Matt Keil Band

Businessmen take on music world
By Christopher Behnan
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

Livingston County residents Jim Kirwan and Matt Keil quit their jobs at a major automotive company to hang their own business shingle, a move that resulted in the creation of the AILS Corp. — a Lyon Township-based automotive company that rakes in $3.5 million annually.
Today, Kirwan, the company's vice president and an Oceola Township resident, and Keil, a Brighton resident and company president, are again challenging the status quo, this time with a new target: the music industry.



The businessmen this year formed Stork Records LLC, their in-house recording company and studio at their 7,500-square-foot corporate headquarters. They plan to use the business sense they applied to AILS Corp. to seeking a major distribution deal for their first full-length album as the Matt Keil Band.


Much like their company, which provides field experts for automotive suppliers, Kirwan and Keil started the band from the ground up. AILS Corp. has grown from three to 60 employees in a matter of six years.
The two businessmen wear shirt and tie by day, and then venture to a semi-cramped loft atop their business to rehearse in the evening.

Bob Tambornini, a Livonia resident, is a third partner in AILS Corp. and Stork Records LLC.

"You work all day and then you go do that (music). It's pretty cool," Kirwan said.

Balancing work, home and music can be difficult at times, Keil said, but one that's working out for the best.

"This is definitely passion," said Keil, a husband and father of three children. "This is a mom-and-pop store of a different sort."

The band starting performing in a variety of Livingston County and Detroit-area venues about eight months ago, and it continues to build a loyal following.

The band plays an unpretentious mix of rock and pop, with a country flair courtesy of Keil's vocals and his unique approach to songwriting.

The band's upcoming CD, "One," is expected to be released in February. On tour, the Matt Keil band features more than 15 different musicians, accumulated during the past 10 years from Livingston County and the Detroit area.

Keil is a constant on vocals and guitar, and Kirwan on electric guitar.

"I've discovered so many undiscovered and amazing talents that I wouldn't be satisfied with a small band for the album. Everyone involved is the band," Keil explained.

"Some nights I like to bring the crowd to their feet with five or six pieces. On others I like to bring that warm feel of a campfire with acoustics. But on all nights I sing my lungs out and go to bed satisfied that everyone including me had the best time."



Originally published November 7, 2005


- Livingston Press

Features
May 21st, 2006
By Dave Terpeny


Usually, when a successful businessman feels the bite of the rock and roll bug and pours his money into instruments, recording and various “rock star” trappings, the result is a combination of pitiful and hilarious. It’s most often a mid-life crisis gone seriously wrong and goes nowhere musically.


So when presented with the back-story to Matt Keil, why should anyone pay any attention? After all, he’s a successful business entrepreneur who made millions and turned his warehouse into a recording studio… except that he was bit by the rock and roll bug at the age of five when he began composing and singing songs. Piano and guitar lessons followed, as did college, and he never really stopped playing, circling through a variety of local (Michigan) bands. “We’ve all been in plenty of bands, and we’re all sick of playing restaurants and bars,” he explained. Now the late-twenty-something (no mid-life crisis here) has finally formed his own group.

More of a commune than a band, no less than fifteen separate musicians contributed to the album with Matt writing, signing, playing guitar on and producing all of the tracks. “I’ve discovered so many undiscovered and amazing talents that I wouldn’t be satisfied with a small band for the album. Everyone involved is the band,” Keil explained. Since then he’s whittled the fifteen down to just six and is getting ready to hit the road in late spring with a blow-out gig planned for the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

So he’s no mid-lifer trying to play rock star. In fact, he’s quite a normal and down to earth young guy who says that he’ll keep playing music until his wife “decides it’s too embarrassing (calling Mick Jagger).”

So what’s the real back-story on this guy? Well, like the pro football player who actually established a career before he started make one-handed leaping receptions in the end-zone, Matt is an authentic rock and roll singer/songwriter who decided that providing for his family came before the ‘six-string cowboy’ routine. “I have too many friends that tried the music thing first without any real experience or a career set,” Keil said. “It didn’t work out.”

I can respect that and even more so, I can respect his talent as a musician and songwriter. You will too, after hearing his debut album Lesson One.

From the beginning slide of “Chicago” and its southern-tinged harmonies you know you’re listening to real rock and roll. This is the stuff of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Neil Young (odd to pair those two up, huh?) and The Black Crowes. His voice is perfectly scratchy and easy to sing along to. The phrasing and lyrics are anthemic too and the guitar solos actually wail, even if he uses the pedal a bit much.

“Rockingstar” continues in this vein and echoes the classic Foreigner epic “Jukebox Hero,” if it was sung by Bruce Springsteen. “Decide” is a decidedly mellower song, strummed intimately by Matt on an acoustic guitar.

Then there’s the oddly named, “Pididdle (Too Much Noise).” When I first heard it I declared, unequivocally, that it was the best rock song written since, “Highway Star.” It is rebellious and introspective, rhythmic and crunching, all the while echoing nearly every classic rock vibe I could come up with from The Band to Led Zeppelin in parts.

Speaking to his ability to be loud, raucous, introspective and mellow, Keil explained simply that “Some nights I like to bring the crowd to their feet with five or six pieces. On others I like to bring that warm feel of a campfire with acoustics.” He continued, “But on all nights I sing my lungs out and go to bed satisfied that everyone including me had the best time.”

