ORGANISERS OF this year’s Falls Festival are offering the exclusive chance for one local band or artist to perform in the line-up for the 2016 Falls Festival along with some of the biggest acts in the world.
Each local media outlet was asked to nominate a local band or artist who can bring their best performance to an audience of thousands.
The Weekly nominated Burringbar local Matty Rogers who has an amazing sound and has featured on Triple J as well as having a love for the local region.
As part of his nomination Matty has to spread the word about his chance and gather as many people to support his push in the hope of achieving a long standing dream.
“It would mean so much to play this year’s Byron Bay Falls Festival for many reasons one being I really want to share my music with as many people as I can and what better platform than in my local region at Falls Festival,” he said.
“The Falls Fest is such a great vibe and I have been dreaming about playing there for many years now so I am hugely grateful for this opportunity.
“The hardest thing for a musician is getting their music heard by the masses, festivals like the Falls Fest are the best way for that to happen.”
Matty has been writing and performing originals for 10 years around Australia, performing at pubs, cafes, parties and markets.
“I live in Burringbar about 8kms from the Byron Bay Falls festival location with my partner and 6-month-old baby boy,” he said.
“I am one of the lucky few who get to make a living out of one of their passions and one of my biggest passions in life is music second only to family.
“My creative process comes from Raw emotion, when I sit to write I will start by playing a few chords on my guitar or piano then I will I let out a melody but very rarely will it be real words.
“I then find out what emotion is coming out and relate it to things either going on in my life or that that I am seeing around me, that’s when the lyrics come. If all these things line up and I think people would relate to this I will work to craft this idea into a song as my main aim through song writing is to connect and let people know that they’re not alone, that there is always someone going through a similar situation and sometimes that’s all people need to help them through.”
As well as performing at Falls Fest Matty hopes to someday meet Bernard Fanning and have a jam.
“It would be amazing, he is one of my biggest inspirations, my first CD ever was Powderfinger’s Double Allergic and I still play it all the time from start to finish,” he said.
“He is an incredible songwriting and performer – that would be epic.”
Matty also talked about some of his other inspirations in music.
“It is so hard to pick one, I have so many artists who inspire me. My muso mates here in the Northern Rivers are constantly inspiring me, there is so much talent around here,” he said.
“Powderfinger, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, Stevie Wonder the Eagles, Rage Against the Machine, my music taste is very eclectic.
“I find different thing’s in artist to take inspiration from whether it be their music, lyrics or how they manage themselves in a business sense, my inspirations are it’s always changing.
“The artists I respond to the most have good solid music, meaningful lyrics and it’s got to be from the heart, if you have that it will inspire me.”
Matty has some amazing stories to tell with his partner Seda of five years.
“Seda and I were living in the region, I was playing gigs and working on the Byron Bay Council and Seda was working at Aquarius Backpackers (Byron),” he said.
“We decided to move to South Australia for two years and create some music programs in Aboriginal communities and rural schools, that was one of the most awesome things we have ever done. We learnt so much about aboriginal culture and learnt allot about ourselves too. one of the coolest things was seeing how music brought the community’s closer.
“We did everything from teaching music theory, song writing, music production (recording ect),making videos and painting classes. we have been back in the Northern Rivers for over 3 years now and I am playing music full time.
“We recently had our first baby Riley James Rogers (pictured) and we are loving parenthood he is six-months-old and full of love and laughter.
“I was lucky enough to be able to deliver him myself at Tweed Heads hospital such an amazing experience .The last few years have been really busy for us with the birth of our first son, building our first home and keeping my music going but we are finding balance which is the most important thing to us.”
Vote for Matty here: https://www.fallsfestival.com/byron-bay/foster-a-band/