By day, Matt Whipkey is a guitar instructor, teaching chord changes and scales to novices.
When he’s not at Dietze Music, he’s working on being a professional rock ’n’ roller. While being involved in music for a living is satisfying for him, Whipkey really wants to play music for a living, not just teach it.
Whipkey, 28, has been playing guitar since eighth grade and has been in local bands since he was 18. They all had different names (the Movies, Anonymous American and the Whipkey Three) and various lineups, but they were all essentially vehicles for Whipkey to showcase his own songwriting, singing and guitar work.
Now, he’s releasing his debut solo record, “Instant Heart,” celebrating with a release party Saturday at the Waiting Room Lounge.
Whipkey talked about his record at another lounge: the Interlude Lounge, a bar he thanks in his album’s liner notes. He sipped on beer and whiskey drinks at the bar, which is a few blocks from his old house, the place where he recorded his new album on a four-track tape recorder.
He went all analog (even recording some music videos on Super 8 film and inserting Polaroids into the first 100 copies of the album), after liking the sound he heard when recording some demos on the four-track. He also got tired of recording with computers.
“I have more and more frustration with the (digital) environment. We’re all listening to fake music. Music is edited to death.”
And, with the exception of one friend playing tambourine, Whipkey also went all-solo.
“Drums, guitars, glockenspiel — for better or for worse, it was all me. It was as solo as a solo album can be,” Whipkey said. “I wrote the song, sang the song, played every instrument on the song. I know the song really well because it’s all coming from the same place.”
The tunes on “Instant Heart” sound honest, some like they’re pulled straight from Whipkey’s personal life. The nine tunes are heartfelt, mostly acoustic songs, not what you might have heard from past bands like Anonymous American.
“These songs didn’t fit into the rock ’n’ roll bands,” Whipkey said. “This is kind of the antithesis to that.”
As someone who has been in local bands for years, Whipkey has watched the Omaha scene change. He’s witnessed the rise of Saddle Creek Records and watched Facebook and My-Space change how people hear music.
He has mixed feelings about it.
“It’s frustrating in Omaha,” he said. “After a while, people quit caring. People want to see the next big thing. They’ll ask, ‘Where are you touring?’ Or, ‘What is your label?’ None of those questions are ‘How are your songs?’”
At Saturday’s show, Whipkey will perform his new songs with longtime drummer Scott “Zip” Zimmerman, bassist Bob Carrig and guitarist Corey Weber.
He doesn’t have a name for the backing group yet, but he anticipates creating one soon.
Whipkey will perform all nine songs from his solo record as well as some new material. Then, a reunited Anonymous American — “a great drinking rock ’n’ roll band,” Whipkey said — will close out the night.
After the CD release, Whipkey plans to perform and tour to support the new album as much as possible.
“I’m really proud of the record,” Whipkey said. “It’s kind of a grower — something you listen to over and over.”
Contact the writer:
444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com
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