artist The Matthews Brothers

Barrie's New Music Fest opens this weekend with one of the biggest lineups in its four-year history. Around 70 artists are expected to perform at nine venues during the four-day event. This year will see both a kick off party and a headliner concert. "This year we stepped it up with a kickoff party (tonight) with The Reason. There's also local openers on that show," said festival director Paul Fairley. "What we've done now is separate the two events — the kick off party (at The Mansion Nightclub in Barrie) and the headliner concert at the Roxx July 15." The festival showcases a mix of independent artists from well known names such as Thornley and Big Wreck, who will be playing the headliner concert, with up-and-coming acts such as The Matthews Brothers. Based out of the Belleville area, the duo is up for Best Song (What If I) and Best Folk act at this year's festival. It is the first time the duo has played Barrie — they expand to a four-piece band for road gigs such as Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern. In addition to performing at Manhatten's, 147 Dunlop St., on Friday (10 p.m.), The Matthews Brothers will also be playing at the awards show which is slated for Sunday at the Mansion. Something like 20 different awards will be handed out to independent musicians during the evening. The Matthews Brothers may be emerging artists in some ways, but Mike and his younger brother, Cole, have all the ingredients to make it their career. They began playing together formally four years ago but Mike was waiting for Cole to graduate from Queen's University in Kingston. Both took the same music program, but with a slightly different emphasis. Mike, who had classical piano training, added classical guitar and composition, whereas Cole was more into classical guitar than piano and majored in theory and composition. "Most of my peers went on to teachers college and masters degrees. I went in knowing I have to do music and my brother was the same way," said Mike, who, towards the end of his studies, was changing the focus to more popular music. "I still do really, really love the classical elements, even more so in the new music we will be performing at the gig." Some of their new music also has elements that are similar to film score music. After Cole graduated last year, The Matthews Brothers recorded an EP last fall at an old farmhouse converted into a studio and are working toward releasing a five-song CD shortly. Songwriting is a shared endeavor. Their single, What If I, is receiving regular airplay at two radio stations in their area, as well as CBC Radio 3 and Sirius Satellite 86. Music was part of their family growing up. Their father was into writing songs and he taught Mike how to play the guitar. His two sisters are also musical. They all took music lessons and would play guitar and piano together as kids. Some elements of those days find their way into The Matthews Brothers' current songs. "We used to attend pot luck dinners the next road over when we were kids — almost like an old time thing, playing fiddle, spoons, stuff like that," said Matthews, who has incorporated some foot stomps and lyrics from those days. "Looking back, I wanted to bottle it up, capture the imagery to make the sound we wanted to make. A lot of it is image and feeling based." Fairley has been attracting interest in the festival from across Ontario. Of the bands, around 15 to 20 are local. "We've been getting calls at our office from way up north — it is definitely attracting people from different regions of Ontario," said Fairley. "We received tons of submissions and we picked the best." For a full festival schedule and tickets to the kick off party or headlining concert, visit www.newmusicfest.ca.