A Little Personal Background
Matt Bronleewe was born in Dallas, TX, but as a young boy moved to Lorraine, Kansas with his family so his father could take on the family farm. The family moved onto the farmstead a few years later and Matt lived there until he graduated from Quivira Heights High School in 1992. Matt was married in August 1994 and lived for one year in Sterling, IL where he continued to work on his studies.
His Career Since Jars
In the summer of 1995, Matt was invited to reenter the world of music when another Greenville College student, Sarah Jahn invited him to play guitar for an independent CD she was recording, and later asked him to play guitar for her full time. Matt moved to Nashville, Tenn., and played with Jahn as well as pursuing other avenues of song writing and record production. Bronleewe had become known as a previous member of Jars of Clay as the group had rightly credited him as a co-songwriter for several songs from their album, which had gone platinum. With this, Bronleewe worked with several musical artists, most notably producing the debut album by Plumb, for which Jars of Clay member Haseltine co-wrote the song "Concrete" with Bronleewe and Arbuckle (the lead singer of Plumb). Following this successful release, Bronleewe collabored with Christian singer-songwriter Chris Tomlin, with whom he was nominated for a 2003 GMA Dove Award. Bronleewe continues to collaborate with various musicians in the American Christian music scene such as Michael W. Smith, Stephen Curtis Chapman and Leeland. Outside of the Christian music genre, Bronleewe has worked with artists such as Australian Natalie Imbruglia, actress Hayden Panettiere, former Tonic frontman Emerson Hart and American Idol finalist Kimberley Locke. Bronleewe’s scholarly pursuits were cut short when he got a call to co-write and play guitar for newly signed Warner Bros. artist Sarah Jahn. Soon after, he was offered his first production opportunity, working on Plumb’s debut album on Essential Records. This began his successful songwriting and production career, which has included Rebecca St. James album, “If I Had One Chance to Tell You” on Forefront Records, Plumb’s album “Chaotic Resolve” on Curb Records, and breakthrough band Leeland with their ambitious debut album “Sounds of Melodies” on Essential Records. In addition, he produced and co-wrote for platinum selling artist Michael W. Smith’s albums “Healing Rain” and “Stand” on Reunion Records. To add to his list of accomplishments, Bronleewe has expanded his love of story telling beyond music into authorship. He is currently penning a trilogy of novels for West Bow Press a division of Thomas Nelson. Illuminated, which hit the shelves in late summer 2007, begins the adventurous series about rare religious manuscripts and the mysteries within.
Matt was also an associate editor for the online magazine Infuze and blogged there until the site closed in early 2008.
An October 2005 article on the Greenville College website announces how Bronleewe was to be featured at the Homecoming sharing how the college experiences shaped his career. Here's how it read:
GREENVILLE , ILL. – Friday morning Homecoming chapel at Greenville College will feature Matt Bronleewe, a Dove nominated songwriter/producer and original member of Jars of Clay.
The list of artists for whom Bronleewe has written and produced reads like a who's who of Contemporary Christian music. Most recently, he co-wrote and co-produced “Healing Rain” with Michael W. Smith, a single and CD nominated for multiple Dove awards in 2005. He has also worked with such artists as Amy Grant, Rebecca St. James, Plumb, Sarah Jahn and Bebo Norman. “I'm still a fan of all of this,” said Bronleewe. “Sitting in the studio and having artists perform, I get a private concert everyday. I get to hear songs and material that will never be recorded or produced.”
An original member of Jars of Clay, Bronleewe decided to stick around Greenville when the band left for Nashville. For him, college was a time of developing strong community ties and digging deeper in his faith.
“Everyone leaned on each other. I created a sense of community,” said Bronleewe. “I'm working with people now that I worked with ten years ago. We still look to each other for support, guidance and music. What started at G.C. continues today.”
Though music is his first calling, Bronleewe doesn't limit his passion for storytelling to songwriting. Bronleewe recently signed a book deal with Random House and is set to release the first of a three-part, Christian thriller series in spring of 2007. “I had never considered novel writing,” said Bronleewe. “It just started flowing. It felt like a real spiritual thing for me.” His first book Tattoo, will explore the use of Christian icons.
The mystery of faith continues to inspire Matt and pull him deeper in his walk with Christ. “We have the Bible and we have all these things before us, but in the end there is still this huge leap of faith when we call ourselves Christians, and we don't have the power to make the leap ourselves.”
Bronleewe sees passion for faith and spiritual community at Greenville as something that sets the college apart. “Greenville retains the spiritual side of things. The college hasn't set that aside in light of technical expertise in music,” said Bronleewe. “The spiritual journey is really an important one intertwined with creativity.”
Visit Matt's website for more up-to-date info.