By Christa Borelli
This year's Don't Tell Mama Cabaret Circuit was graced by quite a few noteable performers, performing together on a fantastic concert event. Among those 'outsiders' was Denville, NJ resident Marty Sedek, a high-school sophomore piano virtuoso with soft spot for lyricism and stage presence. Marty was performing with other talented performers, but you simply knew something would be different when Marty sat down at the piano. Speaking with Sedek after the performance, much was learned about this young performer's journey to where he is now.
Anthony Martin Sedek was born in Germany in 1985, soon after moving to America with his family from Poland, his native country. Marty spoke Polish until the time came for him to go to school, and he began learning English from his best friend who lived next door.
"Well, after years and years of speech therapy and watching Saved by the Bell, i was pretty much completely nativized with the language, though i still speak fluent Polish."
Marty did not even consider performing as an option, until a change to public school ushered in a new inspiration in a 7th grade English teacher. Biting him (hard) with the acting bug, Marty began appearing in school and community plays, quickly taking up voice lessons to properly train a yet undeveloped voice.
"I was always singing, even before i did theatre. I can remember car rides with my mom, i knew the words to every damn song on the radio, and i sang 'em all the time."
While at the regional theatre in his area, Marty was constantly surrounded by music, and musicians. It wasn't long before some of the knowledge - and the talen t- rubbed off on him.
"Oh man, i was probably a pain to have around, but i learned alot. I was always sitting at the piano, just banging on the keys, looking at music and asking the music director, 'what does this mean?' 'How do i do this?' 'What's that?'.... Annoying, yeah, but i learned alot, and that totally got me started on that road of teaching myself how to make something pretty come out of the thing."
And that's just what Marty did. For the next two years, on a small 38-key Casio keyboard, he transferred his knowledge of music from 2 years of guitar lessons into piano, quickly picking up the skills he needed. Within a year, he was accompanying singers, and playing for music productions.
Writing his own songs was the next step in Marty's path, though it was brought out quite unconventionally:
"Well, i started out music by playing in garage punk bands with my friends - and the first day I walked in they said, 'do you write songs? cuz we don't' - and i definately had never even considered writing my own stuff before- I was happy with my Goo Goo Dolls tab book - Songwriting didn't come until I realized that I had more to say than I could convey through the instrument. So, i gave it a shot- and as any songwriter will tell you, you gotta write a whole lot of bad songs before you write a good one."
t wasn't long before Marty began writing 'good ones,' and he soon afterwards left his bands to pursue acting, and his own writing.
"Umm....yeah, I just wasn't a punk rocker- I can't believe the guys missed that...," Marty asserts with a smile.
Since then, Marty's music has matured and developed, as with his piano playing, evolving from three-finger chords and simple progressions to essential piano 'shredding'.
"It's important not to play to your limits every second. 99.9 percent of the time, one chord has a greater effect than playing 50 notes in a second." Marty's major influences are the Goo Goo Dolls, Five for Fighting, Ben Folds, and Billy Joel.
Performing songs such as "Blue Diamonds" and "MidNight" demonstrates this singer/songwriter's ability to convey his soul through his hands and tell a story, with a passion unprecendented by most of his performing peers.
When asked for how he best describes his outlook on music, Marty had this to say:
"John Rzeznik said it the best - If you write a great, cool song that you really mean, and really stirs something up inside of you, and you put on your leather pants and go out play it for people, that's cool. But if you stand in front of your mirror with your leather pants on and say, 'OK, i've gotta write a song to fit thes pants', then you're in trouble."