Hailing from a long line of native New Yorkers (on his mother’s side going back to the 1840s), Matt Bray grew up in Middletown, New York, and lived in Baltimore, Maryland until he returned to New York City for college. As a kid, he came to the city regularly with his family to visit relatives and “the old neighborhoods” of his parents--Washington Heights and Parkchester--and, as a teenager, he ventured downtown for underground punk shows and to experience the bright lights of the city. “I feel lucky to have spent time in Greenwich Village and the East Village in the late 80s and early 90s,” Matt says. “It was crazy, weird, colorful, a little scary. There were all these really unique little shops and a sense of possibility. You didn’t have to spend all your time working to just to get by, mostly because rents were cheaper. You could give your time to things that you wanted to do.”