Biography
Born in Pendaya, Cyprus, on 14 July, 1955, he moved to the UK 8 months later and grew up in Wimbledon, England. Influenced by Paul McCartney, Free’s Andy Fraser, and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, he learned bass and subsequently, in his work with Thomas Dolby, moog. After a short spell with Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club, recording English Garden for CBS Records in 1979, he joined the Soft Boys for their 1980 album Underwater Moonlight (1980) with whom he subsequently recorded Invisible Hits (1981), Nextdoorland (2002) and Side 3 (2002).
In addition to the Soft Boys, Seligman was also in the early 80's a member of Local Heroes SW9 (playing on their first album, Drip Dry Zone (1980), with guitarist Kevin Armstrong), The Camera Club, the Thompson Twins and The Fallout Club. He also played bass with Robyn Hitchcock, and Thomas Dolby, with whom he recorded the US Billboard No.5 hit "She Blinded me with Science" (b/w "One of our submarines") in 1983, and the gold and platinum follow-up album, The Flat Earth.
Others with whom Matthew has recorded include Knox, the post-Japan outfit The Dolphin Brothers, Stereo MC's, The Waterboys, David Bowie (Live Aid (concert and DVD), Absolute Beginners), Sinéad O'Connor, Transvision Vamp (Tell That Girl To Shut Up, Baby I Don't Care), Morrissey (Ouija Board, Ouija Board, Yes I Am Blind), Nan Vernon, Tori Amos, Kimberley Rew and Alex Chilton. Production credits include a single with Brighton jangle pop outfit The Popguns (Crazy, 1991) and Gravy Deco for Robyn Hitchcock.
More recently, Seligman has been a member of Snail, along with Chris Bell and Jonathan Klein, and the Fire Escapes. In 2011-12 he contributed to Thomas Dolby's A Map of the Floating City and the Magical Creatures' "Wishing Machine" collections, also appearing with the former on tours of the UK and northern Europe, at the Blue Note in Tokyo in February, 2012 and at the Latitude Festival, Suffolk, UK in July, 2012.
Matthew has always played a black Fender Jazz bass as his first choice instrument, and in addition uses an Ibanez with a C-ducer contact mic placed on the neck, close to the neck/body junction, for his fretless work primarily with Thomas Dolby, but also Peter Murphy and, more recently, in an ambient collection recorded with Japan/Hong Kong based musician Jan Linton for the Sendai Earthquake relief fund, due to be released by Entropy Records in 2012.
Matthew is also a lifelong Fulham F.C. fan. He moved to live in northern Japan in early 2005 and, after a 4 year spell back in the UK, recently returned to live there in July 2012, joining his wife, Hiromi, and daughter, Daisy (DoB: 10.10.01).
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