MATTHEW AND THE ARROGANT SEA
Indie rock that feels like a memory, played like it might disappear tomorrow.
MATTHEW AND THE ARROGANT SEA
Indie rock that feels like a memory, played like it might disappear tomorrow.
Matthew and The Arrogant Sea has spent more than two decades quietly becoming one of the most enduring and transportive live acts to come out of Texas.
ABOUT
Matthew and The Arrogant Sea was born out of movement, memory, and the quiet insistence to become something more.
Matthew Gray was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in the early 80s, but it was a formative move to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma that would shape everything that followed. Alongside his younger brother, Caleb Gray, music arrived early, not as a hobby, but as a kind of calling neither of them could quite explain.
They grew up watching their mother chase something just out of reach in music, and in that, they learned both the beauty of the pursuit and the weight of unfinished dreams. So the brothers began building something of their own.
By the late 90s, they were writing and recording in a shared bedroom, founding early projects and chasing sound long before they had language for what they were doing. Not long after, Matthew and The Arrogant Sea was born. In those early days, it was a true friends-and-family collective, with siblings and nephews filling out the lineup.
Something about it caught.
Across the metroplex, the band became something people didn’t quite know how to describe, but couldn’t ignore. In 2009, that momentum crystallized when the band was recognized for releasing one of the most celebrated records of the decade, marking their arrival on a national stage.
But time does what time does.
After years of touring and building, Caleb stepped away. Jacob followed. And for a moment, the future of the band stood still, asking a harder question than before: what is this, really?
Matthew answered the only way he knows how.
He rebuilt it.
Not just the band, but the foundation beneath it. The sound shifted. The vision sharpened. The purpose deepened.
And now, more than two decades since it first began in that bedroom, Matthew and The Arrogant Sea stands in a new form, carried forward by Matthew Gray, alongside Blake Vickrey, Hagen Hauschild, Pablo Alzate, and Lauren Upshaw.
Still searching. Still evolving. Still becoming.
LIVE
They don’t just play songs. They change the room.
Matthew and The Arrogant Sea moves between hush and swell, restraint and release. The kind of performance that pulls people inward before lifting them somewhere else entirely.
From listening rooms to theaters to festival stages, the band adapts without losing its weight. Every set feels lived-in. Nothing rushed. Nothing forced.
When it’s over, something lingers.
SELECT HISTORY
Direct support for Father John Misty, Great Lake Swimmers, Vampire Weekend, Kevin Devine, Midlake, Centro-Matic, Akron/Family, Danielson Family Band, Women, and many others.
Shared stages with Grandaddy, Pedro the Lion, Clem Snide
Performed at The Great American Music Hall (San Francisco) and El Rey Theatre (Los Angeles)
Dozens of festival appearances across the U.S. and internationally
Featured on regional and national radio
Television appearances including Good Morning Texas
PRESS
“This is the weird that comes from someone with a tuned-in brain that sidesteps the obvious and makes terrifically melodic and dense studies in idiosyncratic lives. It’s the weird that you get when you’re at peace with your weirdness, not the kind you get if you’re completely unaware that there’s anything at all odd about you.”
— Sean Moeller, Daytrotter
MUSIC
If You Find Yourself Floating Away — 2023
New Single — “My Left Shoe” (Spring 2026)
New LP — A Crow in the Room (and the shape that wouldn’t hold) (Summer 2026)
RECORDS & RELEASES
Matthew and The Arrogant Sea has built a body of work that spans decades, each release marking a different chapter in an ever-evolving sound.
Selected Discography
Family Family Family Meets The Magic Christian — 2008
You Can’t Tame a Wild Rabbit — 2011
Black Dresses (EP) — 2013
Wherever They’d Let Us, Vol. 1 — 2014
The Glooms, Pt. 1 — 2017
A Series of Dreams #1 — 2019
The Line (Single) — 2020
A Series of Dreams #2: But…Who Are You Now? — 2020
Selected Singles
“Motional” — 2021
“Hit Me Up Hard Times” — 2021
“D F K” — 2022
“Saint Isn’t Happy, Baby” — 2022
“WEBS” — 2022
Recent Release
If You Find Yourself Floating Away — 2023
(Widely regarded as one of the band’s most acclaimed releases to date)
RARE & OUT-OF-PRINT WORKS
In the early years, Matthew released a series of recordings, nine in total, that are now officially out of print.
Created without expectation, and often in fleeting moments of inspiration, these records were never designed for permanence. Gray has chosen not to reissue them, preserving their rarity.
They remain with those who found them. Small, fleeting, and impossible to recreate.
PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
Full Band (5-piece)
Trio
Duo
Solo
Flexible for theaters, clubs, festivals, private events, and listening rooms.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Minimum 2 vocal mics
Standard 5-piece input setup
Flexible staging footprint
Can provide sound if needed
BOOKING
Let’s make something unforgettable happen!
DIGITAL ASSETS
