If you are a lover of old-time blues classics but with a bit of a twist then look no further than the latest release from Perth’s Matty T Wall, who has unleashed his new album, ‘Transpacific Blues, Vol.1’. It features a host of the world’s top blues guitar players with the likes of Kirk Fletcher, Walter Trout, Eric Gales & Kid Ramos along with Perth slide-blues legend Dave Hole all lending their craft to Wall’s wonderful song choice & help complete a fine collection of timeless tracks that have been revamped with Wall’s rock-blues influences deep within.
With the album quickly gaining supporters around the world via the digital platforms, now is the time for Matty T Wall to show just what he has to offer, in a genre that is in as strong a position globally as it has ever been. His previous release, the highly acclaimed ‘Sidewinder’ showed Wall’s strengths not only as a serious guitar player but as a song writer too. The Rockpit talked to Matty about the album, song choice & his featured guests, as well as the dramatic reason why he didn’t get to play a single note from his trademark vintage ’61 White Gibson SG on the album (Warning to fans of vintage guitars – it could get emotional).
Sean: Hi Matty, it’s Sean from The Rockpit. How are you doing?
Matty: Good thanks Sean.
Sean: Firstly, congratulations on your new release ‘Transpacific Blues, Volume 1’. It’s wonderful stuff. For me, this album shows how far back your love for the Blues goes, with some real classics that you’ve recorded here. With so many incredible songs to choose from, how did you pick which tracks to put on this album?
Matty: There are all different angles & directions I suppose. There are a few songs on there that I’ve been playing ever since I started with the Blues and in Blues bands – ‘I’m Tore Down’ was actually one of the first songs I ever did and the same with ‘Stormy Monday’ as well. Obviously ‘Boom Boom’ & ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’ are just classics… signature songs. Then there is ‘Crossroads’ and that one I put a bit of a different spin on it. I was inspired by what Cream did with it, where their take on it was nothing like Robert Johnson’s version, so changing things up is something very much to do with that song. I’m a big fan of Albert Collins so that’s why I chose ‘Quicksand’. ‘Hi-Heel Sneakers’ was actually suggested by my drummer Ric Whittle. We had a listen to the José Feliciano version of that song and then did a funky sort of thing with it.
Sean: It’s such a great collection of songs – I was doing a bit of research to see when they were originally recorded and it really is quite a broad spectrum with ‘Crossroads’ being right back in the late 30’s. You’ve given them all a nice revamp without being disrespectful to the originals and then to add some of the guitar players who have influenced you over the years must make it all that bit special for you too.
Matty: I think the world is “surreal” [laughs]… definitely surreal playing with some of these guys. I mean thinking “Holy Crap, Eric Gales is emailing me”, “Walter Trout is emailing me”… it feels like an alternate reality or something [laughs]. It was very weird at the time and it still feels very weird – Walter Trout has invited me to go hang out with him on stage when he comes over for his Australian Tour in April 2020. But it’s been a lot of fun and given me so much confidence, which helps. I’m not really surrounded by cities I can tour very easily – Being here on the west coast is very difficult sometimes so you need things to kind of keep your hopes up.
Sean: I’m based up in Quinn’s Rocks in the Northern Suburbs, so I’m even more isolated in an isolated city [laughs]
Matty: [laughs] I know what you mean… I’m up in the hills. We’re just miles away from everywhere and I suppose that’s why so many bands from over here like Tame Impala, go overseas rather than over to the east coast. It’s just what happens – you can fly to Texas from Perth for $1400 and you can fly to Sydney for $400 so there really is not much difference when you think about it.
Sean: I’m in contact with a few of Melbourne’s rock fraternity and I talk to them about coming to Perth for a few shows but they keep going back to Europe because it’s just more economical and because they can play multiple shows with everything being so close.
Matty: Yeah, they won’t fly over to play one or two shows because it won’t work and that’s totally understandable. Perth’s bands & artists and the whole scene is very unique because of our isolation and we also have a different view of the industry and of how to make it work – it’s just a very different thing here.
