Matthew James Aitken (born 25 August 1956) is an English songwriter and record producer, brought up in
Astley, Greater Manchester, best known as part of the 1980s/early-1990s songwriting/production trio
Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW and also known as the Hit Factory) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s throug ...
.
Biography
He began his musical career as a musician and was a member of many bands before joining
Mike Stock to write and produce music for other artists. They both later teamed up with
Pete Waterman, and went from small independent record labels to the major
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
, producing myriad
hits.
According to Waterman, Aitken was a noted perfectionist, particularly when it came to his guitar solos.
After the partnership split up in 1991,
Aitken went into a period of retirement, raising his daughters, and pursuing hobbies such as
auto racing
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...
. He later returned to the music industry in 1994
—partnering with Mike Stock once again and having success with acts such as
Nicki French,
Scooch
Scooch is a British pop group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer.
Scooch represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with their song "Flying the Flag (For Y ...
, and
Robson & Jerome—before seemingly retiring again in 2002.
References
1956 births
Living people
Musicians from Coventry
English male songwriters
English record producers
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