My name is Matt Katsis, I’ve been playing and writing music for several years now. I’m based around Melbourne’s Bayside area and have just had a great summer packed with Victorian band and solo gigs as well as a whole lot of busking. Generally I play electrified 6 & 12 string acoustic guitars and my genre falls somewhere within in the ball park of Roots, Reggae and the Blues.
In April/May I will be releasing my first solo album ‘Bare Bones’ and in the second half of 2013, after a couple band EP’s, the band (the India Black) and I are now in the early stages of planning to record our debut album.
You’re playing at set at The Elsternwick Hotel Friday 22nd March, what should we expect from a Matt Katsis live set?
The first point of difference is that on the 22nd I will be performing with my band, ‘The India Black’ our mix of Roots, Rock, and Reggae. For the Tone Deaf Spotlight in April I will be performing solo – an all-original music set (maybe a cover thrown in for good measure!) alongside electrified acoustic guitars, vocals and stompbox.
What’s your earliest memory of performing and who inspired you to start?
I think my earliest memory of jumping up onto a stage would have to be back at my local primary school fete. That was when I was in year 7 and our high school music teacher was asked to supply some live music, we had a huge set list of 4 songs, which was mainly of Hendrix and Gun’s n Roses. We went on to play many more school events but I’m pretty sure that our repertoire list didn’t prosper!
You must answer this question honestly. What and where was the first gig you went to?
Funnily enough I still to this day, excluding festivals, I’ve not yet been to a huge packed out stadium live show so it’s a little bit of a challenge to recall the first gig I went to! I remember back in my early teens tagging along with my older sister to see a Jack Johnson show at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. This was almost a mini festival with Xavier Rudd, G. Love and Donovan Frankenreiter on the bill too.
Seeing Xavier Rudd’s one-man band show influenced me to take up the traditional African djembe drum and add foot percussion such as Stompbox (to act as an accompanying bassy kick drum sound), the tambourine and shakers to my early guitar instrumental pieces .
‘Fess up. What records have you stolen from your parent’s record collection and why?
If there’s one record in particular it was definitely one of Elvis’ greatest hits, which was a bunch of tracks on a double disc album. I actually think it’s around here still because I love throwing the album on for a listen from time to time!
What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod right now?
These days I’m listening to anything and everything I can get my ears wrapped around. I listen to triple J heaps and have been enjoying some of the new indie sounds and bands they’ve been rotating. I love the reggae/dub bands like Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Black Seeds but I’m just as content to go down to my local pub and hear a night of Blues based music from fellow Aussie artists like Lloyd Speigel and Jimi Hocking. I think it’s great to be open to new genres, new sounds because in the past I was pretty narrow minded and missed out on hearing so much. But possibly to my detriment I’m actually enjoying the marrying of dubstep and reggae/dancehall. Something I never thought I’d ever say!
Do you have any particular ritual before you go on stage, or even a lucky charm you take with you?
I can’t say that I have a ritual before I go on stage, although anyone that is with my on the drive to the gig I’m sure will tell you how I obsess about going through each and every track off my 15 minute vocal warm up cd. Wether we call it OCD or just a necessity, it certainly can get painful for the passengers to sit through it as I’m ironing out the creases along my vocal register!
If you could curate your own festival, where would it be, who would be on the bill, how many people would you let in and what features would it have?
Great question, it’s something I’ve had a thought or two about over the years. My girlfriend’s family own land just out of Bendigo and each time we camp there we look out at the landscape we vision how we’d set up the place for a music festival. We would even resurrect the old run down pub on the corner, which from what I hear was quite a busy pub back in its day.
We’d offcourse have our entire list of favourite band’s on the bill. If it were ever in a million years possible, Bob Marley & the Wailers would headline and my I suppose my girlfriend would book Justin Bieber.. Just kidding, I’m sure she would book Alt-J in a heartbeat!
Because it’s more fun to do things together, which living Australian artist would you most like to collaborate with?
Every now and then you come across a band or artist music that really speaks to you. When I first heard Josh Pyke’s album ‘Chimneys Afire’ that’s exactly what happened. The lyrical narrative alongside harmonies and multiple tracked vocals created not just great memorable songs but a story as though you’d be watching a film. I think I could learn a lot if I ever had the chance to collaborate.
What is your band’s music the best soundtrack for?
That’s an interesting one and tough to say. Last year I played at a wedding, later some of the filmed footage was put together in memory of the special occasion. My song ‘In the moonlight’ (of the love song type) was used as the soundtrack and for the first time I saw my intention and personal meaning of the song connecting and adapting to this couples life almost as if the song was written for them. It was a great thing to experience and it has got me interested and excited to delving into this area of music and film.
What’s next for Matt Katsis for the rest of 2013, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?
I actually have a solo album release coming up in April/May. It is titled ‘Bare Bones’ and this will be my first purely solo release as in the past I’ve recorded with my band. I went into Bakehouse Studios just before Christmas last year and in a day recorded majority of the tracks live and in one or two takes. During that time I was doing a lot of busking and solo gigs throughout the summer so that fuelled the fire in wanting to capture on record what I had been doing live. In support of this release I plan to travel to most major cities around the country in my trusty old campervan and busk on the streets – alongside an in venues tour. Dates and details will be confirmed over the coming months.
Past EP releases include Matt Katsis- Rise (2008) and Matt Katsis & The India Black- Recoil (2012), which are available to listen/purchase via a hop skip and a jump over to the website – www.mattkatsis.com
Catch Matt at The Elsternwick Hotel in Melbourne on Friday 22nd March from 9pm.
