Matthew D. Cameron started playing drums professionally at age 14 in various cover bands in San Diego. He took private lessons from ages 17-19 with Jon Szanto from the San Diego Symphony. In 1983, at age 20, Matt moved to Seattle. He played in a variety of bands, and instantly found the creative local music scene very inspiring.



While in Seattle, Matt Cameron met lots of creative people, including neighbor Kim Thayill. Kim's new band, Soundgarden, needed a new drummer,so Matt joined Soundgarden and played with them from 1986-1997. They toured the world many times over, met lots of great people and won two Grammy's.



Soon after the band broke up, Matt Cameron was asked to join Pearl Jam in 1998, and he has been with them ever since. Given any Pearl Jam downtime, Matt takes pride in his various side project bands (Hater, Wellwater Conspiracy) and studio work (Tony Iommi, Eleven, Geddy Lee).



Matt Cameron was born on November 28, 1962, and his very first claim to fame was the song "Puberty Love," which he sung for the movie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. In the early 1980s, he moved to Seattle and met Daniel House, with whom he played in the band Feedback. Later, Cameron and House played together in Skin Yard, where Cameron's superb technical ability outshined the rest of the band.



According to Jack Endino, who produced most of the early Seattle records, and even played in Skin Yard himself, Matt Cameron left the band in March 1986 because the members just didn't get along.



In September 1986, he joined Soundgarden, who were looking for a new drummer since Scott Sundquist had decided to quit (he had a wife and children, and was interested in finding a steadier job).



The band welcomed him with open arms, since although Cameron's specialty is drumming, he can also sing, play bass and guitar, and has songwriting talent.



Cameron somehow finds the time to be involved in several projects outside of Soundgarden. In 1990, he and Chris Cornell, along with some friends, recorded the Temple of the Dog tribute to Andrew Wood, who died on March 16 of an overdose.



In February 1993, he teamed up with bassist Ben Shepherd to form Hater; they've played as recently as March 1996, opening for a local Seattle band at the OK Hotel. Cameron and Cornell formed half of M.A.C.C., which recorded one track for the Stone Free tribute to Jimi Hendrix.



Finally, Cameron has another band, called Tone Dogs, an avant-garde jazz outfit that has so far released one record for C/Z Records.



Matt Cameron drummed in an early version of Queens of the Stone Age for a short while, somewhere in 1997. Soon after he moved to Pearl Jam, and Cameron was replaced by Alfredo Hernandez. Matthew has been staying with Pearl Jam ever since.