Matt Charles is old school – no fads, no fashion.

The Tasmanian-bor… Read Full Bio ↴Matt Charles is old school – no fads, no fashion.

The Tasmanian-born singer songwriter’s debut album, Java Tsunami, chases down a classic rock sound that’s fueled with honest and achingly powerful songs.

Steeped in the rock sensibility of his musical heroes, the album’s lean and tight arrangements add weight and depth to Charles’ writing, while inspired playing from lead guitarist Andrew Gatenby adds just the right amount of muscle.

The band rocks; all are old friends, they’re having a good time and it shows. They help make songs like Sacred Heart gleam and shimmer, while Ashes, with its seductive rhythm and understated melody twists around the lyrics to help draw out the song’s dark truth.

For Charles, writing the album and arranging it with a band was a chance to ‘stir the pot’ and see how the songs came out.

“I love trying to distil a musical idea to capture that intangible quality you could call life,” he says. “And the band blew me away with their power in helping me reach that.

But, he says, an equally vital ingredient to his songwriting is the audience itself.

“I want them to meet me half way,” he says. “We’re all on the same journey here; and we all have similar hopes and dreams, so when people listen to my music I hope there’s something there everyone can identify with and carry with them.

“When I recorded Java I saw the songs as something to be left for others to read down the road. If you come across them it’ll give you a window into what I was feeling at the time...a little bit anyway.

“Kind of like a tombstone,” he adds wryly.

Java Tsunami is music that’s honest and clear, in the way that neither the music nor the lyric gets in the way of the other. Its themes are universal, and tips its hat to the tradition of folk and blues, where life, love and loss strikes the chord in each of us, regardless of what musical fashion dictates.

As something of a ‘true believer’ in the folk and blues idiom, Charles has taken to wandering.

From home town Hobart in Australia’s south, through the majesty of northern Australia and down to the port town of Fremantle on the west coast, he now finds himself in Hamburg Germany drawn by the town’s rich musical heritage, not least being its connection to The Beatles.

“The fact that I can walk these streets and hear the ghost of music past is a real inspiration for me,” he enthuses.

“I’m drawn to port towns. Hamburg, Hobart and Fremantle, they’re all working ports, and I’m right at home here.”

“With Java there’s not a word that I haven’t twisted round or questioned its existence”, he says laughing.

“And being quite away from home gives me the distance to look at those songs in a new light. I’m really enjoying playing them live and acoustic’” he says.

“It’s taking them back to their beginning, and to me that’s about uncovering their essence. I still feel like I’m discovering something new in them each time I play.”

Charles has a bunch of new tunes he’s added to his live set, and is happy to say they’re being well received by his audience. He’s laid some of them down at Red Planet Recording in Hobart and you can hear them at his myspace site (www.myspace.com/mattjcharles).

In the meantime, Java Tsunami is a rich seam of light and shade, a song set that is uplifting and hopeful, dark and truthful. It’s a conversation Charles invites you to join – come in and sit down for a while.

[Rob McGlynn – Freelance Journalist]