Matt Jaffe, courtesy.

Singer-songwriter Matt Jaffe is looking forward to getting back to “normal,” as he prepares for a fall tour opening for renowned San Francisco alt-country singer-guitarist Chuck Prophet. 

Also a Bay Area native, Jaffe established himself as a dedicated fan of the former member of Green on Red about five years earlier and said that he’s attended dozens of Prophet’s local shows. 

“I think, because I’m probably three to four decades younger than his average fan, maybe more, he just sort of noticed me in the crowd,” Jaffe said. “And one night at a joint called The Make-Out Room in San Francisco, he invited me on stage without me expecting it.”

From there, the two began writing music together. 

While Matt Jaffe is excited to play shows again, he remains aware of the looming pandemic, hoping the tour can still happen responsibly and safely.

“I’ve had way more close connections come down with COVID in the last two weeks than in the preceding 18 months. For some reason, it feels like it’s circling much closer,” Jaffe said. “But yeah, I’m not distressing. Whatever needs to happen will happen. I’m just hoping that we’ll be able to do gigs, and there won’t be a moral gray area.”

Jaffe blends 1970s rock and roll vibes with modern pop-punk. He was discovered at an open mic night by fellow Marin County native Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads. Jaffe was in high school at the time. Harrison quickly offered to produce his first album.

Since then, Jaffe he’s released four albums, most recently Undertoad, and has a fifth, Kintsugi, out on Aug. 27. Parts of both were recorded from early 2019 to early 2020, which allowed him and his team to avoid lockdown restrictions. By the time he was mixing and mastering the latest album, stay-at-home orders had expired.

Kintsugi‘s cover features Jaffe displaying a new bleached look, which he said not only reflects a new personal style but a revolutionary shift in his musical sound as well. 

“The last records, especially Undertoad, were meant to move from the more conventional rock band instrumentation to more digitized and electrified. We sort of inched that way with Undertoad, but some of the songs on this new one are full throttle in that direction,” he said. “Almost never is our full band performing together on this, which surprised myself. If you would have told me that five years ago, I would have been like, ‘No, that’s the opposite of what I want to do.’ But now it’s really exciting to me.”

In addition to the albums, Matt Jaffe managed to thread a couple hours of reading, running and cooking into his daily routine—some pastimes he didn’t have as much time to fulfill in pre-pandemic times. Music isn’t the only contribution Jaffe is providing to his community.

Over the years, the 26-year-old has partnered with organizations like Bread and Roses, which allows him to play music at juvenile halls, convalescent homes and beyond— to people who may otherwise not have access to artistic outlets. More recently, he teamed up with the Epilepsy Foundation, which has highlighted his own experience with the condition. 

“It’s been an educational experience in learning how to be a part of a community that has a disadvantage,” he said. “My experience with [epilepsy] is very tame compared to others. I have seizures very infrequently, whereas other people battle it daily—multiple times daily. But having that connection to a community that is united by a certain struggle has given me a better window into what empathy and solidarity looks like for other disenfranchised communities.”

Jaffe developed epilepsy after he came down with a flu-like virus in 2015 that caused him to pass out and hit his head during the fall. Doctors then misdiagnosed his condition and gave him a medication that caused life-threatening symptoms. They had to perform emergency brain surgery. In January 2019, he had a seizure at one of his performances. All he said he remembers is waking up in a hospital.

Through it all, Jaffe said he’s gained more of a sense of gratitude for everyday abilities that feel more like a privilege now than ever before.

“I try to be as patient with life as possible because I know it’s sort of a fragile thing,” he said. “But part of the strength is not thinking about it on a daily basis and persevering to live as if it were not something that impacts me. So, maybe counterintuitively, but the epiphany that comes from it is not thinking about it.”

Instead he focuses much of his time on his love for music and his beloved Golden State Warriors.

“Hopefully, someday I’ll see Shaun Livingston at a bar or something and go tell him how cool he is,” he said of his favorite Warrior.

Follow writer Amelia Parreira at Twitter.com/AmeliaParreira.