The Matt Cahill Combo play The Midnight Show

Perth guitarist and bandleader Matt Cahill has teamed up with some of Perth’s finest musicians to form The Matt Cahill Combo. The group are set to launch their debut album, The Midnight Show, at Mustang Bar on Friday, November 7, 2025. BOB GORDON chats to Matt Cahill about his journey from garage pop to Americana.

If there’s one thing that characterises Matt Cahill as a musician, it would be what you might call his determined curiosity.

He cut his teeth on stages around Australia back in the early/mid-‘90s as vocalist/guitarist for Perth rock’n’roll band The Calhoons, a quartet more in the Australian garage/power pop tradition than the majestic blend of jazz, swing and rockabilly that Cahill has made his own in the decades since, but then again, he’s always had an open mind.

“When I grew up, the records that I was listening to were quite eclectic,” he recalls. “My dad was English, so he had a lot of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and all that sort of stuff. There wasn’t really any jazz growing up, but I discovered it when I was playing later in The Calhoons. I really loved that type of music, the early jazz stuff.”

Despite being offered a record deal with a major label, The Calhoons had run out of steam, and a required move from Perth to Sydney was the final nail in the coffin. Cahill turned his attention to study and entered the burgeoning tech industry. However, his thirst for jazz music increased, and what started with an admiration for Australian artists such as Vince Jones served to fire up that aforementioned curiosity.

“It was such a great feel,” he says, “but then I’d look into the songs that were being covered and started listening to some of the older artists. I really got into Art Blakey and some of the line-ups and the trumpet players that were playing with him—sax guys who all formed their own little bands and whatnot as well.

“My dad had a few crooner records, Dean Martin and the like. I’ve come from an Italian background too, so there’s the Sicilian connection. My grandmother was Calabrese, and they love that type of music. So there was a bit of crooner stuff that had the jazz and the swing backing those guys.”

Cahill also sought out the players who had really integrated the guitar into trios or the big band realm, the likes of Oscar Moore of the Nat King Cole Trio, Freddie Green of Count Basie’s Band, and Charlie Christian, who recorded and toured with Benny Goodman. A guitar collection with a range of Gretschs and Gibsons that never left home grew over time, but a party invite would soon bring them back into the world.

“We were going to a friend’s engagement party, and my wife said, ‘You should dust off your guitars and bring one of them along. Apparently, these guys are pretty wild, and they’ll play all through the night.’ They were a very cliquey crowd. No one would really sort of reach out and chat. Maybe I didn’t have the right threads on, but later in the night, when they all started cranking up the music, out came this big upright bass. I thought, ‘This is cool.’ So I go back to my car, open the boot, and get out my Dobro, and then a few eyes turn, and they are quite impressed. Obviously, I’ve been playing the music for quite a long time, not necessarily the rockabilly, but more bluesy, jazzy stuff, but I loved guys like Eddie Cochrane as well as Brian Setzer. So they were playing some tunes, I got out the guitar and played, and basically I was in the band after a couple of songs. And so I joined Rusty & The Dragstrip Trio.”

What followed was a decade of hugely popular Saturday nights at Perth’s infamous Mustang Bar, several album releases and headline appearances at major US rockabilly festivals where crowds jammed to the front to sing word-for-word along with Rusty & The Drag Strip Trio’s songs.

When Cahill’s 10-year tenure with The Drag Strip Trio came to an end, he again retired from the stage, this time to dedicate himself to improving his guitar skills in order to perform the jazz and swing music that he loved more by the day.

“It is quite a really hard genre to play,” he explains. “You have to be at the top of your game, practising four hours a day. I actually didn’t really have that time, but I put a lot into it. You know, the singing, the rhythm, the guitar playing, the soloing–you need to really practise to get your chops up.

“Basically, you’re hitting the books, opening up that American Songbook, learning lots of songs, watching old YouTube videos of Freddie Green out of Count Basie’s Orchestra, and watching how he plays, doing the same for Wes Montgomery and others.”

That patience and dedication–including visiting Benny Goodman alumni Chris Flory on visits to New York for guitar lessons– figuratively added more strings to Cahill’s bow. He ventured not only onto the stages of Perth again but also to Europe to perform gigs with local jazz musicians in Spain, France and Germany.

Cahill has gone further into his musical odyssey armed with his own swing-inspired songs and into the studio to record his debut album, The Midnight Show. Produced by Lee Buddle at Crank Studio and featuring some of Perth’s best jazz and swing musicians, it’s a suite that encapsulates Cahill’s determined curiosity and that love for all the tributaries of Americana and roots music.

“In terms of this album, what I’ve done, first and foremost, comes from the fact that I’ve always been a songwriter,” he explains. “I can easily write melodies, and I have tunes. I might listen to something, and it gives me a new idea that I’ll build up over a few months. I then get that to a point where I record it, but it’s got that influence of jazz, some of the swing, and also maybe a bit of rockabilly. It’s sort of blending that all together.

“So I don’t think it can really be pigeonholed, but it’s something that suits me and suits my songwriting. I thought, ‘Don’t put any other people’s music on there. Just do 10 originals and have a go at creating your own sort of feel and melody over the top of all these different ideas that sort of come to mind.’

“So I’m really proud of how it came out and really proud of the sound we achieved.”

The Matt Cahill Combo launches its debut album, The Midnight Show, at Mustang Bar on Friday, November 7, 2025.