Marty Stewart has been playing guitar since he was 13.As soon as he picked up the guitar; he knew that this was what he wanted to play.
When Marty’s mom brought a Folk/Classical guitar to learn, he really enjoyed the idea of learning this instrument. When mom wasn’t around, Marty could be found jumping up & down in front of a mirror imitating glam rock guitarists of the day…T Rex, D Bowie, & his most favorite , Slade. It didn’t matter to him that it didn’t look like those flashy guitars they had, it was still a guitar!
He asked & pleaded his mom to take him to guitar lessons & managed to get a couple of lessons, but money was tight in this one parent family. He was left alone to learn the mysteries of the guitar pretty much by himself.
He hooked up with a couple of other muso’s at his school & asked if he could play rhythm guitar, luckily he knew the chords D,A, E & Bm & their first school performance was Rebel Rebel (D Bowie). To Marty it was the most magical thing, to play in front of a crowd! Unfortunately, the band didn’t think so & Marty was asked to leave. That absolutely destroyed Marty’s young ego & he swore from that age that he would never get thrown out of another band because he wasn’t good enough.

Martin Olderied (Symrise) - "Over the past 7 years we have been consistently using Marty"

The trouble was, finding a singer….Marty definitely had an idea how the songs should sound…in the end after looking for a few months & having no luck, guess who the singer became! Yep , many singing lessons later, Marty. Being young of course & not being able to listen to people, (Mike had definitely the better voice!), the Actors ended up being a 3 piece band with Marty singing as well as playing guitar.
Then became months of rehearsals in a small room playing songs Marty had written, leading into support work for the bigger mainline acts. Unlike today, many pubs did want to put acts on, so the Actors worked most weekends. Out of that, the Actors managed to perform at Sweetwater’s, one of the biggest N.Z , outdoor events & Marty was asked to audition for the Citizen Band , which was a Split Enz throw off, as a singer for all things!
Unfortunately The Actors came to an end when Marty’s car got stolen at a Pub on the outskirts of Auckland….but to Marty, musically, that time could never be replaced. Also Mike’s friendship remains till this day….I will record some of those songs, so, hopefully people can hear what the vibe was!
Marty then joined Radio-Active who released a single called “Angela”, which was big hit single in Auckland for a few months & got the boy’s a national Television video release….wow, that was fun. Radio- active was a family of brothers + Marty & decided to leave for Sydney, to make the big time! As you do. Marty left the band, but still came to Australia.
In that time, he performed on Star Search with an original song, & formed a cover band called “Full Quid”. Full Quid was a hard working band that performed 1000’s of gigs around N.S.W. They where also asked to form a Doors Concept band which they did as well. Marty worked with some great friends and players like, Dr Brain Damage (Brian Cooke , Bass/Vocals), Paul Pound (Paul Metcalf ,Drums ), Steve Mc Laughland (trumpet, Keyboards),Murray Biondi (Drums, the Oil Show)
10 years later Full Quid, came to an end. In that time, Marty & jammed with many, many muso’s , one of the most important was Dianne Scibberras. To Marty, Dianne was an amazing singer which great passion & a amazing voice, & she was also some-one he could also write songs with. One of their project’s was a EP called “Shiver”. If you have a chance, please listen to a copy of “Strong Enough” or “Everglade” to hear how they sounded produced by Peter Blyton. Full Quid came to an end as the Sydney live scene started to become very stilted compared to how it once had been.

Marty took stock & put in an add in Drum Media looking for Classical/Spanish work, within 2 days, the Ritz Carlton had contacted him agreeing to what became a 5 yr residency playing solo Classical/Flamenco music every Thursday night, how good is that for you’re hands!
Also Marty started to look for Flamenco Teachers who could show him the secrets to this elusive style. His favorite teacher was Robert Johnson believe it or not, taught authentic Flamenco from Stones Arcade in Dee Why.
That’s when Marty also decided to teach guitar, not being worried about saving trade secrets. Di worked for Bondi’s Ways (for Youth), & was funnily enough looking for guitar teachers, so he began his teaching career there.
Marty also teamed up with Dianne to form “Now Tracy”, which became a very successful Duo managed by Southbeat, with many 100’s of gigs….That dissolved to becoming Novatone with Candle Faithful being the lead singer for 2 years, followed by Amie Brownrigg, which is how it stands today. When Novatone performs, there is a lot of history! You have just got to look for it!
Marty would like to say, to him, playing music has always been about finding that magic, there are times when playing makes you feel so alive, you can make such a difference, playing as only the way you can!