The last time we chatted to Matt O’Connor he was working on recovering a lost Matt 7 album by Andy Panik of The Abusers and himself. We catch up for an update and to talk about his latest album.
It’s been a few years since our last chat, did Stuart ever salvage any of the songs he was looking for?
Well first some bad news about Stuart. He did a hard search of all his drives and there are no more Matt 7 songs, so we only have the Outside View cover by Eater there. At least the original author/artist said we did a good job! That’s huge! We’ll never forget it!
You’ve brought out an album in the meantime, more about that soon. What else have you been doing in that time?
For what I’ve been doing, I’ve been busting my ass off at forming a new band here in Memphis Tennessee and now we’ve got one! We are Matty O’ and The Southern Chapter of The Ghosts of the Insane Band! (That’s way too long to fit on a marquee, so there we’ll be just listed as Matty O’ but I will introduce the band every time)
The new album, is this an album of new original material or have you thrown any covers into the mix?
This new album is all originals! It’s a homemade album that took us five years to make! We’re very proud of it and It’s called Matty O’, The Ghosts of the Insane!
I’ve seen a lot of collaborations lately, are there any surprises on the album, given your connections?
There is one surprise track with a story! It’s called The Rolling Stone! It’s a song of celebration of The Legacy of Keith Richards! What’s so surprising is through a miracle of Hollywood Magic, Keith Himself got the first demo copy handed to him in 2018 when we started making the album and he wrote me two letters about it, the last being a Thank You Letter! They are kept hidden in my house because they are my most prized possessions! I’m gonna attach the pictures of them here so your readers can see them! I’m the only person he ever wrote a thank you note to for writing and recording a song about him! Just that alone is enough to be proud of my whole life!
Collaborating on the album We have a singer named Gypsy Barrett on background vocals on The Rolling Stone, and we have Opera Soprano Sarah Moore on background vocals on the title track, The Ghosts of the Insane!
My friend Edwin Galan played bass on all the songs except for R.I.P. Dio, Tony played the bass on that.
Also, my producer of the album, “Tony The Tone Lord” of Aurora Audio UK stole Lars Ulrich’s drums from Metallica’s cover of Helpless by Diamond Head and modified them a little to fit the song, so in a strange, computerized way we collaborated with Lars Ulrich of Metallica and he’s the drummer of that song! Thanks a lot Lars wherever you are!
One thing I have to add though, Tony the Tone Lord (we have to keep his last name secret because he had/has an evil crazy stalker!) Passed Away last year shortly after we finished the album! He was a 20-year Metal Music Brother I found on the Metallica Message Board/Forum, and he helped me craft my much-improved new guitar sound! I owe him my life for every piece of guitar and amp and pedal gear I have. 2 of those pedals are custom one-of-a-kind pedals,
The Girth Control Pedal (which is a combination of an Ibanez Tube Screamer and an amp footswitch all in one pedal! He invented that! It’s the only one of those in the world! The other Aurora Audio pedal he gave me is The Focal Point graphic equalizer. It’s based on Mesa Boogie’s EQ but it’s better than that, it’s the most exact EQ ever!
He was only 38 years old! diabetes got him. Rest in Peace and Pride Tony, you will never be forgotten. It is my highest hope and prayer that I’ll see him and everyone else I lost in Heaven, God willing, when I die.
As many of the punk stalwarts are now getting older, are there any that you hope to still work with while they’re still alive? And any that you wish you could have worked with now that they’re gone.
Well I would be honored to do anything with Henry Rollins, or Joeseph Genaro of The Dead Milkmen because I’m a huge fan of that band. As for those that are gone I really wish I could’ve met Joey Ramone. I just saw the Auditioning Horndogs segment from The Drew Carey show and he was magnificent in that!
Matt O’Connor can be found at:
https://mattyo.bandcamp.com/ on BandCamp
https://www.rocki.app/account (listed as Matty_O)
http://www.reverbnation.com/mattyo7 on Reverbnation
Interview by Mark Bestford