Matt Owen is an absolutely insane electronic and rock and roll tuba player from Nashville, Tennessee - Often referred to as "The Jimi Hendrix of Tuba" Matt is single handedly changing the world's perception of what was once a dying instrument. Andy Frasco says "Matt's the only mother f&%$er on the planet who can make the tuba look cool." - Matt tours the world regularly with Andy Frasco and The UN, as well as touring with his own project Eclectic Tuba and he's the founder and coordinator for The Electrobrass Conference which encourages, showcases, and educates on the combination of electronics and brass in the most awesome ways possible.

Here's the story:

     Matt Owen was born on our neighboring planet Mars in October of 1986. Life was dwindling quickly on the planet in that year, and in a desperate attempt to preserve the race, they shot Matt directly to Earth in a football-shaped canister straight toward our planet Earth. Ironically, the football-shaped canister landed directly in the middle of a football field in Rockmart, Georgia... But there wasn't a team on this field... But a marching band! - The kids in the band were in absolute awe at the canister that had just hit the ground, but they had no idea that it was a foreign object from another planet, nor that it housed alien life... So, after tossing it around for a bit, the kids ditched it into the woods... Luckily, that same full-moon evening, a pack of werewolves discovered the canister. Since werewolves have insanely keen senses, then could hear and smell the life form inside. They cracked the canister open to find a little baby Matt chilling, and they decided to raise him as their own.

      For the first two years of Matt's life, he had insomnia from the stress that comes with being such a totally badass
baby.. In an attempt to silence the infant's cries, the master werewolf placed baby Matt into the bell of a sousaphone. The second the brass touched his body, the cries never returned... And an unbreakable love was born betwixt Martian and Brass.. Matt continued to sleep in the bell of a tuba for the next 29 years of his life.

      When Matt hit the fifth grade, it was time to put this shit to the test. The teacher had advised the class that Greg Teems, the middle and high school band director, would be visiting to administer a hearing test on all students, and we had to option to choose to pursue music when we entered middle school... During the test, tones were played, and tests were done to decided whether or not the student was tone deaf. Matt scored the lowest possible score... Being a prideful Martian, he decided to defy the system and pursue music regardless... So, when Matt entered the 6th grade, he chose the trombone... Which, as you may know, is an instrument that requires a great ear to play.... So, that didn't really work out too well.

      When Matt hit the 7th grade, his trombone playing was so terrible that Greg Teems decided to completely abandon the children and teach only the High School, giving the job up to a man who might still be the coolest dude to ever teach band - Jonathan Thomas... Now, Jonathan was a smooth, smooth mother f&^%er, and probably one of the best music educators on the planet... It's rumored that he once taught an elephant to play carnival of venice using its snout through a bamboo pipe in an attempt to bring peace to fueding remote tribes deep in the rain forests of western Africa.... Except, instead of just bringing peace to the two tribes, it accidentally brought peace to the entire continent for a full 32 hours.

     To be continued...