Sean: Jack Jones from Southern Sons said the exact same thing – We talked about how WA has a very different vibe & sound because of its isolation but he also said that was a good thing.
Matty: And he’s right. But it is a hard thing and these days it’s about reaching the audience through the internet and I suppose that’s what I’ve been doing, especially with this album. The amount of listeners on Spotify jumped by almost seven times in the space of four weeks, just from having the artists that have played on the album. That’s the way things are going – if you can afford to make albums then that can work.
Sean: I’ve talked about this at length to quite a few artists and it does seem like it’s a double-edged sword. Platforms like Spotify are good in the respect that they can get your music out to corners of the world that you yourself can’t get to, it opens it up to a whole new group of listeners and you would hope once that fan base has become established you would eventually be able to go to that country to play some shows.
Matty: That’s right and the difficult thing that I have in front of me is finding the audience – I love the Blues but I don’t play it in a traditional way. I also like heavy metal… in fact I really love heavy metal. You can hear those influences coming through but it’s not palatable for the general public as much as something like The Teskey Brothers, who are straight out of 50’s & 60’s Memphis – They’ve got that sound that was already a sound but they are just doing that sound, if that makes sense. I’ve got very disparate influences and they are coming together to create something different, something new so it’s trying to find the people who really love the idea of that or like the sound of it – that’s the challenge in front of me.
Sean: One of your unique trademarks is that you play a white Gibson SG, which is not really a guitar that is associated with blues music.
Matty: There’s a bit of a story there actually because I’m not playing that guitar these days. Even though I’m pictured with it on the front cover of ‘Transpacific Blues, Volume 1’, I didn’t get to play a single note with it on there. I brought it into the studio on the day to track – we tracked pretty much all the songs in one morning – so I brought it in in the morning and we were just getting ready. My headphone cable was wrapped around something so I yanked it and it happened to be wrapped around the guitar stand that the guitar was leaning on…
Sean: Oh no, I know where this is going already…
Matty: …so it fell forward onto the concrete floor, there was a big ‘snap’ noise and the headstock snapped, so it was a real huge disaster moment… it’s a genuine vintage 1961 Gibson SG. So, I was pretty horrified but luckily I had brought in another guitar which is a newer Gibson… I had only brought it in to show the engineer because he’s a guitar player too. It’s a beautiful looking Flametop 335, so I plugged it in and it turned out to be one of the better sounding tones I’d ever heard in that studio so I used it for the entire album and now I’m using it pretty much all the time on stage – I just love it. It was a bit of a serendipitous moment but it was also a bit of a shame for my SG but it has been fixed.
Sean: Fate is a curious thing. Maybe what happened has changed the feel & tone of the album…?
Matty: Definitely. The sound you hear on the album is the 335 and it’s got one of these tones that grabs you… it’s got this almost vocal tone to it. I am loving that guitar right now.
Read the review of Transpacfici Blues Vol. 1
Sean: The names of the other artists you have collected to play on some of these tracks are huge. Firstly, it’s always nice to hear Dave Hole playing on something new and I know he’s been a kind of mentor to you over the years. Having seen him live a couple of times since the release of his ‘Goin’ Back Down’ album, he’s a player that still has so much drive & energy and having seen you live you too have that same bubbling energy in your performances.
Matty: I really get enthusiastic about playing and I know he definitely does too. His sound is just so brilliant – it just takes you where you need to go. It’s just perfect. Dave has been a big inspiration to me. Growing up in the 90’s and seeing what he did, getting signed to Alligator… in fact, to be the first non-US artist to get signed to Alligator, which used to be the biggest Blues record label in the world, was incredible. He was splashed all across the newspaper and was playing Blues, which was remarkable. For someone to get to that position playing Blues…Blues is certainly not pop music you know, successful pop artists are a dime a dozen from any city but Blues is a bit different. Just to see that happen, and I was in love with Blues at the time, it was so inspirational.
Sean: I’m guessing you recorded all the tracks here in Perth and then your guest players added their parts from wherever they were in the world?
