Singer/songwriter’s career takes off

Mat Brandon sits down at his piano three times a day. Sometimes he’ll stay for hours and sometimes for a few minutes. But each time he sits, he doesn’t have a plan –– he just plays whatever comes to him.

“I just see what comes out,” said Brandon, 19, of Merrick. "It just has to come naturally. It's frustrating if you try to force it."

Brandon, a 2010 graduate of Kennedy High School in Bellmore, is an aspiring musician. Though his name is actually Mat Neugoboren, he prefers to go by his middle name, Brandon. He is currently a student at Hofstra University, where he studies English.

Brandon recorded his first E.P. –– or extended playlist of music (shorter than an album but longer than a single) –– when he was 13 years old, and this past summer, he flew out to Los Angeles to record his second E.P., titled “I Would Run.”

He worked with Mitch Allan, the lead singer of the rock band SR-71, who co-produced the five-track E.P. with Brandon. The E.P. comprises four songs written by Brandon, including the single, “I Would Run,” and a song that was written by Kara DioGuardi, a singer-songwriter who was formerly a judge on the hit Fox TV show, “American Idol.”

Brandon said that he understands how today’s musicians become famous –– through marketing and connections. But Brandon said he hopes to gain recognition in other ways. "I believe that you just have to make something that is so good that it transcends people,” he said.

"It has to be so good that people can't resist sharing it with other people,” Brandon continued. “So I just focus on trying to create something that's really, really good."

Brandon first started taking piano lessons in fourth grade at the urging of his parents. But he said, “I didn't really like it at first. I was forced to.”

A couple of years later, however, he discovered rock music, namely Led Zeppelin, which changed his outlook. "I realized I could play stuff that I liked,” he said.

At 12, he began playing the guitar and writing his own songs. "They would just flow out of me,” he said.

Brandon said he writes about what’s happening in his life, including “things that are going on, and things that I'm actually feeling.”