"Years of playing in bands have

Matthew Fogle on the Brink"

The Kentucky Standard

Story by: Brian Walker

There was just something special in the way The Beatles performed during appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s. Those times are cited by unknown masses musicians as the reason they decided to pick up a guitar and start a rock band.

At only 24, Matthew Fogle, Bardstown, was more than a decade away from being born when the band splintered. He was far too young to have seen The Beatles as much more than a historical footnote. That is, Fogle said, until a fateful marathon of TV viewing changed his life forever. "It was 1996 and the ABC network broadcast The Beatles Anthology series for like a week," Fogle said. "I just fell in love with rock music and that band. I started writing songs immediately and didn't even own or play an instrument yet." He sat down with a cassette recorder and began to hum and sing melodies and lyrics with no musical backing. More than 20 songs were born during those first stabs at making tunes. Later he got a guitar and began learning in earnest.

Fast-forward 10 years and Fogle is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and recording artist. He toiled for years in various bands throughout the region. His most recent, Bad Stratus, disbanded during the last part of 2006.  While music is his passion, Fogle said he felt it important to get an education. He graduated from Nelson County High School in 2000, St. Catharine College in 2002 and was Magna Cum Laude in his 2004 class at Bellarmine University. He works at his parents' Bardstown-based radio station, WBRT, while pushing his new work as a solo artist. The impetus for getting out on his own for the first time was a combination of things, Fogle said.

When Bad Stratus stopped performing, Fogle was unsure what to do next musically. He could have started another group and played the local scene again, doing mostly cover-tunes, but that wasn't for him. Fogle came close to moving to New York City to join a friend's band as lead guitarist. In the end that didn't really seem like the best choice either, Fogle said.

"By then it was the end of December and I had just written a new song that I was really psyched about," he said. "I recorded it and was listening to it on New Year's Eve and decided I had to move on with a whole CD." Before he'd even gotten very far into the process, Fogle booked a CD release party at Bardstown restaurant/music spot Jazzy's. Then with the deadline looming five weeks away and only one song completed, he got to work. "I hooked up with my friend Ryan Raikes at his brainchild 62 Studios in town here and we plowed through it," Fogle said. "It was hundreds of hours recording, arranging and everything else to get it just the way I wanted."

On the CD Fogle decided to sing everything himself even though prior to that he was mainly known for his guitar work, not vocals. He said since the songs are very personal, he was compelled to be the voice people heard. To fill out the songs he was backed by Matthew Barnett on drums and Raikes on bass guitar and keyboards. The two still play with him at most shows, an arrangement he said works well.

"I was finally able to get my thoughts  from the past 10 years recorded," Fogle said. "I think it turned out well." The title of the project and group are "Matthew Fogle: On The Brink" Instead of opting for something a bit more obvious such as The Matthew Fogle Band (or group, trio, experience, project, etc, he said).

"I don't like to do the obvious," Fogle said. "I want to do things a bit differently than even I have in the past." For example, instead of playing mostly in bars with a dance floor, he is booking shows in locations that are more focused on the music itself. He doesn't mean any disrespect or have a problem with other venues, he just feels the current way he is playing lends itself to a more intuitive crowd that wants to hear original music.

Fogle said his guitar playing and approach to the songwriting process has matured with time, but even some of his earliest songs still have a level of depth to them since they are tied to emotions and are often uplifting. "They aren't specifically religious in nature, but they are very inspirational, I think," he said. "I have a great admiration for bands in the vein of Collective Soul and Live." With those bands as inspiration, Fogle said the songs on the CD have "an epic or anthem" feel. Several run in the six and seven-minute range.

"I like to call my sound neo-classic anthem radio rock," he said. "The songs are about bigger things. You won't find me singing about ice cream cones or pickups. There's nothing wrong with that style, it's just not me." Until a big break comes to take him away from the radio station and Bardstown, Fogle said he plans on keeping the project in the eye of the public with interesting promotions.

"I'm not joking here, there is a good chance that you'll see me doing a tour of Laundromats," he said. "I've never heard of that being done before and you'd have a built-in captive audience."