Matty: Yes, we recorded it all here in Perth and then with the wonders of the internet these days, I basically sent the tracks off for the other guys to add their bits. But what I did was that I took all of my playing off and sent them to the guys and asked them to do some solos and just have some fun with it. I took all my playing off just so it wouldn’t influence or alter their playing, so that way they would approach the track in the honest way they would normally approach a song and would work naturally with their style – its seems to have worked. When I came to mix it, I mixed it so it sounded like we were on stage having a jam. That was the idea.
Sean: I get that and it certainly feels & sounds like you could have been standing across from each other in the same studio…
Matty: Thanks. There are some mixing tricks to pull & glue it all together and to make it sound like that… I think we did a good job to create that vibe.
Sean: I understand why you took you’re playing off the tracks when you sent them to each of them. When I review an album or gig I stay away from reading anyone else’s in case I subconsciously write a phrase or sentence that might have come up in that review. Is it the same with guitar playing?
Matty: Not really. If you have a listen to Kirk Fletcher’s solo for instance, there’s so much Albert King in that solo. As a guitar player you grab pieces & mix them around in a pot, add some of your own influences and it becomes your sort of style. So it’s a little bit different to those laws of journalism where you can’t take published words and just use them but the concept is definitely the same – you want everyone to approach it in their own way.
Sean: I see Kirk is coming over to Australia early in 2020. I’ll be chatting to him soon, which I’m looking forward to. He’s an incredible guitar player.
Matty: Listening to Kirk’s solo, that was probably the biggest WOW moment of this whole recording. I knew Eric Gales’ solo would be outrageously awesome because he’s so cool but Kirk Fletcher playing on ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’ was like “Wow, this is really deep. This is full on 100% Blues playing” and it was like… well, he’s one of the king’s at the moment. He’s right up there. I’ve seen him on stage with Eric Gales and his phrasing is just 100% Blues. It’s like when you think of B.B. King it’s 100% Blues and Kirk has the same sort of thing. He really made me work hard to keep up with his Blues-ness, I suppose [laughs]. It’s hard to describe it but that’s what it’s like – that element of true Blues. It took a bit to keep up with Kirk. It was amazing. He’s right up there in the top three Blues players for me.
Sean: I’ve listened to the album a few times but I’m going to crank it up through headphones tonight and have a really good listen.
Matty: It will be interesting because you’ll hear the different tones & different players. A few different reviews have been interesting where they have picked up the guitar parts as Walter’s but they were actually mine. On songs like ‘Boom Boom’, mine & Dave’s tones are quite different and also on ‘Quicksand’ mine & Kid’s are quite different too. Eric Gales & mine are a bit more similar on ‘Hi Heel Sneakers’ and the same with Kirk’s & Walter’s too so it’s interesting to hear who picks it up.
Sean: I know we mentioned Walter Trout is touring here in Australia in 2020 but he’s not coming to WA is he?
Matty: No, just the east coast where he is playing Newcastle, Sydney & Melbourne before Bluesfest.
Sean: He’s one of the guitar greats I’ve always wanted to see…
Matty: When I see him I will definitely try to talk him into come over to WA to play some shows. I’d love to see him at The Astor and I’m sure there are enough Blues fans in Perth who would appreciate him and come out to see him live.
Sean: If you had a good line-up… maybe a three artist bill then I’m sure it would be well supported.
Matty: I’d certainly put my hand up to support him & I’m sure Dave Hole would too…
Sean: Now that’s a line-up! You heard it here first folks [laughs]. We touched a bit on the Perth scene – a few months back I went to a show at The Charles which featured Russell Morris, Dave Hole & Blue Shaddy and the venue was full to the brim proving that if you put the right line-up together then the crowds will come.
Matty: Yeah, I’ve seen that happen before and you’re right in that it does work if you get the formula right. You see it more in the kind of indie rock scene where they work on the different line-ups but not so much in the blues scene. We probably should be doing more of that I reckon.
