Matt Schwartz
Schwartz in 2009
Background information
Also known as	DADA The Drill M'Black
Born	(1971-10-26) 26 October 1971 Haifa, Israel
Genres	House electronica trip hop pop rock
Occupation(s)	Record producer songwriter composer arranger programmer audio engineer DJ
Years active	1995–present
Website	destined-records.com

Matt Schwartz (born 26 October 1971) is an Israeli-British record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, programmer, sound engineer, mixing engineer and DJ.

Biography

Born in Israel, Schwartz came to London in the early 90s. Schwartz enrolled at Kingston University, and a year later began working at the Hit-House in Hammersmith between 1994 and 1995 with the likes of Farley Jack Master Funk, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Matt Jam and Carl Brown, plus many more while producing records with James F. Reynolds.^[1]

Schwartz worked at BeatFarm studios in 1996–8, making hundreds of records with the likes of Massive Attack,^[2] Arthur Baker, Sara J, Tall Paul,^[3] Wamdue Project,^[4] JTQ^[5] and a host of others while developing unsigned bands and making his own records.

In 1998 Schwartz decided to concentrate on his own career as an artist as well as a producer. In 2000 he started Destined Records for his own output and Blackgold recordings with Gil Goldberg^[6] and Sony S2 president Muff Winwood. Blackgold had 4 releases amongst them 'Dancing in the dark' by 4tune500 who was an outfit for Matt and Jo Mills which went on to sell 15,000 Vinyls.^[7] Destined is highly respected on the underground scene and had a few hits to date including The Drill, DADA and Deepest Blue, his composition of Shooting Star was the theme tune for Sky Sports for 3 years.^[8]

As an Electronica producer and artist, Schwartz went on to top dance charts all over the world, his music and songs appearing on numerous TV programs and films (Including blockbusters such as Day of the jackal and The matrix, Sky sports, Fashion TV and most of the UK music TV channels), he cracked the top 10 in several countries and continents selling several million CD singles, Albums, Vinyl, downloads and compilations with a string of international hits under many different names such as M'black,^[9] DADA,^[10][11] The Drill,^[12][13] 4tune500 and Deepest Blue^[14][15] all starting their life on his Destined imprint, Matt usually plays all the instruments on his artist records.

In 2009, Schwartz worked with Trevor Horn,^[16] Olly Murs^[17] Lol Creme (10cc) and Robbie Williams.^[18] The following year, Schwartz scored his first No. 1 single in the billboard dance airplay charts with M'black.^[9] In 2011, Schwartz topped the Dutch Charts with 'Bang it all' as Dada & Mastiksoul featuring Akon.^[19] In 2012, Schwartz was invited to lecture in the WMC in Miami on his experience as a producer and an engineer.^[20] Later that year, Schwartz produced and co-wrote Kylie Minogue's "Timebomb". While working under the alias of M'black, in early 2013 he had a number 1 on the US dance charts with the song "Crush".^[21]

In 2014, Schwartz co-wrote and co-produced Madison Beer's single "Unbreakable". He produced and co-wrote Cheryl Cole's "Only Human",^[22] the song was remixed for radio by drum and bass producer Wilkinson as well as producing and writing for Selah Sue's number 1 Album, Reason, Union J, Ruen Brothers, Holychild, Pitbull & Sophia Del Carmen.

Crossing over from 2014 to 2015 his song "Outlines"^[23] by Mike Mago Ft. Dragonette entered at #8 in the UK singles charts. Matt has been working with alternative band All Tvvins on their debut album, their first single "Thank You" becoming song of the week on XFM radio in March 2015^[24] and has been working with NERVO on their debut Album, Collateral, mixing/co-producing several records including "The Other Boys" Ft. Kylie, Jake Shears and Nile Rodgers and Avicci's "You're gonna love again"^[25]

On 23 January 2016, "Fear Nothing" by Selah Sue which was co-written and produced by Matt and won the North Vision song contest in Zurich.

In January 2018, he produced songs on Yungblud's EP, "Yungblud"^[26] and Peking Duk's "Wasted" on Sony Music Australia, opening at #5 on Spotify's NMF US.^[27]

In January 2019, Yungblud released "Loner" and "11 Minutes" with Halsey and Travis Barker which Matt produced and co-wrote.^[28] Yungblud's second EP "The Underrated Youth", produced and co-written by Matt, entered the UK Charts at No 6.^[29]

In December 2020 YUNGBLUD's Second Album, Weird! which Matt has co produced and co written^[30] has topped the UK charts entering the no 1 position^[31] in week 51 of the year.

In 2021 Matt Produced and co-written Patience by KSI featuring YUNGBLUD and Polo G which entered the UK Big Top 40 at number one.^[32]

2022 saw the release of YUNGBLUD’s third album which Matt co-wrote and produced several songs ^[33] on including the singles Tissues ^[34] and Don’t feel like feeling sad today.^[35] The album topped the charts in 6 countries.

He resides in London and works from his state of the art production facility in the west end.^[36]

DJ work

In 2005 Matt took his first step as a DJ performing at the Paris Techno parade to 400,000 people as The Drill.^[37]

He has since played many international gigs under his 'The Drill sound system' and 'DADA sound system' and with his Deepest Blue Project.^[38]

Location timeline

• 1981–1984 – Haifa youth philharmonic orchestra
• 1990–1993 – Signal Studios, Israel
• 1993–1995 – Kingston university Gateway school of music, Kingston upon themes, UK
• 1995–1996 – Hit house production house, Hammersmith, UK
• 1996–1998 – Beatfarm studios, Waterloo UK
• 1998–2001 – Personal Studio, Golders Green, UK
• 2009 - Sarm Studios
• 2001– present – Destined Studios, Soho recording Studios, West end, UK.

References

External links

• http://www.destined-records.com
• Matt Schwartz discography at Discogs