January 1967 in Johannesburg, South
Africa, to John (a brilliant physicist) and
Valerie (an architect and painter) Matthews.
The third of four children, he was two years
old when his father left Wits University's
Faculty of Science to accept a job at the IBM
Watson Research Centre in New York as
Head, Thin Film Research. It was 1969 and
the Matthews family moved to America.
New York a year later. It was here at around
age 9 that Matthews started learning to
play the guitar, an instrument he apparently
took to better than he had to piano, which
according to him he approached as if it were
a drum kit.
both the family and the scientific world. In
2001 the University of Virginia described him
as "a ground breaking materials researcher,"
adding, "Matthews' many contributions to the
science of epitaxy are still fundamental to
computer chip manufacture."
idolise his dairy farmer uncle and began
dreaming about owning his own farm one
day. In the meantime he had to finish school
and this he did at St Stithian's College in
Johannesburg, graduating in 1985.
Apart from the fact that he was raised as a
Quaker and therefore a pacifist, Matthews
was damned if he'd fight to uphold the
apartheid system that he and his family so
despised. The solution was clear, he would
move back to America.
took a job at IBM, where his father had
worked. Later that same year he left to join
his mother in Charlottesville, Virginia.
most associated by his US fans. The town
connection is a strong one for the Matthews
clan the family had lived there previously
and Matthews's older sister Anne was born
there in 1964.
he tried his hand at art school, but soon quit.
Matthews continued to play guitar, paint,
smoke pot, occasionally taking to the stage
to sing with other musicians and even wrote