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ABOUT

Since beginnings busking the streets, malls and markets of hometown Melbourne to touring across the Country—singer/songwriter & guitarist Matt Katsis has continued to introduce his blues, roots and folk stirred sounds to audiences far and wide with gusto and merit for the past ten years.

Albeit the delicate folk ballad or foot stomping slide guitar down-home swagger, Katsis nods to the pioneering and enduring legacy of which these genres traditions relay yet embraces a distinctly modern sound mirrored across his songwriting, recording and live approach.

The seed was planted at age 9 when Matt started guitar lessons. Now over 2 decades on, with a live sound that parallels the percussive elements of 6 & 9-string acoustic-electrified guitars, stomp box & tambourine, festival performances at Kiama Jazz & Blues Festival, Echuca-Moama Winter Blues, Darker Days, Mornington Peninsula Blues Festival, Illawarra Folk Festival and many more has seen Matt join notable line-ups across the years with Australian music legends as well as memorable support shows with blues & roots aficionados, Jeff Lang and Backsliders (Dom Turner, Rob Hirst), all the while hitting the road for lengthy runs of interstate shows.

Following a short stint of shows in Oregon, USA, an opportunity that arose after been awarded Bruthen Blues Festival’s International Musician's Challenge in the Summer of 2014, Matt’s EP “The Burke & Wills Sessions”, received warm welcome in North America & Canada in 2016 when his version of J.J. Cale's' 'Call Me The Breeze '' featured on Apple Music’s 'The A-List: Blues' & 'Roadhouse Blues' Playlists. Sitting alongside Internationally acclaimed Blues artist's such as Joe Bonamassa & Bonnie Raitt, the track has since clocked up over half a million streams across all digital platforms.

His 2017 EP release As The River Runs & 2019 Live At The Wheaty (The Wheatsheaf, Adelaide) encompasses his distinctive fusion of folk, blues and roots while hinting at influences of alt. Country/Americana, largely inspired by his travels through North America’s West and the deep South in the years prior.

In harmony in the engineer’s seat, late-2021 saw the release of a retrospective studio album “Over The Horizon”, with Matt’s early guitar instrumentals paired with songs that have stood the test of time on the road recaptured through these recordings, some revisited and others recreated.

When speaking about “Over The Horizon”, Matt explains;

“This actually wasn’t the album I had planned to make! There was a full album’s worth of tracks I was working on through early lockdowns of 2020 and of those songs, not all but many I found were darker and others far more introspective in comparison. I guess it came as a response to all the sudden changes in the world, the shake up and all the things that came to be wrapped up in that.
During that time I was also revisiting some older recordings of mine - early instrumentals and tracks with my rhythm section bandmates from way back, which was where writing my own original music began. So I was chipping away at these past songs from home really enjoying the nostalgia of going back through and listening to the mixes but with no real plans. Before too long though inspiration struck and I was overdubbing guitars, backing vocals and playing drums, percussion, putting down bass lines and even mandolin on some of the more stripped back tracks and there it eventually was, 10 revisited tracks from sometime ago (plus a couple ambient interludes) that became ‘Over The Horizon’.
The process was a really positive one and kept me inspired through some personal and externally challenging times. It served as a great reminder in getting back to my roots, I feel the anchor in the history and the memories the songs conjure up and it helped me reflect on the things that drew me to guitar and music in the beginning. If not just for that reason alone, I can’t think of a better collection of songs for the album, even if it took a retrospective to land here.”

Anticipating his second full-length album “Transits” - singles’ “Bones” & “The Front Page” came as fresh sounds in 2021, a follow up to low-down holler, “Love & Gravity” (which featured on Spotify’s ‘Just Me & The Blues’ editorial playlist for several months in 2023), each recorded at his home in Central Victoria mid-2020.

The full-length second album “Transits” is out now.

| F E S T I V A L S P L A Y E D |

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Check out the 2017 mini-documentary/interview by RESFILMS | Matt Katsis - ‘A Brief Background’ as it takes a look back to where a life in music began — from early beginnings busking & gigging in Melbourne and an affinity to the acoustic guitar.

Also read Matt’s interview with Culture Mad Magazine, from August 2019 shortly following the release of ‘Live At The Wheaty’.

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1st Place | Queenscliff Music Festivals Favourite Busker, 2013 (VIC), Warracknabeal 'Y Fest' Favourite Busker, 2014 (VIC), Bruthen Blues Festival International Musicians Challenge , 2015 (USA Tour – Oregon)

Semi Finalist | Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society (MBAS) Blues Performer of the Year - solo/duo category, 2016 (VIC) , Byron Bay Bluesfest Busking Competition, 2016 (NSW)

Finalist | Perisher Peak Festival Upload, 2018 (NSW), Busker’s by the Creek Festival singer/songwriter showcase, 2018 (QLD), Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society (MBAS) Blues Performer of the Year - solo/duo category, 2018 & 2024 (VIC)

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