Theft

For any hard-working musician, the key is to find their voice. The inimitable sound that differentiates them from the rest. In a town like L.A., it's especially hard. For multi-instrumentalist and producer, Matt McCartie - his voice - is a Brit rock-inspired wall of sound known as Theft. The project is the result of years playing in various local bands, paying his dues in every well known club in Los Angeles, late nights holed up in his DIY studio and a U2 lyric. Not that it was easy, it took McCartie two years of recording to create Theft's sound. He says, "In the beginning, it was rough. I had been in so many different bands, I felt like I couldn't find my voice." However, his persistence paid off and joining forces with producer/collaborator/guitarist, Dwayne Larring. The two recorded and produced Theft's debut EP Breathing Underwater which was released in January of 2010. The result is a lush three song collection that combines layers of shoegaze guitars with a booming rock sound fit for an arena. Odd considering most of it was written during the most quiet hours of the night. As McCartie explains, "Most of the songs were probably written between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 am. It's a surreal window of time when everything is really quiet." As happens in Hollywood, Breathing Underwater found it's way into the hands of music supervisors at MTV, who made Theft's jangly Brit pop cut "Fireworks Explode" the theme song for the briefly-lived series It's On With Alexa Chung. Subsequently, McCartie's spiraling anthem "Breathing Underwater" became the theme for the late DJ AM's much-publicized intervention series, Gone Too Far. Having now done the hard work of finding his voice, McCartie is taking pleasure in using it. With Larring adding lead guitar to his job description in the fall of '09, Theft became a duo and is currently playing out with a full lineup that includes Austen Hooks on drums and Daley Hake on bass. The band's full-length entitled The Hard Way will be released later this year.