Matthew Pryor was a founding member of the emo\indie-rock group The Get Up Kids, he was a singer and guitarist in the band. Rumor has it that he was the driving force behind the break-up of The Get Up Kids, because he did not want to tour as much as the band demanded. While he was in The Get Up Kids, he formed The New Amsterdams. The music of The New Amsterdams is a lot slower than The Get Up Kids, and is usually him with an acoustic guitar, now the band has formed into a full blown band. Besides The New Amsterdams Pryor formed another band, The Terrible Twos. The basic idea was a way for him to write childrens songs for his kids.