I agree with him and I’m listening to his studio album. From the almost honky-tonk rock of “Pididdle,” Mat rolls through the ‘campfire’ blues of the ballad “Hannah,” the funky and powerful, “Knights Wore White” and ends the album with “Pretend (rock reprise),” a punk-tinged song that echoes the simple melodies of some of today’s alt-country stars.

So while Matt Keil’s financial and business success may be seen by some as incongruous to his dirty living rock and roll persona, I’m here to tell you it’s not. This guy is passionate and talented. He’s the real thing. Besides, who said whiskey-drinking rock and rollers can’t be smart too?

http://www.kyndmusic.com/2006/05/21/matt-keil-band-lesson-one/ - Kynd Music

Awesome Mixture of Flavors.

The laid back sections are as Smooth as Silk, & the Power sections are Rough and rugged as Rawhide.

Crafted by masterful musicians.

The music has a Mysterious Feel to it.

The Guitars are right on que.

The Rhythm sectin is concrete.

The Vocalist is Blistering.

Every note is acounted for.

These songs have what it takes.
- Cox Productions - Pennsylvania

This music is very dark, kind of spooky, like driving down a dirt road at night alone. The singer has an awesome voice, sort of a mix between John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen, and Eddie Vedder. I like it. I also like the lyrics he's singing.

Man, I really like the sound of this one. It has such a mood and is played with such feeling. I mean, this is really fucking good. I wish you guys the best of luck. If you haven't made it already, you deserve to.

- Rance Garrison from Pennington Gap, Virginia

Listed below are the current awards for the debut release of Matt Keil Band - Lesson One

CHICAGO
-------------------
Track of the Day on 17Nov2005 in Blues Rock

#25 Best Male Vocals in Blues Rock, all-time

#14 Potential Soundtrack in Blues Rock, all-time

Best Male Vocals overall, week of 14Nov2005

Best Male Vocals in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Best Guitars in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Best Drums in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Best Bass in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Best Production in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Best Lyrics in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Best Melody in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Best Mood in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Rocking Track in Blues Rock, week of 14Nov2005

Potential Soundtrack in Blues Rock, week of 5Dec2005


HOURGLASS
--------------------
Track of the Day on 10Jan2006 in Blues Rock

Best Male Vocals in Blues Rock, week of 2Jan2006

Best Keyboards in Blues Rock, week of 2Jan2006

Rocking Track in Blues Rock, week of 2Jan2006


PIDIDDLE (Too much noise)
---------------------
Track of the Day on 13Jan2006 in Americana

Best Bass in Americana, week of 2Jan2006

Best Keyboards in Americana, week of 26Dec2005

Best Keyboards in Americana, week of 2Jan2006

Best Keyboards in Americana, week of 9Jan2006


DECIDE
-------------------
Track of the Day on 27Nov2005 in Americana

Best Production in Americana, week of 21Nov2005

go to www.garageband.com/mattkeilband/

to see the details. - GarageBand 2006

Matt Keil is the first one to admit that his day job, owner of a management consulting company for the automotive industry, isn't exactly rock 'n' roll. But the truth is Keil's overwhelming need to kick out the jams has been strong ever since he was a pup taking piano lessons and singing for his small town's youth choir. He discovered Pearl Jam while attending Michigan State University in the '90s, and it didn't take long for him to shed the choir and pick up the guitar.

He's been kicking around the scene for years, playing in bar bands like Cosway and plucking his acoustic as a solo act. He has always known that he needed to rely on something besides music to fill his wallet, especially with a wife and three children. His company — which Keil reports is a seven-figures-a-year operation — has managed to put more than enough food on the table. And yet, the desire to perform music has never gone away. Enter the Matt Keil Band.

"I have too many friends that tried the music thing first without any real experience or a career set," Keil says. These days, he feels like he's finally in a position to focus on what he loves.

The debut record, Lesson One —on his own label, Stork Records — is a grunge-tinged, Southern rock-meets-psychedelic blues exploration. Co-written by longtime collaborator Jim Kirwan, the record revisits familiar rock 'n' roll territory with songs about smoking and drinking; but there's an honesty to the Keil din that makes the music worth a second listen. Such songs as the ever-vulnerable "Positive" are heartfelt tunes written from the perspective of a man who was married and had a baby on the way by the time he was 19 years old.

It took 15 different musicians to create the record, but Keil — who sings and plays piano and guitar — whittled the stable to a six-piece for their first gig, a record release party at the Magic Bag in Ferndale.

Keil has high hopes; he's even planning to record the show and put it out on DVD. Not surprisingly, he runs his band like a business: not only has he assembled what he thinks are some of the finest musicians in the Midwest, Kiel has already hired a crack team of designers to introduce his music to the Web. He's shopping the record out to the majors, but he also has plans to get back to the studio in a few months.

"We've all been in plenty of bands, and we're all sick of playing restaurants and bars," Keil says.

All of this will be a balancing act — one Keil says he's prepared for.

And more importantly, the support of his wife is well intact.

"We have a deal," Keil says. "I can keep doing this until she decides it's embarrassing."

Thursday, Feb. 9, at the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-544-3030. The Longbo Parker band to open.

Luke Allen Hackney writes about music for Metro Times. Send comments to letters@metrotimes.com.
- Metro Times MKB Article by Luke Allen Hackney