Inventive Genius Matt Errs
Matt Errs calls himself a “One-Kid-Band”, and the logo on his Twitter reads “Music constructor. Follow with rhythm”.
Matt, age 13, lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. As is evident in his 17 YouTube videos, he has an incredibly energetic, creative vein that is combined with a musical discipline on keyboard, piano and guitar. To top that off – he can sing!
In his latest post, Matt splits himself into three on-screen voices while playing piano to Percy Mayfield’s Hit the Road Jack, a song made famous by rhythm and blues man Ray Charles.
Matt is not nearly content to present himself as ONE personality, so he dices himself up into four different ones, as in his Coldplay covers What If and Atlas.
I get the impression there is a solid musical education behind this carefree, fanciful boy’s voice. Matt also plays classical piano as in his version of Frédéric Chopin: Waltz in E-Minor. He comes across huge doing Liberace Boogie Woogie Variations. At a time when others are posting loud mouth promos of themselves singing to karaoke instrumentals, Matt Errs is actually playing the music, adding background effects and creating original tunes — all with a quiet smile!
His avatar on Twitter is quite small. To me that says “Here I am! Find me and you will be rewarded!”
I like this homemade creative ‘do-it-yourself’ inventive style made possible by tech innovations in video creation; like for example the machine pad in Matt’s Whatever Comes.
Note to self: Keep it real.
— MattErrs (@MattErrs) June 20, 2014
Instead of hiring a fancy video producer, this is like carving your own product. Matt films himself in a pool here to achieve a spacey ELO effect for his tune, which in itself is a learning process.
But then, this young artist’s appeal goes beyond that. Matt can entertain us simply with his piano skills, as we clearly see in a Liberace Boogie Woogie Variations, which gets so hot that his small fingers are flying faster than the Tasmanian Devil on one hand; speedier than the Roadrunner on the other. Incredible!
Even in his cover of Elton John’s Your Song, Matt masters the piano and vocals gracefully.
I’m really awed by this young artist’s versatility and look forward to some really original creations from him. Already Matt’s inventions like The Other Side, Pay heed to your heart and Just Walkin show an interest in presenting his music in a visually innovative way. In Just Walkin, one of two on-screen Matt Errs even raps out lyrics to a bumpy song about what really matters in life.
Matt seems to be a well-balanced person. He lists snowboarding, soccer, reading, biking and hiking as his other interests. Recently Matt, who is a member of a musical family, started acting as well. An older sister and a piano teacher were important in guiding Matt’s piano skills. As this is being written, he has a big music theory exam coming up and hopes to write a new song after that.
There is one more Matt Errs trait I haven’t mentioned: his beaming joy in performing music. It is not about perfection; it’s about having a ball sharing the songs! It is that important element of having fun. Watch Every Teardrop is a Waterfall to see what I mean – here’s Matt free-styling another Coldplay cover.
I am very impressed by this musical Canadian kid and look forward to watching as he develops his musical gifts. Or, for that matterr, seeing him act on stage.
Here’s hoping for the best of times and much success.
rjmendera for theskykid.com