Los Angeles-born vocal producer, mixer and engineer Matt "Matty J" Jacobson began his musical journey by writing lyrics and poems at a young age. Matty J received a guitar for his 14th birthday, which he used for songwriting and soon after he began making beats and learning the basics of record production.

Early on, he had planned on becoming a teacher, but after receiving his degree, he decided he wanted to pursue a career in audio, and in 2012 he enrolled in the L.A. Recording School. Matty J has been working at Paramount Recording Studios since 2014 and has had great opportunities to work with artists such as the Jonas Brothers, Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Scott, Gwen Stefani, and Phantogram, and has a Grammy nomination for his work with Nipsey Hussle.

Matty J was introduced to Future Youth Records through Max Fink, whose father Dr. Fink was very involved with FYR. Matty has worked on FYR recording projects and workshops, and the organization has been a perfect fit for the engineer/producer who had also wanted to be a teacher.

“It made sense because I enjoy helping people and the act of passing down knowledge to somebody and particularly to kids having a difficult time,” Jacobson explains. “I’ve always been drawn to working with up and coming artists. Two things are really important to me – that the artist is heard and that they feel like they have a platform to help other people.”