Matthew Edward Murphy (born 23 July 1984) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of The Wombats, which he co-founded in 2003. He began a solo career under the name Love Fame Tragedy in 2018.
Matthew Edward Murphy was born in the Woolton suburb of Liverpool on 23 July 1984, the son of a mother who works for Liverpool City Council and a father who teaches engineering. He has said that he "didn't come from money, but didn't have very humble beginnings either". He began playing the guitar at the age of five, primarily at the behest of his father. He was educated at Liverpool College in the neighbouring suburb of Mossley Hill, where he "smoked a lot of weed all the time and played in a lot of weird bands" and just barely managed to pass his A-levels. He later studied music at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), where he met his future Wombats bandmates. He joined his first band at the age of 13. He began suffering from depression and anxiety as a teenager, and was prescribed antidepressants after experiencing severe panic attacks at LIPA. He later detailed his issues with the medication in the song "Anti-D".
Murphy is the lead singer and guitarist of rock trio The Wombats, alongside Tord Øverland Knudsen (bass) and Dan Haggis (drums). The band began as "a joke [they] didn't want anyone to find funny". The band was initially launched when the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts gave them the chance to play various gigs. They then ended up gaining radio play in the UK with songs such as "Let's Dance to Joy Division" and "Moving to New York". Their first album, A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, was released on 5 November 2007 with success following a European tour and an Arbor Day party at Liverpool Academy. The album achieved platinum status in the UK. The band's second album, This Modern Glitch, was released on 25 April 2011 and was a chart success, reaching No. 3 in the UK and No. 2 in Australia. The band released their third album, Glitterbug, on 13 April 2015; reviews were mixed, though it became the band's first album to appear on the U.S. Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 91. Their fourth album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, was released on 9 February 2018 to positive reviews. Their fifth studio album, titled Fix Yourself, Not the World, was released on 14 January 2022 and reached the top spot in the UK Albums Chart.

Return to Matthew Murphy Autograph Profile