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From The Mind Of Adi #41: Matt Ragland’s (Nelo) Firsts
Firsts: Sh*te that happened before other sh*te happened.
Today: Matt Ragland’s Firsts! This time, we examine what inspired Matt Ragland from Nelo. Catch Nelo’s poignant folk-pop ditties at La Zona Rosa next Thursday; the show is a release party for their latest EP Two Years Ago.
- 1st favorite song: "I Just Called To Say I Love You" - Stevie Wonder. I wanted to be able to sing like that so bad... When you're a little kid, you can kind of trick yourself into thinking that you can. I did my best!
- 1st favorite musician or band: Michael Jackson.... yep.... I could moonwalk and grab myself at the same time. Seriously though... Go back and listen to his late 80's early 90's records. He's a bad ass... Truly the King of Pop... Weird... yes.... But still the King.
- 1st vinyl purchased: Never bought vinyl... too young I guess. My parents had records and a record player when I was growing up though. We'd have Motown dance parties on Sunday nights. My mom was a good dancer. She taught me how to dance. My dad would just stand there and make fun of everyone. I loved dancing when I was a kid... Now I just stand there and make fun of everyone. Funny how that works...
- 1st cassette tape purchased: The Beach Boys - Endless Summer... It was a compilation album... I used to fantasize about what the "surfer girl" looked like... Actually, I still do whenever I hear that song. Sandy blonde hair, about 5'9", moderately dark tan, a little bit of sand always stuck to her skin... Is this creepy? I'll stop, but know that I could go on...
- 1st concert attended: George Strait with my parents on New Years Eve in Dallas when I was a kid... I put my jeans and boots on and was pissed that I didn't have a cowboy hat. I remember being really young and wanting to "look the part." My parents were huge fans.... I was too at the time... I called the first song he played.... George Strait has like 15 million songs and 1 million hits, so it was pretty crazy at the time.
- 1st CD purchased: Eric Clapton - Unplugged.... I bought it wanting to hear "Tears In Heaven" but fell in love with the song "Running on Faith".... I still listen to that song today as much as I did then. Listen to the way he sings the lyric "Then we'd go running on faith" ... It almost sounds like he says "Then we'd go drowning on faith". You can hear it both ways. I think this was his first show to play or record after he lost his son.
- 1st album downloaded: Keane - Under the Iron Sea... released in May of 2006... I jumped on the download thing very late... I was stubborn... I wanted CDs with the liner notes and stuff. I liked having something physical in my hand that visually represented the music. It made buying an album more of an experience. Finally, when I started the band and got broke, I realized it was just cheaper to download records... I'm still resentful! I used to pride myself on the fact that I was one of the last of the young generation that didn't download!
- 1st personal band: Nelo... hopefully my last too!
- 1st recording: Myself and a high school friend on my sister's Karaoke machine... The thing had two inputs and recorded to cassette tape. You can't even comprehend how bad it sounded. I had been playing the guitar for about a month and a half at the time. I remember listening back to it and just laughing. I knew how bad it was, but then, when my friend left, I put it in a special place. I was secretly proud of it. The three chords that we were playing over and over (seriously... for like 20 minutes) ended up being the chorus chords to "On Top of Love"... the very first Nelo song I wrote.
- 1st live performance: High School Battle of the Bands 99'. There is a video of this somewhere... Three of the five guys playing are in Nelo today. We weren't a real band, but we ended up winning the competition. It was ridiculous. I was the lead singer to put that into perspective. I guess I was always just a song-writer... Man I wanted to sing though! After the "show", an older girl came up to me and said "what's up 'lead singer?'", in a sexy sort of suggestive way... I decided I'd keep it at songwriting from that point on. I don't like people liking me for the wrong reasons. The best part of being a song-writer who wishes he could sing is that when I write, I can close my eyes and draw upon any great voice that I want. What I mean is that if you ignore the sound of your voice and focus on the words and melody intently as you write, you can become Peter Gabriel in an instant!
- 1st national (or international) tour: Summer 07'----We lived in Athens, GA at the time... Here was our tour : Athens, GA to Muscle Shoals, AL to Florence, AL to Dallas, TX to Ft Worth, TX to Austin, TX and then back home because we were out of money! It will always go down as one of our favorite "tours" (if you could call it that). We played our asses off during those shows. I'm sure we sounded horrible, but you wouldn't have known it if you were there. We were going nuts... These were our first times to play as a real band in our hometowns. It was crazy.
- 1st "something" I didn't ask you about: 1st complete Nelo song I ever wrote: "On Top of Love"... wrote it a few days after graduating from high school. I had been dating someone for a month at the time... My first girlfriend.. Pathetic, I know...
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Past Firsts:
- Adi’s Firsts
- James Petralli’s (White Denim) Firsts
- Chris Rose’s (Car Stereo (Wars)) Firsts
- JP’s (Built By Snow) Firsts
- Lauren Larson’s (Ume) Firsts
- John Farmer’s (What Made Milwaukee Famous) Firsts
- Martín Perna’s (Ocote Soul Sounds) Firsts
- Adrian Quesada’s (Grupo Fantasma, Brownout!, Ocote Soul Sounds) Firsts
- Marcos Cabral and Jacques Renault’s (Runaway) Firsts
- Ben and Jeff Brown’s (No Show Ponies) Firsts
- Jeramy Neugent’s (Learning Secrets) Firsts
- James Moody’s (The Mohawk) Firsts
- Nancy Whang’s (LCD Soundsystem, The Juan MacLean) Firsts
- Jen Rea’s (Team Fabrication) Firsts
- Richard Henry’s Firsts