Joe Matera's first non-fiction book 'Backstage Pass: The Grit and The Glamour' dives into the lives of artists and the hard work required to succeed in the music industry.
A Newborough local of 15 years, Mr Matera has taught guitar to students in Warragul and Drouin for many years and performed live several times at local venues.
His first autobiographical book takes readers backstage into the lives of real artists he has interviewed in his time as a music journalist.
Born and bred in Kyabram, Mr Matera has always had a passion for music.
"From the age of four I always loved hearing music, my parents had a really cool vinyl collection," he said.
"My parents weren't musical but the love of music was there so I just picked it up and ran with it."
After moving to Melbourne in 2000 to pursue a career in music and finding success, Mr Matera saw another door open - journalism.
He wrote an article after seeing how the internet was making it so easy to contact artists and had it published overseas. However, his big break in the world of music journalism came when he interviewed the then up-and-coming band, Nickelback.
"I moved to Melbourne and I interviewed Nickelback, who at that time were just breaking in Australia... and from that story, my name got out there and I started doing a lot of interviews," he said.
"And 20 years later here I am, I've written for a lot of different magazines over the years."
Mr Matera has had his work published in many publications, including Classic Rock, Guitar and Bass, Metal Hammer, and Total Guitar.
During this time he continued developing his career in music, and spend time creating albums and touring.
However, all this was put on hold when the pandemic hit in 2020. Mr Matera was unable to tour or perform due to restrictions and lockdowns, so he began a trip down memory lane.
"Over the years I've always kept diaries of everything that I've ever done," he explained.
"I took those diaries and started reading them and then all these other memories started coming back to me and I started writing them all up."
After completing a few chapters of Backstage Pass, he reached out to publishers and 'Empire Publishing' in the UK that were interested.
The book was completed and finally published overseas late last year. It recently reached number one on Amazon's Music Books Chart in Sweden.
Mr Matera said his experience as a musician has allowed him to connect with artists in a way other journalists cannot.
"A lot of those other books are sort of all about the sex, drugs, and rock and roll stories, mine is actually about what it is like to be a musician," he said.
"People see this glamourous side of rock and roll, and music and they think it's all about late-night parties, limousines, and lots of money. Well it's not, there's a lot of hard work involved."
Mr Matera said his book appeals to all kinds of people and covers artists from several genres.
"Just to hear the responses, people enjoying it and saying they really loved the book is the best thing," he said.
"If you're a musician you can pick up a lot of stuff from it, if you're a music lover you're going to enjoy a lot of the stories... and if you just love books you're going to love reading the book."