Our third visit to the land of The Stow leads us to meet Matt Money, web-design wonderboy, talented guitarist and one fifth our our new favourite band.
The 23 year-old musician comes from Lowestoft, Suffolk, probably most famous for giving us that great British band The Darkness… but don’t let that put you off – there are no unnaturally high falsettos, or ridiculously ugly costumes here, just genuine talent from a guy who is brief with his words, but big with his creativity.
Matt comes from a musical family and took an interest in music, as all good musicians do, quite young. He says, “I first played guitar when I was about five, my dad played bass and brother played drums so I had music all around me. I had lessons at school, went on to have private tuition, then studied classical music at college and pop music at uni.”
He joined his first band at school, and was even invited to play at the Jazz Café with his band at the time, Kadence. Deciding to move to London to pursue music more, he got involved with The Stow. “I was advertising on Gumtree as an available guitarist and Haydn got in touch saying he wanted to start a band.” Then with the addition of Shi, Dave and Gus, they formed a group who went on tour with VV Brown and played at Glastonbury 2010.
A self-confessed fan of soul music, Matt thinks “everything you hear influences you, whether you like it or not” and after a quick check of his Spotify, gives us a list of some of his favourite artists at the moment.
“Alicia Keys, John Legend (These big artists always have wicked bands on their live albums, very inspirational) Jessie J, Adele and Maxwell to name a few”.
Oustide of music, he has had several “boring jobs to pay the bills” including bar work and being a window fitter and is also currently works as a web designer alongside gigging with the band. You can check out some of his work here mattmoney.co.uk (he promises its great value!). When it comes to why The Stow are so unique as a band, and why they are proving to be so popular, he seems to hit the nail on the head when he says, “I think we’ve got a mix of the indie band, hip-hop rapper and soul singer which hopefully appeals to a wider audience, something for everyone!”
Stay tuned for the other members of The Stow everyday this week. For gig information check out thestowonline.co.uk
Photo courtesy of www.Mariskeva.com
