The name of Matthew Garwood’s album is ‘Tattooed Tenor’ but it could easily be called Tasmanian tattooed tenor because Matthew is one of our own, and a pretty nice one of our own as I found out when I spoke to him recently.
Matthew caught and held our attention as a contestant on The Voice, almost as much for his unique appearance as for his commanding voice.
It’s testament to his powers that only Matthew and the winner of the competition were given contracts by Universal.
Matthew is an original, an illustrated man who finds his niche in the relatively conservative area of musical theatre.
Matthew is very proud of his West Tamar heritage and the vibrant arts culture that exists in his home state. He speaks highly of the educational opportunities, experience and chances for creativity that were given to him in Tassie.
His admiration is also in evidence for his experience of the journey on The Voice and how he was looked after, made to feel comfortable and at ease. He calls it ‘an incredibly positive opportunity’and the exposure garnered him gigs at the Wrest Point Casino, Melbourne Cup lunch with plans for little teaser gigs at the end of this year and perhaps next year a tour and getting back to Tassie to play in ’Evita’ in March.
Another area where Matthew is making an impact is doing talks at school assemblies emphasising being yourself and being comfortable in his skin. He is an advocate for not needing to conform.
With his dad a teacher at Prospect School Matthew is decidedly scholarly, in fact he was pursuing the possibilities of a career in business accounting and economics. What artistic flair Matthew may have brought to this fairly conservative career.
But business’ loss is show business’ gain and Matthew has plans too, for fashion modelling and his own clothing line.
Matthew’s debut album will showcase Broadway hits including fairly modern songs from‘Wicked’ and ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Love Never Dies’, even though, surprisingly Matthew is decidedly old school with a particular love for the gems of the late 40’s. ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ from ‘South Pacific’ as one of his favourite songs.
Matthew might just bring a new audience to musical theatre as he has discovered with the demographics on his Facebook page that reveal followers include 13 to 25 year olds.
Matthew’s album ‘The Tattooed Tenor’ is available now.
Paula Xiberras
