PLAYLIST: Matt's Influences

Hey everyone! We have our next instalment of our Ne Obluminati music club. After showcasing a playlist filled with some of James' many infl

Hey everyone! We have our next instalment of our Ne Obluminati music club.

After showcasing a playlist filled with some of James' many influences as a musician, this month we asked the same of Matt. In addition he has written a bit about each artist chosen and why they have been an important part of his journey as an artist.

Here's a message from Matt:
"Hey guys! Here is my playlist of influences. I have tried to assemble the list in a bit of a chronological order as best as I can. Some of the songs on the list I don't listen to or maybe not very often anymore but they are more like influential musical markers. First music, musical, wanting to start playing music, first song on guitar, concerts, jammed songs etc."

There are few questionable additions in there haha, hope you enjoy it

LISTEN HERE:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/32SRFvIcT1jnFNmOI31nEb?si=57a913718cef4c37

Michael Jackson - Thriller

• Michael Jackson is my earliest musical memory. My Aunt copied a cassette tape of the album for me in the mid-late 80's and lent me the making of Thriller VHS. I loved the music videos and the behind the scenes make up, choreography and extra snippets on the video. The opening werewolf scene was too scary for a long time and It irritated me that the album and the music video audio were different versions.  My brothers and I would put on dance plays trying to emulate the videos whenever my grandparents came over with their video camera. Some great home footage amongst all of that haha. 

Rocky Horror Picture Show - Sweet Transvestite

• Really hard to choose just 1 song from this soundtrack. The whole thing is great. I was very young (maybe 5yrs) when I was first exposed to RHPS. Probably a bit too young for the content but it went right over my head. Still love the movie and songs to this day. Fun fact - When I was little, I thought the chorus was 'sweet trans-bus driver'

The Troggs - Wild Thing

• This was the first song I was shown on guitar. A different Aunt came over to my house with her guitar when I was 13 or 14 and taught me 3 chords. Soon enough, I was able to play a whole song! Not long after this, I formed a band with other school mates just starting out and bought my very first guitar.

Nirvana - Come as you are

• My favourite band at the time and the first song I taught myself on guitar. I had downloaded some tabs off the internet (dial up) using my friend's computer in the late 90's. I didn't know how to read tabs but after trying to nut it out for a while I discovered that the numbers are the fret numbers and the strings are shown upside down. From there I quickly learnt other Nirvana songs like Sliver, School, About a girl and more.

The Offspring - Bad Habit

• This was the first song I had heard from the Smash record back in about 1995 and they were the first live band I ever saw. Festival Hall, Melbourne in 1997. One of my early bands covered the songs Come out and Play and Self Esteem 

Green Day - Longview

• I first discovered Green Day from an episode of Beavis and Butthead. I bought the Dookie album soon after and discovered a heap of other cool songs. We covered 3 or 4 songs from this record with my next band. 

Metallica - Blackened

• First exposure to Metallica was this song after hanging out with a new group of friends. It was so different and heavier than anything else that I was listening to at the time. That slow fade in, then BAM! I guess this was my proper introduction to Metal. Before that it was pop, rock and grunge. I immediately went and picked up a copy of And Justice for All and was opened up to the world of Metallica as I worked my way through the rest of their catalogue which quickly took over Nirvana as my favourite band.

Deicide - Once Upon the Cross

• Same crew introduced me to this. Deicide was I guess my gateway band to the world of death metal and heavier styles of music. Although it was probably more of a rebellious thing to start with. Being a satanic band and the fastest, heaviest and absurd thing that I had come across.

Segression - Fifth of the Fifth

• First Australian metal band that I was into and saw live. Saw the video for Fifth of the Fifth late one night on Headbanger's Ball and was amazed that an Australian band was on a music video show with all the other heavy weights like Slayer, Metallica and Pantera. I then had to go into the city and order the CD from an underground alternative/record store, Smoke Dreams. Went to an all ages show by myself when I was 14 at the Viper room in Dandenong, and discovered a few other bands that night that I thought were great including Frankenbok and The Wolves. 

Machine Head - Davidian

• Dropped tuning, harmonics, groove, LFG! It was around this time that I discovered dropped tuning and all of a sudden I was pretty much only using dropped D tuning.    

Sepultura - Refuse/Resist

• Joined a new band in 1997! We covered songs by Sepultura, Machine Head, Pantera and eventually on to other bands like RATM, Deftones, SOAD, Linkin Park, Soulfly but I think Sepultura/Soulfly were the biggest influences at the time. Napster was the thing a couple of years later which exploded my music catalogue. I could now just download bands that I had heard about but had no idea what they sounded like. If I didn't like it, it didn't matter.

Slipknot - (sic)

• Slipknot arrived on the scene in '99 and blew us all away. Nu metal was starting to dominate and Slipknot came out to Festival Hall, Melbourne in 2000. I went and as soon as Slipknot hit the stage the crowd erupted and I lost my shoe in the first song, sic! This whole album still gets played today and Slipknot is now one of my Daughter's favourite bands. 25 years later I got to catch them again but this time with my Daughter, earlier this year at Knotfest. 

Cradle of FIlth - The Forest Whispers my Name

• The drummer from my band at the time was starting to listen to more and more Black & Death metal but I hadn't quite caught on yet. Not really digging the vocals and blasting I guess. I was at a party (experimenting) and I was laying on the floor listening to the music. All of a sudden I was able to separate the instruments and clearly hear what was going on and it all clicked, paving the way for the likes of Dimmu Borgir, Emperor and Cannibal Corpse to enter my musical rotation. My drummer had joined a black metal band and shortly after he asked me to audition for it. Tried out and got the gig. We were writing originals but at the end of the day we were pretty much just a copy/paste of Cradle of Filth.

Dimmu Borgir - Kings of the Carnival Creation

• Nick Barker's drumming is what really grabbed me with this band to begin with. I had a copy of the World Misanthropy DVD and being able to see the drums being pulled off so effortlessly and precise was mind boggling. 

Meshuggah - Future Breed Machine

• The guitarist from my band made a mixtape for me in about 2003 and this was the first track on it. I knew that band name but not the name of the song or what album it was on. I went to the local record store and bought Chaosphere but it was the wrong album. I went back the following week and was looking at the Meshuggah CDs for a while before a staff member came up to me and asked if I needed help. I laughed and said I was looking for a song that goes, "eee, eee, eee, eee" like an alarm and without hesitation he said Destroy, Erase, Improve. I also bought the vinyl of Dimmu Borgir's - Death Cult Armageddon the same day.

Opeth - Deliverance

• I was introduced to Opeth by the NeO guys. It didn't grab me at first but by the time Ghost Reveries came out, I was an Opeth fan. It was also an obvious influence for NeO, especially in the early years. Opeth were a favourite band for a long time, I've seen them live 6 or so times. Deliverance was the first Opeth song that I ever tried to learn.

Strapping Young Lad - Wrong Side

• Some of my friends had listened to SYL and the Devin Townsend solo projects for years but I didn't really jump on the Devin train until The New Black. Now, Devin is one of my all time favourite artists. My wife and I danced our first dance to the DTP song 'Ih-Ah' at our wedding and were announced to Steve Vai's - Here & Now with Devvy on vocals. A few years later NeO was lucky enough to support DTP in Melbourne where the whole band signed a canvas of my wife and I on our wedding day.