by Tammy Peacy
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Tammy: Are you from Kenosha?
Matt: Not really. I was born in Indiana. And lived in Iowa and Missouri and moved up here right before the fifth grade, in 1985.
T: Oh, so you’ve been here for (not wanting to do simple arithmetic in her head)… a while.
M: Most of my life. After I graduated from high school I lived in Racine, I lived in Waukegan for a little bit. And I was in a band and we were on tour so I lived in Minneapolis for a little while, but other than that, mostly Kenosha.
T: Alright. Were the arts a part of your upbringing? Is that kind of how you got into it?
M: Not really. I studied classical piano when I was a kid and that was the bulk of it. When I was a little kid I got a transistor radio from my grandpa, I would fall asleep with it under my pillow. That kind of turned me on to popular music as opposed to classical music. In junior high I started writing music. I remember writing a lot when I was a kid. Writing stories. My parents didn’t have much to do with it, aside from using piano lessons as punishment.
T: You’re a visual artist, a performing artist, music, acting. Which of those would you say you liked best?
M: I think my favorite times have been with a rock band on stage. I think everybody searches for moments when they’re mostly themselves, when they are themselves at their purest.I think that when I play in a band, almost every show there was a moment where, you know, sometimes it lasted longer, sometimes it was a whole show, sometimes it was just a moment, where everything else was forgotten. It wasn’t about a rock star or the people or the gig or whatever. It was just you on stage with a guitar and you’re jumping around and you forget everything. It was just me. Being able to share that with some other people on stage, those are the best moments.
Painting you kind of teach yourself to be yourself by yourself and then you get to share it with people later on. And writing is the same thing; it’s just you and a pen. Acting is a totally different thing because you’re somebody else. It’s still a challenge to be some body else, to let yourself go and not just be Matt on stage.
T: What’s the show you’re in now?
M: “King of the Moon.”
T: How long is that running?
M: The 11th is the last day.
T: Oh, okay. It’ll be over before this posts on Monday.
M: Yeah, that’s a bummer, too, because this is the hardest part I’ve ever done. It’s such a challenge. I was in “The Music Man” a couple of years ago. I was Harold Hill and he’s basically a rock star, you know what I mean? So, showing up for that was fairly easy, remember your lines, remember your dance moves and it was easy. And this is really hard. Every day is a challenge.
T: What’s more difficult about this? I’m not familiar with “King of the Moon.”
M: It follows a Polish Catholic family in 1969 and I play a guy that’s going off to war, hence the hair cut (runs his palm over his buzz cut). And my brother is home from seminary and he’s just participated in an anti-war demonstration. To be able to put myself in a situation where I have a pregnant wife and I’m going off to war, to experience those things internally, I’ve never experienced those things before. The guy goes through a huge range of emotion. He’s upset with his brother, he’s scared about leaving but he believes in what he’s going for. He goes through this huge arc. For me it’s hard to do that.
T: You have a show coming up at 716?
M: November 16th is the opening reception.
T: Tell me about that show. You have a few paintings there now…
M: Yeah, I have two pieces there and they’re two of my favorite pieces. Dave (Geisler)’s really nice. I can’t wait for it. It’s a really beautiful space and not only is it a beautiful space, Dave knows how to create an environment where people feel comfortable and feel free to express themselves. You know, with the open mics and the art shows and stuff. He’s been so accommodating. He’s been great. Which is good because I’ve never done an art show before, so I have no idea what to expect. You do a theater show or a rock show and you know what to expect and by now I’ve gone through a ton of the different things that can happen, good or bad. And so I know how to handle that.
T: How many pieces will you be showing?
M: I’m not sure yet. What I’m most excited about is that there’s going to be a lot of new stuff. I’m gonna have some ink and paper pieces. I learned a technique from an artist friend of mine in Racine where you take a bamboo stick and you dip it in ink. It’s very fast. I’m gonna have at least four, but maybe six or seven of those pieces. Which is unusual for people who have been around my work a little bit they know I build my own canvases and paint on canvases, so having six ink pieces is going to be exciting. Then I have two or three other paintings that nobody has seen before. I mean, literally, no body has seen before. So I’m really excited to get them out in front of people.
I’m working on a book of poetry. I took a book binding class from Lisa Bigalke and so all over my house right now I’ve got these papers spread every where because I got the poems printed and then I’m block printing, ink printing on little images onto the pages.
I’m working on a book of poetry. I took a book binding class from Lisa Bigalke and so all over my house right now I’ve got these papers spread every where because I got the poems printed and then I’m block printing, ink printing on little images onto the pages.
T: That’s neat. How many of those are you going to do?
M: Well, as many as I can do between now and then. I don’t even have one finished yet. They’re going to be at the show. And I’m also going to have them available (at other places). I talked to Chet, at ArtWorks, he’s gonna put them up there. Honestly, that’s one of the things I’m most excited about, because like I said I’ve been writing since I was a little kid and I remember starting to write poems like in junior high, before I even wrote music. A lot of my creative process has been figuring stuff out by myself, trying to go find out about stuff and learn about stuff. It wasn’t until the last six or seven years that I realized that poetry could be as cool as it is. You learn poetry in high school poetry class and it’s all like, “Roses are red” you know, iambic pentameter and all that stuff. So I had all these writings, and I keep a journal, so I had all these writings that never made it into a song. Then I heard about, and this is going to sound funny, I heard about Charles Bukowski from a Jon Bon Jovi song.
