Matthew Lindblad wasn’t literally born with a guitar in his hand, but he did come about as close you can get to being brought into the world that way.  As a baby, he would see his father playing guitar and crawl over to him in order to try and pluck the strings.  Though he couldn’t have imagined it at the time, Lindblad would end up spending countless hours plucking the strings of a guitar, beating on drums, singing, songwriting, and turning himself into a one-man band.  Now, that one-man band has a name all its own: Rebel Revive, with a driving goal to bring its music and its message to listeners everywhere.

As natural as it all seems to have come together for Rebel Revive, it just as easily could’ve not turned out this way.  Lindblad was adopted at birth, and as God would have it, he ended up with a family that was not only stable and loving, but supportive of his burgeoning musical talents.  It wasn’t long after baby Matthew attempted playing guitar that he started banging on paint cans with wooden spoons.  His father took notice of all this and when Lindblad was 13, his father bought him an electric drum set.  A year following this, Lindblad’s cousin left behind a Fender Strat after moving away, and luckily, it didn’t go to waste.  That guitar and a pedal steel amp he got from one of his neighbors were the tools Lindblad used to teach himself how to play and begin to write songs.

At age fifteen, while living in Toronto, Canada, he set up his first live gig at Duffy’s Tavern.  He also had the privilege of being able to play drums for Shania Twain at the Air Canada Center.  As he continued to learn and grow as a musician, he would eventually move back to his native California.  While there, he took up studying audio engineering and received his certification in it from The Recording Arts College in San Diego, CA.  With this ability combined with the multi-instrumental talents he had developed, Lindblad finally had the tools to make Rebel Revive a reality.

The music of Rebel Revive is a highly accessible mix of pop, rock, and punk with an emphasis on energy and lyrics that are filled with hope and honesty.  But even music with messages of love and forgiveness can have edge to them.  Rebel Revive has all the force of a four man band rolled into one person with Lindblad performing on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals in the studio, and joined by friends for live performances.

Debut album "XI" (Eleven), was recorded along with the help of producer Colby Wedgeworth, who has also worked with groups such as The Maine, Lydia, and This Century.  Fresh off his experience on The Vans Warped Tour, Lindblad is taking full advantage of social media, keeping fans updated via the Rebel Revive Twitter feed and uploading numerous videos to the band’s official Facebook.
XI promises to give listeners an experience that comes from 11 years of musical growth and passion; one that will rock them to their cores, while spreading a message of hope that people can unite behind.

Like many other artists, Lindblad sees music as a great unifier, a language that transcends words; it’s a language unto itself.  Music is filled with its own emotions, build ups, let downs, and can be a powerful force towards stirring up feelings within people, and between them.  

Lindblad is seriously dedicated to Rebel Revive; that dedication, that passion, doesn’t just fuel his music, it radiates off of it.  Though he’s hopeful that his music will bring him to the point where he’ll be able to sustain himself and his family, he’s just as hopeful that the meaning of his songs will strike the hearts and rattle the souls of those who hear it, and inspire them just as he was inspired by the sounds of the musicians he looked up to.  Rebel Revive is honest, passionate music, which delivers hope to a disorderly world through the chords of a rock guitar.

IAmCassettes is following