Mark Matthews is the leading saxophonist in the Electronic Dance Music industry in Australia, being noted by some of the industry's finest for possessing the versatility to smash his way through any genre of EDM and popular music. "It's the jazz training that I received from 2 universities that really solidified for me that music is music, no matter what the genre. When you work this out harmonically, then the world is your oyster, you can play over anything.
Then it's a matter of understanding expression, nuance, inflection - all the little things that give a style it's character.“ This versatility has given him open slather in the Sydney nightclub scene, playing in every major nightclub, having featuring residencies at Goldfish, Ivy, Establishment, the Argyle, Bar 100, Trademark and Cargo just to name a few, being able to adapt to any DJ, any style of dance music that is presented to him.
Recent years has seen him perform with some top-tier respected DJ’s from Sydney like local heroes Fear of Dawn, Venuto, Cadell, Johnny Gleeson, Alex Taylor, and from all over the world, such as Groove Armada (UK), Richard Earnshaw (UK), Phil Hudson (UK), Jay Jay (US) and Sean Warner (UK). Mark’s performances as a soloist are not only great to watch but rather an education into what is possible when you fuse live music and EDM together.
“Playing with DJ’s is, well, I believe, is an important part to the evolution of music – the marriage of electronically created music with a live element changes the vibe in a nightclub, it creates an interest point, it educates, it reminds us that music didn’t begin with a laptop and headphones…” Mark has appeared as a special guest all over Australia for Hed Kandi, SHE , Music Matters, Musicology, Dirty Habits, Falls Festival, and recorded under the record labels Ministry of Sound, Defected and Denim Label, Mark’s performances as a soloist are not only great to watch but rather an education into what is possible when you fuse live music and EDM together. Throughout his 10 years living in Sydney Mark has been a member of some of Sydney’s great live EDM acts such as La Fiesta Sound System (Levi 5star), SHE Sound System (Graham Cordery), Pinnacle Sound System (Mark Olsen), Fear of Dawn Sound System (DJ Kaiser) and an honorary member of sound system royalty – the Martini Club.
