# 73 Matt Brown

Matt Brown, a singer/songwriter for the Atlanta band Uncle Green/3 lb. Thrill, spent 10 years away from making music professionally. Then, one day in the spring of 2012, he had an idea. For years he had subdivided his own music library into "potential mix CDs": "Songs about Space," "Songs about Photography," "Songs with Yes or No in the Title," etc., etc. He decided to create a Group on Facebook for musicians and music-fans of all stripes, from the professional to the amateur, called THEME MUSIC. Each week he posted a Theme, along with a set of rules, and asked people to post themselves playing a song, a cover or an original, that fit the theme. It was just an idea he hoped people might respond to.

A few months later, the group was 300+ members and growing, with musicians in Atlanta, New Jersey, California, Minneapolis, and more. The members began to collaborate and record music together, sending each other digital files or sometimes traveling to each other's homes to play together. The videos, too, became more collaborative and elaborate. Posts ranged from people singing in their cars and showers, to full-blown 16-track Pro Tools productions--all with an immediacy,
passion, and spontaneous creativity that's not always easy to come by and is generally missing in traditional media outlets.