Wearing a bandanna and a Police (the band) t-shirt, with an earring dangling from his left ear and with guitar case in hand he arrived to speak about his recently published book — Backstage Pass: The Grit & The Glamour.
Matera grew up idolising the likes of Ace Frehley (KISS) and Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist Slash, not realising that he would be sitting opposite them with a notepad and pen in a music journalist role in his early 20s.
He has, however, never forgotten his roots and was as engaged with the 20-odd people who gathered at the Lake Rd library for the meet the author event as he would have been talking to members of Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.
Matera left Kyabram in 2000 and in the ensuing 22 years has travelled the world, not only in a journalism capacity, but as a performer.
He moved to Melbourne in 2000 and not long after had his big break when he was given access to them to an — as yet unknown — band named Nickelback, for three days.
The interview was published and eight weeks later Nickelback was massive.
“That got my name out there,” Matera said.
“Not long after I did an interview with John Mayer, again before any one else knew of him.
“My wife and I were watching him playing in a bar, where he had little engagement with the crowd.
“That was until his last song, which was a Stevie Ray Vaughan cover. The interview was published in the UK and six months later he was huge.
“He always asked for me when he was back in Australia,” Matera told the gathering in between short readings from his book.
He said he often found himself “in the right place at the right time”, accumulating so much material from his two decades of rubbing shoulders with the biggest names in the business that he is now working on his second book.
The evening even included a short anecdote about a Keith Urban interview, which will be featured in the new book.
He offered an insight into the industry, describing it as “a hard life, but rewarding when done for the right reason”.
“I’ve done more than 1400 gigs, from one person to 30,000 people, but it has always been about the music,” he said.
Subject matter for the evening included everything from his distain for KISS front man Gene Simmons to a dinner with Pink and his embarrassing experience with former Divinyls frontwoman Chrissy Amphlett.
“She was all over the walls of my bedroom, so when I met her at a book signing I just couldn’t get any words out,” he said.
The extraordinary range of the Kyabram-born entertainer was no better evidenced by his explanation of strong ties to the man credited with starting Sweden’s death metal movement to an afternoon tea with the man referred to as the fifth Beatle — the man still regarded as the “world’s most famous record producer”, Sir George Martin.
“That half hour with Sir George and his wife, at the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne, was one of the best half hours of my life,” he said.
“I researched for two weeks all the questions that had been asked of him to try and make it enjoyable for both of us.”
An impromptu and acoustic performance from the well-travelled music guru ended the evening and set the tone for his second book signing, which was staged in Shepparton the following night.
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