Sean: Definitely. We are getting a few more festival style gigs coming together now. Obviously, Blues at Bridgetown is the big one but I see there was also the Strings Attached Festival recently in Margaret River too. It was quite an eclectic line-up with the likes of Ash Grunwald, Graham Greene & John Butler but also Perth rock goddess’s Legs Electric there too – quite a mix but it can only be good for our music scene.
Matty: We do have some pretty good venues and for a state that only has around 1.8 million people we get good turn outs on the whole. I certainly think we punch above our weight and great to see people out supporting live music.
Sean: This question has been eating away at me and I know Volume 1 has only just been released… I know you won’t tell me but who have you got in your sights for Volume 2 [laughs]
Matty: Well, you just never know [laughs]… I couldn’t have imagined for one minute that Walter would get involved and then to have him tell me he’d been listening to me since ‘Blue Skies’ and that he was a big fan… that’s just crazy! You just don’t expect that and then to have him say that too is unbelievable. There are a few other artists that I have tried to get in touch with for this Volume 1 album and they never got back to me so you don’t really know. It’s a bit of a roll of the dice, we’ll see what happens and we’ll go where it takes us.
Sean: I’ll certainly keep enjoying this album while I eagerly await the second volume, that’s for sure [laughs]. This was obviously an album full of classic covers but have you been working on a follow-up to ‘Sidewinder’?
Matty: Oh yeah, I’ve got a heap of songs in my back pocket and we are sort of working on those at the moment and I definitely want a full length original album to come out soon but I want to make sure it sounds right. These first three albums, as far as how they sound, I want to spend more time on making them sound better because with the production side of things, I think I’ve got a lot more room to grow there and I really want to work on that production as well as the song writing and bring out an album that bridges those sounds that I want to create, so we’ll see how it goes.
Sean: So much more to look forward to from you which is pretty exciting. So, I like to finish with some regular questions if that’s ok. If you could invite three guests from the music world to join you for dinner, dead or alive, who would you want to have at your table?
Matty: Jimi Hendrix would have to be there. It’s just the way he talked about music and the way he looked at music – it was amazing. He’s just one of those people who has created amazing things. Now, I don’t speak French but Django Reinhardt would be pretty cool to talk to as well – I’m sure he would have stories. And for number three… that’s a really interesting one… maybe someone like Eddie Van Halen – he seems like a pretty fun guy and they are all innovators.
Sean: An interesting mix of musos there. So what was the last album you listened to?
Matty: I was listening to Pearl Jam ‘Verses’ earlier in the car. I grew up in that era in the early 90’s – from Guns n’ Roses to Pearl Jam… that was my coming of age era.
Sean: I’m interested to hear your answer to this one, purely for your love of so many genres from Blues to metal. If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Matty: I’ve got a couple of songs… it’s just too hard to pick just one… So there are two songs that I really enjoy from a song writing perspective. The first is ‘Under Pressure’ by Queen & David Bowie, which is just a perfectly written song. The second one would be ‘Romeo & Juliet’ by Mark Knopfler & Dire Straits – I love story songs, they are amazing and that one is brilliant and just done in such a good way – he is just such an awesome guitar player.
Sean: Such a shame we don’t see much of Knopfler now…
Matty: He’s probably keeping himself to himself now. A lot of those guitarist of that age begin to wind down a little bit, which is unfortunate because we all wish they could keep playing forever but it would be good to see him even if it was just once.
Sean: Wonderful guitarist and some fantastic answers Matty, so thank you. All of us at The Rockpit would like to wish you amazing success with ‘Transpacific Blues, Volume 1’ because it’s a fabulous collection of tracks with some incredible guitar players. Hopefully I’ll get along to one of your shows and come say hello soon.
Matty: That would be great. Thanks Sean. Much appreciated.
TOUR DATES
DEC 14 – The Duke Of George: East Fremantle, WA
DEC 15 – The Bassendean Hotel: Bassendean, WA
DEC 20 – The Ellington Jazz Club – Perth, WA
More info: facebook.com/mattytwall
