Founded in 2004, SongCheck Live is a music and film production company specializing in live recordings from prominent singer/songwriters, offering compelling live performances and one-on-one interviews with the artists by the artists, all captured on film. On March 30, 2008, SongCheck Live, a Laguna-based production company, filmed its most advanced installment to date at one of Southern California's most respected music venues, The Couch House, in San Juan Capistrano. Creator and filmmaker, Matt Russell, decided to change the traditional format of previous sessions and shot this third performance in front of a live audience. The show featured Laguna Beach-based, Alec Bridges with his band, along with special guest Marianne Keith.

Like an alchemist, Russell’s ability to pull a talented crew together has proven to be the right concoction for this special project. Directed by Russell with the backing of an experienced film crew that worked on Superman Returns, this production was one of the first to professionally film with RED ONE as their main camera, which added a whole new level to SongCheck Live’s filming. Award-winning film composer and music producer, Steve Wood (IMAX® films, Sting, George Harrison, Kenny Loggins), is set to mix and master the recordings. The upcoming DVD is set to release in Winter 2009.

Russell is dedicated to give singer/songwriters a unique platform to express their music in many facets. According to Russell, “SongCheck Live is the root note, a one-line Picasso drawing, a live painting in motion, a true showcase for artists’ performances. The audience will come away from these unique and archival portraits with a renewed sense of faith in the power of a voice, a song, and a guitar.”

SongCheck Live creates an intimate type of musical experience, which is designed to give the home viewer a sense of being at a live show with a front row seat without any bar banter. While the industry is focused more on performances filmed with smoke, mirrors and 2-second edits in order to keep the attention of the MTV viewer, SongCheck Live stands for a quality that runs deeper than just musicians playing on a stage. Offering a music-centric show that stands for a
quality that is rich in talent, and that has a real connection between the artist and the listener—this is the essence of the performances captured by SongCheck Live.

While simplicity is key, SongCheck Live also strives to bring out the most creative and advanced filming, staging, lighting and mixing techniques available to create a mood that inspires the artist and seduces the viewer.

On October 2005, the first installment of SongCheck Live was privately filmed at the home of many singer/songwriters, such as the cherished Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forrest, CA featuring Jay Buchanan, Brett Dennen, Mike Barnet, Wade Egan, and Grammy-award winning Dave Lichens.

Always wanting to film at stunning venues, Russell set out to produce the second installment entitled, “The Brookledge Sessions” featuring Brett Dennen, Tom Freund, The White Buffalo, Sally-Jaye, Meiko, Matt Hopper, Jason Feddy, Diane Birch and Alec Bridges. In December 2006, SongCheck Live had the very rare honor to privately film at the historical Brookledge Theatre (1932), which was the original “Magic Castle” in the heart of Hollywood where Orson Wells and old Hollywood’s elite came to fraternize. This once-in-a-lifetime event made it possible to film and interview some of the greatest singer/songwriters of our time in a theater with the soul and spirit to match the artist’s performances.