Matt Toledo has created a Web site that has helped many local bands form and gain notoriety. However, Toledo doesn't hide the real reason that he was motivated to start the site in the mid-1990s.
In 1993
I was looking to start my own band and the only option available for anyone who wanted to start a band was to post on a bulletin board he said.
After realizing that this style of finding musicians was dated, Toledo decided to take advantage of the dot-com boom and create the Athens Musician Network.
That's how the whole thing started
sort of as a bulletin board for musicians to find other musicians to play with
and everything else came from that
he said.
A native of St. Louis, Toledo originally moved to Athens in 1992 to attend Ohio University. However, three years and three changes of majors later, Toledo decided to put his education on hold to focus on his Web site. He was offered a job at FrogNet, an Athens-based Internet service provider, because of his work on the Athens Musician Network site.
Toledo continued to work at FrogNet, which hosts the site free of charge, while playing in bands around town. While the initial intention of the site still remains, Toledo said that he has seen the focus shift over the years.
I wanted to make the site an archive for the local music scene and a research tool for the local newspapers or anyone who is interested in a band in an unbiased way
he said, adding that current incarnation of the site features video, audio, links and show reviews in an attempt to provide the most information possible on local bands.
Matt has always been really great to us
said Brian Rudell, who under the alias Brian C.R. is half of the band Spooktober. Rudell said that Toledo was a fan of the band from the start and tried to help them gain exposure any way he could.
Matt was trying to make sense of us before anyone else even knew us
coming to our shows and taking pictures
and eventually doing an interview and setting up a photo shoot for us
he said.
More than 15 years later, the Athens Musician Network is still going strong. Toledo, who writes all of the feature pieces, said that while the workload may be heavy at times, he wouldn't want to be doing anything else.
It's not that hard to put a site like this together because the music is here and the interest is here
