Artifacts Bio Writings

I have known Josh Stark (Valentines bass player) for a long time. We used to play in a band called the Arch Enemies. Here's a photo of us playing at CBGB's in 1994. My guitar at the time was a Gretsch Astrojet that wouldn't stay in tune. Josh played an Ibanez Destroyer.

I've always enjoyed using my artistic hobby of collage for band Promo material.

This was a sticker design.

I like Orson Welles.

I recorded this song at home using a cassette

4-track and a reel to reel tape machine. I used a toy drum machine and a spatula for the rhythm
tracks. Josh Stark plays bass.

click on cassette to hear 'GoGo USA'

"My Favorite One" Matty Charles with Cynthia Hopkins; written by Cynthia Hopkins. We recorded this live onto a cassette 4-track in Chris Bonner's tiny Manhattan apartment. Chris plays drums. Josh Stark plays bass. Cynthia plays accordion and sings. I play guitar & sing. It was a real pleasure to work with cynthia. She's an amazingly talented singer/songwriter and I consider her band Gloria Deluxe one of my favorite New York bands.

click on cassette to hear 'My Favorite One'

All of the recordings that we made as the Arch Enemies were low fidelity of the cassette 4-track variety. It was very cheap and we didn't have any money. This was our theme song.

God bless Link Wray!

click on cassette to hear 'Arch Enemies Theme'

When I got to San Francisco it was hard to find people I wanted to play with. I saved my dough, bought a cassette 4-track and began recording songs all by myself. This tune was also Link Wray influenced.

click on cassette to hear 'Snake Charmer'

I met a guitar player/ songwriter by the name of Craig Means while tending bar and I gave him a cassette of some of my songs. We started playing together, then his sister Tami joined in on bass and Ruby Deluxe was born. We found a drummer named Craig Ingersol and we set to work getting gigs. We recorded a demo and then we split up. Here's our version of Cellophane Lights. I've also included one of Craig Means' songs called Your Mouth Is A Gun. He really liked Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf.

hear 'Cellophane Lights'

hear 'Your Mouth Is A Gun'

I returned to the making of 4-track recordings. My first official solo Release was a 45rpm record with Lonesome Lull and a cover of an old Fred Rose song called Waltz Of The Wind.

click on 45 to hear 'Waltz Of The Wind'

The next official Matty Charles release was another 45rpm record with Lucky Boy & A Love In Vain. My friend Noah Mackenzie played bass on Lucky Boy and recorded the song as well. I designed and silks screened the covers. By the time I had released the record I was back in New York City.

hear 'Lucky Boy'

hear 'A Love In Vain'

I played my guitar and sang songs on the subway platforms to make a little money while I looked for work. I was glad to be back in New York City. I got together with Josh and we started getting a set together. DJ Mendel came over to Josh's apartment to practice with us and Matty Charles & the Valentines were born.

I made this silk screen as a t-shirt design but it proved a little problematic in the printing stage and I opted for something a little less involved.

Matty Charles & the Valentines owe a debt of gratitude to Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn.

Juliana Nash who used to book the club gave us a residency that we kept for two years. The owner, Andy MacDowell has been very supportive and kind. And hats off to the lovely Stevie MacShane.

The newest show poster.

If you want to know where I’m from, all you need to do is listen to my music. I don’t hold well to the idea of mere geometrical placement but the land is one of long rains and low clouds, stolen from the past and lurching unsteadily towards the future. In fact, the place of my childhood no longer exists. It’s an old brick building that has since crumbled. It’s a framework upon which I hang my thoughts and my feelings but it’s impossible for you to see just as my own vision of it has grown dim and unreliable.

My haunts were junk stores, old movie theatres, used book stores, rooms containing boxes and bins of old records and the people who would hang around looking for something exceptional in those dusty catacombs. Most of it was garbage but occasionally the needle would slip into the groove and colorful flowers of music would grow right out of the speakers. The clock would stop and so would the rain and monotony would cease to exist for a while. Most of my life happened internally and this is how it’s always been. I was never interested in competing with my peers in the way of sports or classroom activity. I wanted only to learn how to make the things that I imagined.

I lacked the words to express myself and it probably would not have done much good had I known what to say. There is often nothing you can say by way of explanation. It’s as silly and futile as trying to justify the food that you eat to sustain yourself.

I taught myself to think in the form of verse. I would spend days going through piles of records as if in a dream that caused me to wonder at all the immense possibilities of a world in which one were not subject to the rules of conformity - a world ruled by a deeper sensibility.

I have spent my time in the pursuit of that deeper sensibility. I have searched all over and I have seen its shadow around many a corner. I have no confirmation of my seeking or it’s value. I do not care to register my words for authenticity or meaning; I am a man. I am old and I am young and will continue regardless.

Matty Charles has been a visible part of New York City’s indy-americana music scene for several years. He has maintained a long time residency at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, first with his trio, Matty Charles and the Valentines and more recently as a solo performer. Pete’s owner, Andy Macdowell says, “Few singers channel the American ballad in such a way as to bring a nostalgic form into a simple, modern state of mystery and beauty.”

The Collector