PHS grad at Wild Rose Moon
Sitting amongst shelves filled to capacity with CDS, Plymouth native Matt Scutchfield details his top music of 2020, which includes anything from Grammy nominated artists like Danny Barnes, to humble bluegrasser Larry Keel, to French saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave. The Berklee College of Music graduate has settled in Plymouth after a bout of serendipity (also known as the pandemic), and is now reimagining Plymouth’s Wild Rose Moon’s Open Mic series. The series will open in January, lighting up the screens of locals as well as possible viewers from around the state, nation, and world.
When sitting down with Matt, it not only becomes clear just how intelligent he is, but also how dedicated to his craft he is. Throughout this year’s quarantine season, Scutchfield has been diligently practicing his instruments (his favorites as of recent are guitar and banjo) and staying loose and knowledgeable of the music world. A recent endeavor that has helped propel that music world has been vlogging (video blogging) on his self titled Youtube channel, through a series titled “Music With Matt.” He’s found since exploring his career that he has a talent for introducing people to new music. “A music colleague told me ‘You really have a knack for music appreciation,’ and then another person and another and another. It made me realize that even if people can’t relate to my musical style or my composing, at least I can share what I love with others,” said Scutchfield.
One of the hardest parts of studying music is learning how to analyze music. This is not based on any skill level requirement, but rather how it changes the way music is heard. “When someone turns on a record and says, ‘Oh, isn’t that nice?’ In the past you’d say, ‘Yeah, that is nice,’ but after music school sit there and deconstruct it. You realize you didn’t enjoy it, you were just analyzing it as you were taught to do in class,” confessed Scutchfield. However, he’s found that through doing his Youtube series and rediscovering music after academia, he has found a new passion and a simpler love for the art.
During his time at Berklee, Scutchfield had an experience similar to anyone’s college
experience, at least at a baseline level. However, Scutchfield has greatly benefited from the prestige of Berklee’s name, especially in a networking sense. The music industry is all about who you know and what you do with those contacts. In fact, once live performance is cleared to resume, Scutchfield has a long list of musicians he’s met through college and on his travels that he would love to bring to Plymouth.
Now being post-graduation for three years, Scutchfield finds that aside from the networking, Berklee really gave him an understanding of how to make work for himself. The music industry, like many art fields, is known for not being something an artist can entirely rely on. Berklee taught Scutchfield how to make himself flexible. “They were really good about teaching you a sampling of everything related to music–– literally everything––so that way if what you’re doing crashes at some point, you can save yourself. The last thing they want you to say is, ‘Well, I’m working at the coffee shop because I couldn’t do anything in music.’” They gave him a skillset to ensure his career in music, even if it isn’t headlining a world tour.
In working with the Wild Rose Moon, Scutchfield is fulfilling his lifelong passion - he hopes to bring artists that he knows from around the world to Plymouth. “Whatever I can do for the rest of my life to introduce people to new music, to bring new audiences to new things [is well worth it].”
Scutchfield came to the Wild Rose Moon similarly to many other Moon volunteers and proponents; He had heard of it and spent some time watching from afar before finally taking the leap and introducing himself. “When I was growing up here, there wasn’t anything like the Wild Rose Moon.
There was no outlet for creative expression through music. I think the community really suffered from that for many years. People need the chance to go out and hear music if they don’t play or go out and play music if they do,” said Scutchfield. He’s grateful for the new opportunity as well as the creative freedom the Wild Rose Moon has given him. “This is an unusual place, and I love it,” said Scutchfield. “I just have never seen a group of people so willing to try something new. They are the quickest group in the world to say yes to something!” The virtual open mic is the first of many projects he hopes to be involved with, and looks forward to playing an active role in the development of Wild Rose Moon’s new streaming/switching facility which will allow for 4 camera production on each of the Moon’s sound stages. “The prospect of producing live ticketed webcasts from our stages really opens up our venues to some tremendous regional, national, and international talent.”
The Open Mic series will return in January on the 13th via the live streaming service known as Streamyard. It will be available to watch on the Youtube page titled “Wild Rose Moon Media.” Moon favorites Cyndi Boener and Ryan Mear are also contributing to the production and success of the virtual open mic series. The virtual version of the open mic is slated to run the second Wednesday of every month, from 7-9:30 p.m. The open mics will continue once a month until the in-person open mic can safely resume. Additional dates may be added if needed. Details on how to participate in the open mic are on the Wild Rose Moon website, wildrosemoon.com, as well as on the Wild Rose Moon Facebook page.