and producers working. They paused what they were doing, looked up at me, and told me to get in the booth and show them what I got. I did just that. I went into the booth and freestyled 40-60 bars over an Alchemist and Jadakiss beat that I could be proud of putting out to the public to this day. All I can remember is that after I walked out of that recording session, I had a free place to record and eventually a place to lay my head at night. I would sleep right up on the desk next to the MIDI keyboard. Johnny took me in with his family and let me live there on and off for seven years, even though he barely knew me. During that time, he worked as a major photographer at every club in downtown Houston, giving us access to all the club owners, DJs, and promoters. This was great for me during the MySpace era. I have to laugh at some of the things I’m describing to you as they sound so corny, but they are facts.
I pretty much had no real success in music until later on in 2019. I spent most of my time between 2005-2013 hooked on prescription pills, which sent me to intensive care twice, almost dying, homeless, moving from house to house, car to car, walking everywhere. Everything changed for me in 2014. I had gotten out of a behavioral health hospital and wanted to change
my life. I started hanging with people who didn’t go clubbing every single day (yes, we didn’t take days off). I started looking for a mate, someone I could potentially settle down with and get away from the music scene a little bit. I met my wife, Laura. She had two kids at the time, Will, who was three, and Skye, who was seven. We met at a mutual friend’s party when she was still with her kids’ father. She found me completely obnoxious as I would come over and be inundated with friends asking me to rap. She just thought the whole thing was whack.
Eventually, I posted something on Facebook hinting at needing some mental help, and she reached out. We started spending time together and became inseparable. The kids became my reason for sobriety. I latched onto the idea of having a family and really went for it. We now have two more amazing children, Jackson and Autumn, ages eight and two. We are 10 years into our journey and love each other dearly. She works as a director and co-owner of a very well-known gym in Richmond called Fight TX. She’s the whole gym’s designated “mom,” and she loves it. I love to watch her follow her passion.
In 2019, a longtime friend and guitarist, Slade Deliberto, reached out to me to work on a project. It was very freeform. We didn’t have any kind of idea on where we were going with it. All he knew was that he wanted to work with a rapper and a singer and potentially put them on the same song. So I was called into the studio. I met the singer, and we started writing music immediately. It started sounding really good, so we started to take it further, sending it out to producers we knew and people who would have opinions on it
. Eventually, we decided to put it out under the name Riot the Witness. This magazine has already written an article about Slade. Our band, RTW, primarily opened for well-known national acts, playing venues like Sawyer Park, District 249, Scout Bar, Numbers, and Warehouse Live for acts like Trapt, Powerman 5000, ZRO, Kottonmouth Kings, Hed PE, and many more. We were featured on 94.5 The Buzz’s Home for the Holidays. We were also in a competition to play Red Rocks and made it to the semifinals. Many big moves were being made, but like all bands, there were disagreements, so we ultimately decided to put the band on hiatus, removing the original singer. We are now in the process of releasing more music and putting the band back together with most of the original members.
Matt eventually left for New York in June 2023 to work with a very well-known producer named Chris Pinset, who has produced and recorded for Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, Benny the Butcher, KRS-One, and many more. The experience was an eye-opener, recording in a state-of-the-art studio. We released a project under the name #neoboffm with another artist I’m currently
managing, Neel Wani, who sings. The name is the color code for mauve with the letters N at the front and M at the back to signify our names. The project is out now on all platforms, including a video on YouTube for the debut song “V.” Due to some health issues, I have not been able to record lately, so I have pivoted into throwing festivals and managing artists and booking artists, some very well-known, as I work freelance for a booking agency that has even more contacts.
We are currently working on the Houston International Origami and Art Festival, sponsored by the City of Houston, Houston Arts Alliance, and Southwest District. A very close friend of mine, Kyle Fu, is a world-renowned origami master. He will be attempting to break the Guinness Book
World Record for the biggest origami ever folded. There will be free origami seminars for kids, activities, live performances, and fun for all ages at PlazAmericas (formerly Sharpstown Mall). We are also working on a big festival set for later next year in Sugar Land. I have a conglomerate group online of over 50 artists of all kinds, from photographers to models, singers, and rappers—you name it, they’re in there. Our goal is to unify Houston’s artists. Many of us have had bad experiences with promoters and venues and are trying to create our own events and work them from the inside out. The whole of Houston needs to do a better job of collaborating. There are too many gatekeepers and too many artists who think they’ve made it already when they haven’t done anything noteworthy. Having friends now from all over the globe and seeing how Los Angeles and New York artists come together to accomplish bigger goals has inspired me to bring that back home and really invigorate the scene.
I am managing another artist by the name of Lela Dang. She’s an incredible singer here in Houston who also models and hosts events. Her EP “Water” is streaming now on all platforms. Her music video and live performance for “Life” is a visual and audible roller coaster of emotion. She will be hosting our upcoming origami festival in August and is set to record and release many new music videos in the near future. I will be returning to the studio shortly to record myself with her.
All in all, I’m staying extremely busy nowadays, raising four children. I’m a caregiver for a
71-year-old friend of mine. I try and help everybody—that’s really my thing. If I can find a way to be of service or help someone, I just do it. It’s who I am.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely hasn’t been easy. Have had issues with drug use and health family being murdered homelessness and many other things
What are your plans for the future?
I’m currently managing an artist named Neel Wani who sings we have done a project called #neoboffm. The name is the color code for mauve with the letters N at front and M at back to signify our names the project is out now on all platforms to include a video on YouTube for the debut song V. Due to some health issues I have not been able to record lately so I have pivoted into throwing festivals and managing artist and booking artist some very well-known as I work freelance for a booking agency that has even more contacts. we are currently working on the Houston international origami and art festival sponsored by the city of Houston, Houston Art alliance and southwest District . A very close friend of mine named Kyle Fu is a world, renowned origami master. He will be attempting to break the Guinness book world record for the biggest origami ever folded. There will be free, origami seminars for kids activities live performances and fun for all ages at PlazAmericas (formally Sharpstown mall) we are also working on a big festival set for later next year in Sugarland. I have a conglomerate group online of over 50 artist of all kind from photographers to models to singers to rappers you name it they’re in there. Our goal is to unify Houston’s artist many of us have had bad experiences with promoters and venues, and are trying to create our own events and work them from the inside out the whole of Houston needs to do a better job collaborating. There’s too many gatekeepers and too many artists that think they’ve made it already when they haven’t done anything noteworthy having friends now from all over the globe seeing how Los Angeles and New York artists come together to accomplish bigger goals it’s inspired me to bring that back home and really invigorate the scene I managing another artist by the name of Lela Dang she’s an incredible singer here in Houston that also models and host events her ep “water” is streaming now on all platforms. Her music video and live performance for “life” is a visual and audible roller coaster of emotion . She will be hosting our upcoming origami festival in August and is set to record and release many new music videos in the near future I will be returning to the studio shortly to record myself with her. All in all I’m staying extremely busy nowadays raising four children I’m a caregiver for a 71 year-old friend of mine I try and help everybody that’s really my thing if I can find a way to be of service or help someone I just do it it’s who I am
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beforeicallmytherapist?igsh=MXdqN3BvbGRwcDQwNg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
