OXFORD – Chenango County native Matt Nakoa will bring his unique brand of melodic folk rock to Six on the Square in Oxford on March 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Matt Nakoa grew up in various locations around Chenango County. His childhood was spent on a goat farm in Smyrna and he ultimately ended up going to high school and graduating from Sherburne-Earlville in 2002.
Nakoa discovered his love for music at an early age. He shared a story of a childhood Christmas when he first realized the power of music. He reminisced about his entire family being gathered for a Christmas celebration at the goat farm in Smyrna. He remembers everyone singing Christmas carols. “Even people who never sing were singing,” said Nakoa. The young boy then became intrigued by this seemingly magical quality that music possessed and he has made it his life's path.
Nakoa's first foray into the world of music came in the form of the trombone. From there, Nakoa began to branch off into singing and an avid love of the piano.
“I got into the piano around the age of 13 and really got into classical stuff,” said Nakoa. “I really just loved classical music – Beethoven, Chopin, all that stuff.”
Nakoa admitted that the allure of classical music for him was the fact that it was something that nobody understood. “My parents didn’t know it or get it, and my friends certainly didn’t understand it, so it was cool – because it was my thing,” said Nakoa. “It was kind of a rebellious thing.”
For people just starting to get into music, Nakoa stressed the importance of making it something personal. “It has got to be your own thing,” said Nakoa. “If it's not your own – if it's something your parents are telling you that you should do – it's never going to last and it's never going to make you happy.”
With his passion for music and armed with a piano, Nakoa began his professional career while still in high school. The Bullthistle Inn – now the Sherburne Inn – gave Nakoa his first real musical gig. He said that he would go there and play for the Friday night crowd, that it was his first real job. “I basically just started working as a piano player – going around and doing that while I was in high school,” said Nakoa.
The guitar was the next instrument that called out to young Nakoa. “I got into the guitar just as I was ending high school. I got into rock and roll music and I decided I didn’t want to do the classical thing as a career. I wanted to write songs and play in a band, so I picked up a little guitar,” Nakoa said. “At first, it was just a way to communicate with other guitar players – kind of a different language. But eventually I realized that it was pretty useful to be able to show up somewhere and just pick up a guitar and play a song. So that became part of my arsenal.”
With the tools and the passion that Nakoa picked up in his formative years, he went off to study singing on a scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated with a four year degree. From there, Nakoa has gone on to release two albums – “Light in the Dark” in 2012, and “A Dozen other Loves” in 2014.
Given Nakoa's success since leaving home so many years ago, his upcoming hometown concert is of utmost importance to the musician. Nakoa relays that he is eager to take part in the arts culture that is currently happening in Chenango County – something that he did not experience as a young man.
When Nakoa finished college and was looking for actual traction in the music business – looking to go and perform for audiences that really cared – he came back home to see what Chenango County held for him. “I went back to my home area and I found that there was just this closed sign on the door. That’s how it seemed to me,” said Nakoa. “So I just went off and did other things and played other places.”
But the pull of home has never left Nakoa. “It’s kind of like a ladder – the higher you climb on the ladder, the more it sways,” said Nakoa. “I find that more than ever what I want is a sense of where I came from. I want a sense of my roots. I want to go back home and I want to see the people there that I haven’t seen for years, and I want to share an evening with them and catch up.”
“So, when I start feeling that way I just go and check out home again,” said Nakoa. “And as it turns out, there is all this stuff happening there again. Maybe it was happening all along, but now it seems like it is being revealed to me and I’m being welcomed back again. The closed sign is no longer on the door. It’s like ‘come on in, we’ve got something going on here.”
“I am just really excited to come back and do a hometown show and I want people to know. I want to hang out and do a show. I want people to be there and I want it be an ongoing thing,” said Nakoa. “I want to always come back to Chenango County and play for the rest of my life.”
Matt Nakoa will be reconnecting with his roots at 6OTS on Saturday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Student tickets are only $2. Interested persons are encouraged to buy their tickets in advance as the venue may fill up quickly for this show. For more information about Matt Nakoa, and to listen to his music, visit mattnakoa.com. For information on ticketing for the March 7 show, please visit 6OTS on the web at 6onthesquare.org, or call the venue at 843-6876.