 Matt Sever was born in San Francisco, California, and spent his formative years in northern California and southern Oregon.Sever began playing coffee houses when he was 15 years old and broke into the Austin, Texas music scene in 1996 when he began hosting an open mic night at the now defunct Flipnotics Coffeespace.When Sever would arrive at gigs still sweaty from a long days work in Austin's summer heat, he would often explain, "Hi, my name is Matt, and I'm an electrician."