Matthew Brendan McAndrew (born September 6, 1990) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his appearance in Season 7 of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

singing competition '' The Voice'', where he finished as the runner-up as part of Team Adam. In January 2019, he became the lead vocalist of the American

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...

band Rain City Drive.

Early life

McAndrew was born to Brenda (née Gordon) and Patrick McAndrew. He grew up in the small town of

Barnegat Light, New Jersey Barnegat Light (pronounced "BAR-nuh-git") is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 640, an increase of 66 ( ...

, and has been writing songs and performing in bands since he was a boy. During his senior year at the

Southern Regional High School Southern Regional High School is a regional comprehensive public high school located in the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, serving students in the ninth through twelfth grades and ope ...

Manahawkin, New Jersey Manahawkin is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Stafford Township, in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

, he decided to pursue a music career. He attended the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, graduating in 2013.

Career

Early days

In 2010, McAndrew started writing solo acoustic material and playing his songs at open mic nights, ice cream parlors, and bars. He worked at Bach To Rock, a national music school franchise with a location in suburban

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, teaching voice, guitar and ukulele. He self-released an album called ''View of The Pines'' on March 1, 2014. Among other projects including Other People, and Hollow Shoulder, McAndrew gained notoriety in High School for recording and performing a Christmas themed tribute album dedicated to classmate Dwight Wagaman.

2014: ''The Voice''

On September 4, 2014, it was announced that McAndrew would compete in season 7 of '' The Voice''. During his blind audition, he covered

Christina Perri Christina Judith Perri (born August 19, 1986) is an American singer and songwriter. After her debut single "Jar of Hearts" was featured on the television series ''So You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series), So You Think You Can Dance'' in 2010, ...

's " A Thousand Years". Three coaches (

Adam Levine Adam Noah Levine ( ; born March 18, 1979) is an American musician who is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist and sole continuous member of the pop rock band Maroon 5. Levine began his musical career in 1994 with the band Kara's Flowers, for ...

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music, country singer, songwriter and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin (Blake Shelton song), Austin" from his Blake Shelton (album), self ...

and

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973), also known mononymously as Pharrell, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer. He first became known as one half of the music production duo ...

) turned around. He chose Levine as his coach. In the Battle rounds, McAndrew faced Ethan Butler where they sang "

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

". McAndrew was chosen over Butler, and advanced to the Knockout rounds. McAndrew covered "

Drops of Jupiter ''Drops of Jupiter'' is the second studio album by American pop rock band Train, released on March 27, 2001. The album's title is derived from " Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)", its lead single, which was a hit internationally and won the Grammy Awa ...

", defeated Rebekah Samarin, and advanced to the Live Playoffs. He covered

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

' "

God Only Knows "God Only Knows" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album ''Pet Sounds''. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, it is a Baroque pop, baroque-style love song distinguished for its harmonic innovation and complex ...

" and advanced through the Live shows, saved by "America's Vote". The following week, he sang

Hozier Andrew John Hozier-Byrne (born 17 March 1990), known professionally as Hozier ( ), is an Irish musician. His music primarily draws from Folk music, folk, Soul music, soul and blues, often using religious and literary themes and taking politica ...

's " Take Me to Church" and was saved by public voting. That night, he received the first "iTunes bonus multiplier" of the season, with his studio recording of "Take Me to Church" reaching the fifth position on the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Top 200 Singles chart at the close of the voting window. The song also charted at number 92 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In top 10 he performed "

Fix You "Fix You" is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written by all four members of the band for their third studio album, '' X&Y'' (2005). It was released on 5 September 2005 as the second single from ''X&Y'' and reached number 4 on the ...

" by

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...

and was saved by America's voting. In Top 8 he covered

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper (band), Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate succe ...

's "

The Blower's Daughter "The Blower's Daughter" is the debut single by Irish musician Damien Rice, released on 21 September 2001 through 14th Floor Records. It was released as the lead single for Rice's debut studio album '' O''. It was written and produced by Rice and ...

", which peaked at 40 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and had opening sales of 92,000 downloads. In the top 5 Live shows, McAndrew covered " Make it Rain" by

Foy Vance Foy Best Vance (born 18 November 1974) is an Irish musician and singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland, signed to Ed Sheeran's Gingerbread Man Records, Gingerbread Man record label. Vance has toured as a support act to British singer-songwrite ...

and "

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the second track from their 1987 album '' The Joshua Tree'' and was released as the album's second single in May 1987. The song was a hit, becoming the band ...

" by U2, and was voted through to the finale. During the finale the top four were given three songs to perform. McAndrew covered "

Somewhere Over the Rainbow "Over the Rainbow", also known as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", is a ballad by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg. It was written for the 1939 film ''The Wizard of Oz'', in which it was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role a ...

" and " Lost Stars", a duet with his coach Adam Levine. His third performance was the original song " Wasted Love", which was his first single to break the top 10 singles of the iTunes top 200 charts. A music video for "Wasted Love" was released on ''The Voice''s YouTube channel. On December 16, 2014, McAndrew was announced as the runner-up of season 7 of ''The Voice'', behind Craig Wayne Boyd. On December 25, 2014, after the result of the show was announced, ''Billboard'' showed McAndrew's "Wasted Love" at 14th on the Hot 100 with opening sales of 209,000 units sold. This is the highest mark ever achieved by a ''The Voice'' recording artist to date. : Studio version of performance reached the top 10 on iTunes

2015: ''Republic Records''

On February 13, 2015,

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

officially announced that McAndrew was part of their Class of 2015 lineup of artists. On the same day, ''The Voice'' released a YouTube video of Adam Levine drawing a checkmark on McAndrew's wrist, which was then made permanent by Studio City Tattoo, signifying that he had a record contract.

2016: ''New label''

On September 9, 2016, McAndrew released the independent EP ''Rush in Slowly'', produced by Job Killer Records.

2019–present: ''Rain City Drive''

In January 2019, he became the lead vocalist in the American

band Rain City Drive.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Releases from ''The Voice''

Albums

Singles

Rain City Drive

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcandrew, Matt 1990 births American male pop singers Living people The Voice (franchise) contestants 21st-century American singers People from Barnegat Light, New Jersey Singers from New Jersey Southern Regional High School alumni 21st-century American male singers