T [incredulous]: Which song?
M: It’s off his second solo album. The first one was the Young Guns thing and the second solo album is called Destination Anywhere. It’s actually a cool little artsy album. It’s still Jon Bon Jovi, but it’s really interesting. He said something in a line about Bukowski poems that he couldn’t live without. So I started reading him and it blew my mind. And then it’s like, Wait a minute, this can be poetry? It doesn’t have to be metered and rhymed and all this stuff. This was right around 2000, somewhere in there. I started going back to my journals and I started putting together a book of poems. But this was the time my band was starting to get serious. Right when I had a book put together and I was about to start sending it out to people and trying to take this next step, the band got signed. And we went on tour.
While we were on tour is when I discovered painting. We didn’t have anything to do during the day so I started painting. When we got back off the tour I was throwing myself into painting and looking at paintings and reading about it, doing all this stuff. The band broke up in 2004 and the beginning of 2006 is when I started showing my art. Then I took that book making class.
While we were on tour is when I discovered painting. We didn’t have anything to do during the day so I started painting. When we got back off the tour I was throwing myself into painting and looking at paintings and reading about it, doing all this stuff. The band broke up in 2004 and the beginning of 2006 is when I started showing my art. Then I took that book making class.
T: What was the name of the band that you were in?
M: We were called the Other Side for a long time and then when we got signed, the Other Side, as cool as it is, was copyrighted and trademarked. Long story short it was too common. So we decided to go for something completely unique so we changed the name to Rainy Day Crush.
T: Are you with a band now?
M: Sadly, no. I still write music.
T: So what’s your opinion about the arts in Kenosha?
M: I don’t know how qualified I am to talk about it for one thing. Kenosha has always, seemed to be to me, especially being in a rock band, especially a band that refused to do cover music, Kenosha seemed to be a hard place to be creative in. Because, like it or not, Kenosha holds the world record for most bars per person in the world, you know what I mean? So I think there is a blue collar mentality here that isn’t bad at all, it’s just what it is. So being somebody who really tries to get out and find new stuff and weird stuff and cool unheard of bands, the Kenosha rock station 95.1 plays the worst music. It’s almost like they do it on purpose. But you walk into a front office in Kenosha or you go to a worksite in Kenosha and 95.1 is playing. It’s an unusual situation for an artist to be in. I think the interest is definitely here. I think there are some fantastically creative people in Kenosha, I think there are people in Kenosha that thirst for creativity. They go out and try to find it. The evidence of that is in the things that are going on right now. Like Expose Kenosha, AHA! and other things that people are trying to get going to bridge the gap between people who do it and the people who want it. It just seems to be kind of a hell of a gap.
Matt Specht you have been “Exposed”
Matt Specht also writes a monthly music column for Action Magazine
You can contact Matt at matt@jumpymatt.com
Visit his website at www.jumpymatt.com, or go to his myspace page
Tammy Peacy finds time to write between loads of laundry in the basement of the home she shares with her husband, Steve, and their three children. Her writing has been published in AntiMuse, Chick Flicks Ezine, The Write Side Up, and Wanderings Magazine, and ExposeKenosha.com
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9 comments ↓
Matt It is so nice to read your story, Matt is such a good writer and artists, it is so much fun watching him create a picture. Everyone should attend his show on the 16th of Nov. He is a man of many talents. Good Luck Matt. xo CJG
Good interview. Matt has a unique artistic voice, and it’s our responsibility to encourage those individuals who have one! Keep doing what your doing Matt!
Good luck on the 16th!
I look forward to seeing more from you, Matt. You’ve always got something interesting up your sleeve.
Good luck with your show.
Chet, you are right on! Matt is a renaissance person who needs exposure beyond Kenosha. It is our responsibility to encourage him…and others. Good job, Matt. I’m looking forward to your show. By the way, if you missed “King o’ the Moon,” you missed a first rate production. Thanks, Matt.
What do you mean “aside from using piano lessons as punishment.”????? I thought it was pure pleasure — a reward in fact. Okay — enough! I love you!
Great article Matt!! You are a man of many talents :)
Keep up the good work…I’m glad I have one of your paintings..I feel so lucky :)
Great piece Matt! You certainly are a busy man!!! That’s great! I loved that you heard about Bukowski from a Bon Jovi song! LOL! I learned about Aldous Huxley from a Sheryl Crow song! ;)
I am really going to try hard to make the opening of your show, it will be nice to see you! But if I don’t I will see the show another day. I loved your Moms note! Your comments about the Kenosha scene are right on.
Great interview! Matt’s work is amazing–both as a performer and as an artist. I often find myself drawn to his work. I’m truly looking forward to attending his show at 716. I know I won’t be disappointed. Best wishes to you!
Matt is an amazing artist. I wasn’t lucky enough to see his solo (being that I’m in Phoenix) but I heard rave reviews. I’m still in awe of a collaborative effort I saw at Lemon Street. Really moving.
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