Matt Ellis had an international upbringing, spending his childhood among Sydney's northern beaches, Melbourne, Brisbane, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand before his family's relocation to Hong Kong,– where he spent most of his teenage years attending Island School.

In 2005, Ellis left Australia and embarked upon a tour across Canada and the US which included shows in and around Vancouver, Hornby and Denman Islands and at the North by Northeast (NxNE) Festival in Toronto.

He stayed on the road through July and August playing a twenty-date acoustic tour through New York, Pennsylvania, Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Recorded at Veneto West Studios in Culver City, California and engineered by Ronan Chris Murphy, the album featured a stellar cast of musicians.

In promotion for this well received and critically acclaimed album, Ellis performed across the US, with regular shows at such esteemed Los Angeles music venues as the Hotel Cafe[5] and The Troubadour.

There was a surprise performance by gospel great (who sang the duet "Gimme Shelter"[8] with Mick Jagger on the Let it Bleed album), Merry Clayton.

[9] Ellis mixed the album with Craig Schumacher (Calexico, Devotchka, Iron & Wine, Neko Case, Richard Buckner) at his WaveLab studios in Tucson, Arizona.

The lead single, "Heart of Mine", was featured on Andrew Zimmern's Appetite For Life and received an Honorable Mention in the International Songwriting Competition[10] in the Americana category.

Tracks from Births, Deaths & Marriages have received wide AAA radio airplay across the US, including LA's KCSN, operating out of Northridge, California.

The pair spent the following months setting up in multiple home studios adding vocals, Fender Rhodes, piano and additional guitars, before Ellis returned to Tucson to mix the album with Schumacher, the celebrated engineer behind his last two releases.

Throughout 2013, Ellis was presenting unfinished songs to Josh Norton (guitar), Fern Sanchez (drums), Grant Fitzpatrick (bass), Tim Walker (pedal steel) and his wife Vavine (vocals).

The band promoted the new songs around L.A. with a launch at the Del Monte speakeasy, a slot on the Abbot Kinney Fest and the Desert Stars Festival at Pappy & Harriets.

Ellis currently resides in Venice Beach, California, US with his wife, Vavine Tahapehi, who has contributed vocals on his past two albums and performs with him on stage.