Lockdown hasn't turned the volume down on former Shepparton musician Joe Matera — he has two new musical releases in the pipeline.
The first, a collaboration with Martin Cilia of The Atlantics and Mental As Anything, has produced two new guitar instrumentals which they have co-written and recorded.
Sydney-based Cilia said he first met Matera when on tour with the 1970s Aussie new wave band Mental As Anything.
“Occasionally when we played in Melbourne, Joe was the opening act. I had seen his name as an author and music journalist, and it turned out he's a huge Shadows fan. Just like me, Joe loves the rhythm guitar work of the great Bruce Welch,” Cilia said.
Matera said when COVID-19 made live performance impossible, he sent Cilia some demos of music he was working on.
“He really loved what he heard, so we fleshed out the ideas further into songs. We then recorded our parts in our own respective studios, adding our own shared influences,” Matera said.
He said the two songs, Sunday Island and St Kilda Bay, echoed the duo's love of classic guitar instrumental groups of the 60s "infused with a high dose of melody and surf-inspired feel-good grooves".
The songs were released on YouTube and digital streaming platforms last week, with the surf-inspired St Kilda Bay selected by Guitar World magazine as one if its Top Tracks of the Week.
Matera, who was born in Kyabram, played regularly around Shepparton and Mooroopna during the 1980s and 90s before moving to Melbourne to pursue his musical career.
He has released five albums and three EPs through European labels and toured regularly across Europe.
His latest single, the melodic guitar-driven Only One, recorded in Australia and Sweden, is due to be released on October 2 through Mercury Fire Music. It will be available on all digital outlets and streaming platforms.