About
Also known as: Chad Matheny
Emperor X, the project of Chad Matheny, operates somewhere between lo fi indie rock and folk punk, with a restless, DIY ethos that shapes pretty much everything he does. One of his most talked about moves was burying 41 translucent purple cassettes across North America as part of a geocaching stunt tied to his 2011 album Western Teleport, with many of those tapes still undiscovered. NPR picked up the story, which tells you something about how his ideas tend to spill outside the usual music release box. Based in Berlin since 2012, Matheny tours extensively as a near blind musician who found Germany's rail network genuinely useful for getting around. His discography is prolific and eclectic, ranging from albums with titles like Oversleepers International and The Orlando Sentinel to a commission from 99% Invisible to write a folk song designed to warn people away from nuclear waste sites for the next 10,000 years. He also co founded the artist managed label cooperative Dreams of Field Recordings in 2020 alongside Christian Holden of The Hotelier.