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Matthew Murphy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Matthew Murphy, see Matthew Murphy (disambiguation).

Matthew Murphy
Murphy performing in July 2009
Born (1984-07-23) 23 July 1984 (age 40)
Liverpool, England
Occupations
  • Musician
  • singer
  • songwriter
Years active2003–present
Spouse
Akemi Topel
​
(m. 2017)​
Children2
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • bass
  • keyboards
Labels14th Floor
Member of

Matthew Edward Murphy (born 23 July 1984) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of The Wombats, which he co-founded in 2003. He began a solo career under the name Love Fame Tragedy in 2018.

Early life

[edit]

Matthew Edward Murphy was born in the Woolton suburb of Liverpool on 23 July 1984.[1] His mother worked as a higher executive officer for the Civil Service, while his father was a chartered engineer and senior electrical and electronic engineering lecturer before becoming an IT consultant specialising in automated software testing.[1] He has said that he "didn't come from money, but didn't have very humble beginnings either".[1] He began playing the guitar at the age of five, primarily at the behest of his father,[2] and joined his first band at the age of 13.[2] He attended Liverpool College in the neighbouring suburb of Mossley Hill, where he "smoked a lot of weed all the time and played in a lot of weird bands" and just barely managed to earn his A-levels.[1] He later studied music at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), where he gained a BA (Hons) 1st Class in Music and met his future Wombats bandmates; having suffered from depression and anxiety since his teenage years, he was prescribed antidepressants after experiencing severe panic attacks at LIPA,[3] which led him to detail his issues with the medication in the Wombats song "Anti-D".[4]

Career

[edit]

The Wombats

[edit]
Murphy performing in July 2009

Murphy is the lead singer and guitarist of rock trio The Wombats,[5] alongside Norwegian bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen and fellow Liverpool native Dan Haggis on drums. They have said that the band began as "a joke [they] didn't want anyone to find funny".[6] The band was initially launched when LIPA gave them the chance to play various gigs. They then ended up gaining radio play in the UK with songs such as "Let's Dance to Joy Division" and "Moving to New York". Their first album, A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, was released on 5 November 2007 with success following a European tour and an Arbor Day party at Liverpool Academy. The album achieved platinum status in the UK.

The Wombats appeared in a 2008 episode of the Australian music quiz show Spicks and Specks, on which Murphy was a contestant; later in the episode, he appeared with his Wombats bandmates in a segment where bassist Knudsen sang the Postman Pat theme song in his native Norwegian.[7] That same year, the band performed a cover of Leona Lewis' song "Bleeding Love" at the MTV Europe Music Awards[8] and their own song "Jump into the Fog" on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The band's second album, This Modern Glitch, was released on 25 April 2011 and was a chart success, reaching No. 3 in the UK and No. 2 in Australia.[9] The band released their third album, Glitterbug, on 13 April 2015; reviews were mixed, though it became the band's first album to appear on the U.S. Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 91. To promote the album, they appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to perform "Greek Tragedy" on 28 April.[10] Their fourth album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, was released on 9 February 2018 to positive reviews. Their fifth studio album, titled Fix Yourself, Not the World, was released on 14 January 2022 and reached the top spot in the UK Albums Chart, becoming their first UK No. 1 album.[11]

Love Fame Tragedy

[edit]

In 2018, Murphy revealed that he had written 20 new tracks for a new album called I Don't Want to Play the Victim, But I'm Really Good at It.[12][13] In June 2019, he announced that the album would be released under a new solo project by the name of Love Fame Tragedy, alongside a tour announcement and a debut single called "My Cheating Heart".[14] The debut EP was produced by Mark Crew[15] and released in September 2019 to generally positive reviews.[16][17][18][19] In March 2020, he released the EP Five Songs to Briefly Fill the Void.[20] Four months later, he released the debut Love Fame Tragedy studio album Wherever I Go, I Want to Leave to positive reviews.[21] The second Love Fame Tragedy studio album, Life Is a Killer, was released on 29 March 2024.[22]

Personal life

[edit]

Murphy married American hotel manager Akemi Topel on 7 October 2017.[23][24] They live in the Mount Washington neighbourhood of Los Angeles,[2] and have two daughters named Dylan (born May 2019)[25] and Kai (born January 2021).[26]

While his Wombats bandmates are avid football fans, with drummer Dan Haggis supporting the band's hometown team Everton FC and bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen supporting Manchester United FC, Murphy prefers to play golf and has never specified a preferred football team.[27][28] However, in a May 2020 fundraising video on Everton's YouTube channel during the COVID-19 pandemic, Murphy and Haggis were described as "top Everton-supporting artists".[29] Their section of the video featured them performing Wombats songs, with all donations going to a campaign set up by Everton to provide support to people who had been made vulnerable and isolated by the pandemic.[30]

Discography

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Murphy performing in March 2008

The Wombats

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Main article: The Wombats discography

Studio albums

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Love Fame Tragedy

[edit]

Studio albums

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List of studio albums
Title Details
Wherever I Go, I Want to Leave
  • Released: 10 July 2020
  • Label: Good Soldier Records
  • Format: Digital download, streaming
Life Is a Killer

Extended plays

[edit]
List of EPs, with release date and label shown
Title Details
I Don't Want to Play the Victim, But I'm Really Good at It
  • Released: 27 September 2019
  • Label: Good Soldier Records
  • Format: Digital download, streaming
Five Songs to Briefly Fill the Void
  • Released: 21 March 2020
  • Label: Good Soldier Records
  • Format: Digital download, streaming

