About Me
Hi!
Welcome to my shiny new website, here’s a little back story
I was only 9 years old the first time I picked up a guitar. My tiny mind had just been completely blown away by a super cool young acoustic band, wearing Trilby hats and sunglasses (despite being indoors) who had come to perform at a showcase event one afternoon at St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary School in Belper. During the performance, one of the band members must have spotted the expression of sheer amazement on my face, so she later came over to say hello and taught me how to play a few basic chords on her acoustic guitar.
That day, I leapt off the school bus and came bounding up the driveway, begging and pleading with my mum and dad to let me start taking guitar lessons at school. It was probably the most excited they had ever seen me about anything in life at that point, so they deliberated for just a couple of minutes before accepting my frantic pleas. Later that afternoon, my dad disappeared into the loft, to later reemerge with a battered and dusty classical acoustic guitar that he had stowed away and forgotten about since the mid 1980’s. He told me that if I stuck to my lessons and kept practising then I could have it as my own, admitting that the only song he had managed to learn to play in his many years of ownership was ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ which he then attempted to perform for me, and failed. Needless to say, as the proud, provisional owner of my first ever acoustic guitar, I hit the roof.
That’s where my path in music began, little did mum and dad know, I would go on to spend the next several years torturing them with my relentless, fumbling interpretations of ‘Ode to Joy’ and ‘Frere Jaque’ which were pretty much the only two songs that were taught to me by my extremely Catholic primary school guitar teacher.
Taken from my first ever ‘promo shoot’ aged 14, complete with spiky haircut, probably inspired by the band ‘Busted’.
Fast forward to 2005, I was in secondary school now, with straightened, gelled and spiky hair, and a newfound obsession with rock, pop-punk and metal music. I began to take lessons with a new guitar teacher who had a much more modern and considerably less rigid approach to teaching. It didn’t take long before I managed to convince my dad that I desperately needed an electric guitar and an amplifier if I was to continue on the gradual upwards curve of my musical journey.
It was from this point on that I began to learn at an increasingly rapid pace, diving head first into every genre of music I came across. Every song that had a solid guitar based foundation, I wanted to learn how to play it. If I heard a new song on the radio that I liked, I would pick up the guitar and desperately try to work out the chords before it ended. My musical horizons and my understanding of music as a whole had broadened to the point where it was all I wanted to do, to me it felt like I had landed in a whole other world that was vast, unending and unexplored.
It was during my time at school that I made friends with other like minded kids who had the same unfettered passion for music. During our GCSE music technology lessons we would all convene in the rehearsal room and jam out our favourite songs together. It didn’t take long before I was invited by a good friend to join his band ‘The Fine Art Society’.
It was with TFAS that I eventually began to get the knack of singing whilst playing guitar, in fact, singing is probably a loose term, it was mainly shouting and screaming at the top of my voice so that I could hear myself over the deafening racket coming from our amplifiers and drums.
We played many shows with TFAS in our hometown of Derby, frequenting all the local dives, pubs and small venues such as The Victoria Inn on Midland Place and The Bless on Chapel Street, until we managed to scrape enough money between us to begin recording our first studio EP - For Old Times Sake. I found the process of recording our music exhilarating. It was the final step after what started as the birth of an idea for a song, spending countless hours practising, writing, experimenting, chopping and changing structures and verses. All of it leading to this moment, stood in a recording booth, in a grotty industrial estate with the red recording light flickering above us, ready to make rock history!
10 years on, and many single releases later, our band has been put on ice for the foreseeable future whilst we focus on various other projects (more on that later). We’re so proud to have toured across the UK and been fortunate enough to have played at some prestigious venues such as Manchester’s ‘Night and Day Cafe’, Rescue Rooms in Nottingham and The Half Moon in London just to name a few. You can still listen to all our music here.
The first, and only, time you’ll ever see me with hair this long.
It was during this time of writing and touring that I was working a variety of juxtaposing day jobs to keep the money coming in. My band mate Ben and I both worked at a job painting fences for a social housing company, I then went on to work for several years at a pallet yard, stacking and sorting wooden pallets all day. The time eventually came where I was made redundant from that job, but I was incredibly fortunate to have a boss who cared for my well being and went above and beyond by sending me off to be trained up as a fully qualified Class 1 and 2 HGV driver. He even put in a good word for me at a local haulage firm who hired me on the spot, it was an incredibly selfless gesture for which I am eternally grateful for.
It was during this time of working long hours as a HGV driver that myself and my long time band mate Ben had joined forces with another local duo called Scribble Victory, with the idea of putting together a 4 piece function band which would go through many different name changes but finally settling on ‘The Weekenders’. It was with The Weekenders that the gigs really started to roll in thick and fast and it didn’t take long before I reached a fork in the road as far as my work life was concerned. I was working 60 hours a week at the haulage firm and on top of that we would have all our weekends booked out with gigs, which needless to say was starting to take it’s toll. So I was faced with the choice, make the leap into the unknown and quit my job as a truck driver to pursue a career playing live music or stick with the safety and security of my current employment. It was after careful consideration and following the advice of my friends and family, that I opted to take the leap of faith and chose to pursue a career in music.
Since making that decision many years ago, I have never looked back. During my first year as a freelance musician I managed to perform at over 150 gigs and events in bars and restaurants all across the East Midlands. During my second year, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to expand my horizons by flying out to the beautiful island of Hvar in Croatia to perform at a wedding, it was an exhilarating experience that I will never forget.
Since then I have gone on to perform at countless weddings and events all across the UK and afar, in grand country estates, 12th century chapels and straw filled cattle barns. There is something truly magical about performing a couples wedding music, especially when playing their first dance or aisle walk song that holds a special and unique meaning to them, the moment never gets old and I always feel incredibly honoured to be a part of a couples special day.
But enough waffling from me. If you’ve made it this far down the page I’d like to say thank you so much for reading, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to consider me as a performer for your event.
With that being said, please feel free to get in touch with me to talk in depth about your wedding music, just tap the Contact button below. By booking with me you can be confident that your wedding entertainment will exceed all expectations, from a professional musician who is approachable, accommodating and committed to making your special day the best it can be.
Matthew Turner
P.S.
I mentioned earlier that we’ve decided to put our old band to bed for a while. The reason being, is that I’ve recently formed a new indie-folk band called Willow Bay. It’s super early days for us still, but we have somehow managed to write a song that has been picked up by BBC Introducing and has been spun on a few local radio shows already! I think you’ll really like our stuff, you can listen to us here
