With his father in southern gospel quartet‘s, two sisters leading worship, a brother touring the country with black metal and punk groups and a mother who sang in the choir every Sunday, music was always a prominent part of Matt McKinney‘s upbringing in Augusta, Georgia. Riding his first songs at 11 years old, McKinney quickly fell in love with country music through the inspiration of artist such as Alan Jackson, George strait and favorite vocal group Diamond Rio. Two days after graduating from the University of Georgia McKinney moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a career in songwriting. In 2020, Matt was introduced to Anna weisband and Rusty Gaston through Leslie Roberts at BMI whom he credits for Lanningham his first publishing deal at Sony music publishing Nashville. In his two years at the company McKinney landed cuts with artists including Jordan Davis, Elle King, Jimmie Allen, Kidd G, Kolby Cooper, Ella Langley and Trey Lewis with his first platinum single “DDID”.