Singles

[edit]
List of singles, with year released and album shown
Title Year Peak chart positions Album
UK
Sales
[31]
"My Cheating Heart"[32] 2019 6 I Don't Want to Play the Victim, But I'm Really Good at It
"Brand New Brain"[33] —
"Backflip"[34] —
"Body Parts"[35] — Five Songs to Briefly Fill the Void
"Hardcore"[36] —
"Riding a Wave"[37] 2020 —
"Please Don't Murder Me (Part 2)"[38] —
"Multiply"
(featuring Jack River)[39] 		—
"5150"[40] — Wherever I Go, I Want to Leave
"Everything Affects Me Now"[41] —
"Don't You Want to Sleep With Someone Normal?"[42] 2024 — Life Is a Killer

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Lead Singer Syndrome, episode 193: "Matthew Murphy", September 2019
  2. ^ a b c The Seven Words Podcast, episode: "Matthew 'Murph' Murphy", 28 June 2019
  3. ^ "Wombats against depression". The Guardian. 12 April 2011.
  4. ^ Emily Jupp (10 April 2015). "Wombats' frontman Matthew Murphy on depression, growing up and the band's new album Glitterbug". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  5. ^ "The WOMBATS | Gratis muziek, tourneedata, foto's, video's". Myspace.com. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  6. ^ "The Wombats : History, Biography and Contact Details etc". Archived from the original on 3 May 2008.
  7. ^ "Spicks and Specks: Episode guide - Episode Nine (26/03/2008)". www.abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  8. ^ "The Wombats Set To Mock Leona Lewis at MTV EMAs". Gigwise.com. 30 October 2008. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  9. ^ "This website is for sale! - acharts Resources and Information". Acharts.us. Retrieved 11 May 2020. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  10. ^ "The Wombats Performance: "Greek Tragedy" | Video | Late Night with Seth Meyers | NBC". Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  11. ^ "The Wombats score first UK Number One album with 'Fix Yourself, Not The World'". NME. 22 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  12. ^ Daly, Rhian (18 July 2018). "The Wombats' Murph on Weezer tour, watching Pixies do magic tricks, new album plans and mysterious new side project". NME. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  13. ^ Newstead, Al (11 June 2019). "First Spin: Murph from The Wombats going solo and playing Australia". ABC. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  14. ^ Beaumont, Mark (10 June 2019). ""It's somewhere between Gorillaz and a solo project": Murph from The Wombats explains his new semi-supergroup, Love Fame Tragedy". NME. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  15. ^ Drever, Andrew (19 September 2019). "'Baptism of fire' doesn't deter Wombats frontman from new project". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  16. ^ "I Don't Want To Play The Victim, But I'm Really Good at It – EP by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music GB. 25 September 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  17. ^ Walters, Tammy (1 August 2019). "Love Fame Tragedy: I Don't Want To Play The Victim, But I'm Really Good At It". Forté. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  18. ^ Naranjo, Jacqueline (10 September 2019). "Album Review: I Don't Want To Play The Victim, But I'm Really Good At It by Love Fame Tragedy (8/10)". Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  19. ^ O'Sullivan, James (25 September 2019). "EP Review - Love Fame Tragedy 'I Don't Want To Play The Victim, But I'm Really Good At It'". Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  20. ^ "Five Songs to Briefly Fill the Void – EP by Love Fame Tragedy on Apple Music". Apple Music GB. 21 March 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  21. ^ Beaumont, Mark (9 July 2020). "The Wombats' Murph talks new "turbo-personal" Love Fame Tragedy album and the future of the band". NME. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  22. ^ "Love Fame Tragedy's new single is about "all the crap I put my wife and myself through" - check out 'Don't You Want to Sleep with Someone Normal'". 8 December 2023.
  23. ^ "Zola Registry". Zola.com. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  24. ^ https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-sunday-times-9029/20180211/283437781961570 – via PressReader. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ^ Tom Lanham (15 September 2019). "Wombats' Matthew Murphy goes solo with Love Fame Tragedy – The San Francisco Examiner". Sfexaminer.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  26. ^ "Love fame tragedy on Instagram: "Kai Topel-Murphy 01/20/21! My wife from many lives is doing great and I'm immensely proud of her. Let's GO! #ooopswediditagain #britneyforever"".
  27. ^ "U.K. indie rockers the Wombats pick favorites in soccer, don't drive tired". Riffmagazine.com. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  28. ^ "Golfing With A Rockstar: Matthew Murphy". YouTube. 20 March 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  29. ^ "DMA'S, THE WOMBATS, CIRCA WAVES + MORE! : EVERTON LOCKDOWN SESSIONS FOR THE BLUE FAMILY CAMPAIGN". YouTube. 22 May 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  30. ^ "Blue Family | Everton Football Club". Evertonfc.com. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  31. ^ Peaks in UK Physical Singles Chart:
  32. ^ "My Cheating Heart - Single by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  33. ^ "Brand New Brain - Single by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music. 5 August 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  34. ^ "Backflip - Single by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music. 6 August 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  35. ^ "Body Parts - Single by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  36. ^ "Hardcore - Single by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  37. ^ "Riding a Wave - Single by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  38. ^ "Please Don't Murder Me (Part 2) - Single by Love Fame Tragedy". Apple Music. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  39. ^ Aubrey, Elizabeth (19 March 2020). "The Wombats' Matthew Murphy shares video for emotive new Love Fame Tragedy single, 'Multiply'". NME. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  40. ^ Martin, Josh (17 June 2020). "The Wombats' Murph announces debut solo album as Love Fame Tragedy". NME. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  41. ^ Teri (11 July 2020). "Love Fame Tragedy release debut album Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave along with single "Everything Affects Me Now"". The Girls at the Rock Show. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  42. ^ "Love Fame Tragedy's new single is about "all the crap I put my wife and myself through" - check out 'Don't You Want to Sleep with Someone Normal'". 8 December 2023.
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