I'm Mathew Aboujaoude — a Lebanese-American guitarist, composer, and educator who's been playing music for over two decades. Music was deeply rooted in my family for generations. My grandfather played over ten instruments, my father is a self-taught drummer. I studied classical piano at the age of 7 and started on the electric guitar at 9 after watching School of Rock for the first time — hearing Back in Black by AC/DC and never being the same.
In 2013, I co-founded Brick Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute band, with my older brother and father. What started as a passion project turned into something real, faster than we realised. From 2014–2016, we performed shows across Lebanon and two US tours through Texas and Louisiana with our synchronised laser/light-show, driving from venue to venue with our gear in the back of our tour van (a Chevy Suburban).
Throughout the touring years, I was always writing music, and by 2019, my brother Chris and I co-founded Dreaming Madmen, an original progressive rock band influenced by the sounds of Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, King Crimson, and other prog giants. We released our debut album Ashes of a Diary in 2019, and by 2024 our two younger siblings had joined the band — completing the family lineup.
Since the pandemic, what started as putting great musical ideas I wrote aside that didn't fit for Dreaming Madmen, soon turned into a solid foundation for a solo concept album that I'm working on, expected to be released in early 2027. I've been teaching guitar for over a decade as well, both in the US and Lebanon, and have done some extensive session work, mostly in Texas.
Everything I do comes with a creative drive — I reverse-engineer all my work, have restless nights taking things apart until I fully understand them. This all led me to a lot of proud work over the years, especially The David Gilmour Blueprint, an online course I built from over a decade of obsessively studying Gilmour's playing. Music aside, I'm a big fan of Brazilian culture, I've been studying Portuguese since 2025 and doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since 2023. I'm an avid video game nerd, and a big fan of combat sports, and traveling.
