After an extended slacklining trip in Mexico, Mat moved home to Akron, Ohio in the fall of 2017. After nearly a decade on the road, he was craving the ability to set down some roots and build some kind of life. Around that time, he started to play the fiddle and thought that having a mandolin around might be nice, as he already played guitar and would be able to practice the melodies without having to worry so much about that bow. He found an ad on Craigslist for a handmade mandolin from a maker of unknown origin. Mat made the trek out to a Tractor Supply to meet up with the seller, who told him that he had traded three goats for the mandolin. When Mat heard this he balked at the price and said "you're not asking nearly enough, three goats aint cheap!" He paid him an extra 50 bucks and was on his way with a new treasure.
It wasn't long after that transaction that Mat was out picnicking on a hot summer day and had the mandolin with him. While preparing the food he laid the mandolin under the truck, in the shade that it cast, in an effort to protect it from the particularly harsh sun that day. The food turned out to be so good and the company so captivating that he completely forgot about the (soft) mandolin case that lay behind his right rear tire. As he backed out of his spot he felt a bump. Thinking it unusual, for some reason he drove forwards over it as to gain some speed to then easily clear the perceived obstruction. He will never forget how he felt when his passenger remarked: "it felt flatter the second time".
Now Mat had already been pondering the possibility of pursuing luthiery as a career but now the ball was really rolling. He began to think of ways that perhaps he could rebuild just the body of the mandolin, as somehow the neck had been spared! Little did he know his career in building mandolins was about to be jumpstarted as he headed down to a local music festival. With his fiddle in hand, he wandered down Main St. in Peninsula, OH looking for a jam to join at the annual "Music on the Porches" festival. He heard faint old time tunes coming from the open doors of a church, and much to his surprise he read a sign out front that read : "Instrument Builders Inside". It was there that he met his first Mentor, Doug Unger.
Mat explained his mandolin predicament to Doug who was showcasing some of his incredible banjo work and some "pocket mandolins" (a few of which now reside in the Smithsonian!) Doug listened carefully and laughed, but then replied "well come on over to my shop, I live across the street." After witnessing the jaw dropping craftsmanship and artistry on display in his home and workshop, Mat asked if Doug might take a look at the mandolin and see what he thought. Doug agreed to take a look. Some weeks went by but the day came and Mat took his sad pile of toothpicks over to Doug's shop to see what could be done. Doug took one look at it and said: "you don't want to rebuild this. It's junk. You want to build a brand new one, don't you?" With wild excitement, Mat said "why yes, yes of course I do!"
Doug proceeded to pull out a few gouges and a book-matched maple back from his stash, and gave Mat a 25 minute or so demo on how one might go about carving a back for an A-style mandolin. After the demo, he brought out the stunning back he had been carving for his next build. It was immaculate. He then said, "alright thats enough to get you started, give me a call when it starts looking like this (gesturing to his masterpiece)". Now get out of here, I've got work to do." Bewildered, Mat left the shop with two gouges and a piece of maple and set out to do right by Doug's immense generosity.
Things went on this way for some time, perhaps close to a year. Mat would call and say "it looks kinda like what you said!" and Doug would give another brief demo and perhaps lend a tool or two and send Mat on his way swiftly. Eventually Mat had a mandolin strung up in the white. Not too long after that, Mat got a call from Doug.
He said, "theres going to be an art show down in Athens, OH at the Dairy Barn. I'll have some of my work in the show, but there will be another mandolin maker in the show also. We'll be giving a talk about our different approaches to building. Id like you to come meet this other fella and see his approach". Well that other fella, Doug's close friend, turned out to be an important force in Mat's life both in the shop and with regard to life in general. His name is Don MacRostie.
Mat met Don at the Dairy Barn art show and even had the honor to play a mandolin from each Don and Doug for the audience during their presentation, in order to showcase the differences in tone. After the show, Mat and Doug made their way back to Don's place for the night. Doug was up and on the road early, back to his work no doubt. Mat stayed behind and got a little taste of what Don was up to. With his feet already wet in the realm of building, stepping into Don's shop was like someone had turned on a fire hose and broke the handle off. Doug, ever the artist, had planted the vision in Mats mind. In Don's shop, Mat saw the science and empirical study that would fascinate him so intensely that he could think of no other career he'd rather pursue.
After a series of consistent and impassioned requests made to Don that he take Mat on as an apprentice, Mat visited Athens for a job interview with Stew Mac. As it turned out, Stew Mac wasnt the place for him, but he paid Don a visit on his way back home. He again was awe-struck by Don's mastery, but also his continued curiosity and development even after 40 years building! It seemed so exciting that even with all that experience, one could still be growing and learning. This fact only increased Mat's desire to learn from Don but they struggled to find a way that could work, since they live on opposite sides of the state. But, Don had a brilliant idea.
"Hey Mat, its Don MacRostie," he heard as he picked up the phone. "I was out mowing and when you're mowing, about the only thing you can do is think. So I've been thinking..."
Mat was beyond thrilled when he hung up the phone that day. Don had come up with an ingenious way to help the both of them. Don is an avid outdoorsman and steward of his land, and he has many miles of trails in the woods behind his house. Those trails needed maintenance and improvement, and it just so happened that Mat had spent the last several years working for the National Park Service in the Trail Maintenance division. So, Don suggested Mat come down about once a month and stay the night. On one of the days Mat was there, they would work on a mandolin together that would be Mat's own mandolin to study from. The other day, they would hit the trails on the ATVs and clear downed trees, widen sections, improve drainage, and even hunt mushrooms. To say that this arrangement was a dream come true for Mat would be the understatement of the century, perhaps the millennium.
They began in May 2019, and through the pandemic and all, in July 2020 both a mandolin and an enduring friendship had emerged. By the end of 2020, Mat had bought his first house and finally had a place to set up shop for real. Since that time Mat has worked tirelessly to model his shop closely after the processes and methodology he learned from Don. Don would continue to mentor Mat, as they would pay each other visits several times a year and Mat would call periodically with increasingly specific and advanced questions about certain building practices. However, perhaps the most important things Mat learned from Don didn't involve building at all. They involved life, and how we live it.
