“It was really cool,” Wertz says of his experience as a camp counselor. “It allowed me to get my music out to a lot of kids in a short period of time. And they all came to me.”
Before you let your preconceptions run wild, you can check your band camp jokes at the cabin door and dismiss visions of Wertz wailing out “Kum Bay Yah” by the campfire. Instead the Nashville-based Wertz was belting out Van Morrison and Tom Petty, in addition to a slew of his original tunes. The gig might have seemed minor at the time, but over the years it has paid off in spades for Wertz.
“I got to spend a week with the same group of kids. They became my friends,” Wertz says. “By the end of the week, they became supporters, not just fans. Some still come to shows.”
It no doubt helped that Wertz is a bit of a charmer by nature and that his smooth sounding songs bear the funky pop overtones that made John Mayer such a hit in the high school demographic. Wertz has no doubt wooed more than one female fan with his soulful boy-band caliber voice and fun and funky riffs that fill his latest album, Everything in Between.
He says that he developed an appreciation for pop early on, when he got a Michael Jackson album as a gift.
“I got Thriller on vinyl for Easter, which is just weird on multiple levels,” Wertz says. “I wore that thing out. It just got tore up.”
He still has a propensity to bust a move in homage to the King of Pop.
“I still moonwalk in my parents’ kitchen,” he says. “They have these great hardwood floors. I taught my little cousin over Christmas.”
For now, Wertz remains independent of major label support, something that he says he enjoys for now, though he’s definitely open to inking a deal down the line.
“Being independent takes the politics and bureaucracy out of music. I can cut the records that I want,” Wertz says before adding the flip side. “It’s a little slower though as far as the money put into promotion and distribution though. I have friends over at Sony with huge posters and I’ve got like one store with my album and no posters.”
Wertz will get a chance to promote himself when he comes to town Friday to play 9:30 Club with Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. Tickets are $15.
• For more on Matt Wertz, visit www.mattwertz.com or www.myspace.com/mattwertz .