Nampa man releases 2nd rock opera

Big. Epic. Inspiring. While these words could prove suitable adjectives for Matthew C. Vander Boegh’s second rock opera, “Blood Red,” set for release at Boise’s Record Exchange today, they most certainly describe his vision.

When most local musicians are stoked to post a few tunes on a MySpace page, Vander Boegh, who currently lives in Nampa while working in sales and as a teacher at BSU, poured “thousands” of hours into his second musical opus.

The scope of “Blood Red” is impressive. Vander Boegh recruited 15 musicians, chose to tackle a complicated issue and enlisted star-talent like East Coast vocalist Robin Andre, whom Vander Boegh says was an original member of the R&B group The Fugees. It all comes together three years after he released his first rock opera, “The Erinys,” his master’s thesis at BSU which explored the justification of revenge and violence.

On “Blood Red,” Vander Boegh poses the questions, “Where do ideas of racism come from, and what does it lead to?” He jokes he’s “probably red-flagged by the government” after visiting white supremacist Web sites doing research.

“The rhetoric that they use and the language is just so completely insane and just so way out of left field,” Vander Boegh says. “It’s hard to believe that people actually believe in it. But they do, and they’ll do crazy things because of it.”

Vander Boegh wrote the songs, played bass, some trumpet, programmed the album’s electronic effects and guided the smallest details. He also recruited a talented group of musicians to work with, including vocalists Anthony Fagiano (Midline) and Joel Kilmes (Cocoa Pele).

But the real prize was convincing Andre to fly in for three days to lend his R&B vocal stylings to the heavy rock backdrops.

“I was looking for someone who had a real soulful, black voice,” Vander Boegh says, “and that’s just something we don’t have around here.”

The album was recorded and mixed at the Audio Lab in Boise, then sent it off to be mastered by Mike Bozzi, who has worked with Nine Inch Nails, Janet Jackson and 50 Cent.

Vander Boegh felt his ambitious product needed to be done right in order to properly carry the weighty message he hopes “Blood Red” will convey. And while the album would be difficult to perform live, he hopes to pursue turning it into a film.

- Ben Fletcher, PLAY editor 

(For more info visit www.myspace.com/vanderboegh) 

(Appeared in March 14, 2008 issue of PLAY Magazine)