This week I sat down with singer and songwriter Matt Mattheiss. He was born and raised in South Orange, and has been playing music here for 37 years. “I started playing guitar at first, my old friend got me into it. I didn’t like lessons, so I basically picked everything up by ear. I wasn’t very good at it growing up, and as a result became more of a lead singer when I was playing in my band,” recalled Mattheiss. That band was “No Heroes” and made quite a bit of noise in the late 70s and early 80s. “We played in New York City all the time. The Stone Pony was probably our favorite venue. We …

13 Scotland Rd is the brainchild of Bill Binford and company. Binford writes all his own music, and performs with a handful of local artists, such as singer Alexandra Young, percussionist Richard Lee, Aaron Seglin, singer Amy Patierno, and Doug Gill. “The purpose of 13 Scotland Rd is to display the talents of everybody I work with,” says Binford. The band got its name from Binford and Seglin’s old apartment building. The address was, you guessed it, 13 Scotland Road.  A few years ago Binford found Seglin looking lost and walking down South Orange in the middle of the street. Once Binford …

Mood Ring is not your typical band. In fact they have a total of six members. Bill Pearsall operates the drum set and leads on vocals while David Gomberg rips the guitar. Gary Tyler strums the bass, and Marina Stern plays the flute. Then there is Andre Schuetz on congos and the one and only Nate Knight on keyboard and back-up guitar. “Gary and I have been playing together for nine years. But we have been in this particular formation for about three,” explained Tyler. “We all met each other while waiting for our kids to get out of school, and convinced Gary to come out of retirement and play …

Bandwidth continues this week with Juicebox, a “four-piece, guitar heavy, burst of raw energy” rock band that “sound like a combination of a powerpop Britney Spears and a punk rock Janis Joplin,” according to their Facebook page. And while you may think you know what a “Juicebox” is, you’d probably be wrong. “We wanted a name that sounded great, and a name that would work with both kids and adults alike. Juicebox has multiple meanings, from a power source to a glass of wine! We love the versatility of the word," says Leslie Goldman, front woman for Juicebox and former bass player and singer …

Hailing from Maplewood and South Orange, 8-Bit is a hard rock band made up of four soon-to-be high schoolers. With Lara Phillips singing the vocals, Jack Goldberg picking the bass, Sam Gomberg beating the drums, and Simon Pettigrew ripping the guitar, this band is destined to go places. “We formed over the winter. Sam, Simon and I had been trying to start a band since the sixth grade when we finally found our lead singer in Lara, but we’ve all been friends for a long time,” explained Jack Goldberg. Unfortunately, the lead guitarist Simon Pettigrew was attending camp in Chicago and was …