Mat Kearney

My dad was a scratch golfer growing up. When I'm on the road, I always bring my clubs with me.

Growing up in Eugene, Oregon, there was everything from The Notorious B.I.G. to Weezer playing in my car.

I'm really influenced by '90s hip hop. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were my heroes growing up.

I've never been one to learn scales and do exercises. Maybe I'm lazy, but I just don't take to that kind of thing. Learning other people's songs is enjoyable, and my fingers tend to go to new places because I'm not playing my music, the stuff that comes naturally to me.

I would sit in my dorm room and write songs. I loved it. I was learning to sing and play guitar. I was becoming a musician. I was the beginner who somehow could write a song.

I've had moments in my career when I've made more money and had more success than at other times, but I've realized being happy has very little to do with any of that.

I don't think, to be a traveler, you have to reject setting roots up.

My goal is to try to avoid a genre.

The first year I moved to Nashville, I started playing these songwriter nights with people like Nickel Creek, Duncan Sheik, and even Ryan Adams... That was the first place I really started playing music, and I had to really step up my game. Really quick. Or get kicked off the stage.

Minneapolis has always been a very special place for me.

I'm a '90s music kid.

Choosing an acoustic guitar for a live setting can be different from picking out one for recording. One doesn't always work for the other. The sonic properties can be vastly different.