And now here they are, Nick and Sue on Chatterbox. When the stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue. And welcome back to the Chatterbox Redux Podcast and today our special guest is Matthew Joseph. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment. Oh yeah! Chatterbox! The best interviews with Nick and Sue. Chatterbox! The best news and reviews for you on Chatterbox! Chatterbox, we're just lucky enough to welcome Matthew Joseph. Matthew,
welcome to Chatterbox. How are you, sir? I'm good, thank you. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming on. So, I've got a very special record, a very special song. Tell you how old I am, I'm talking about records. I've got a very special song which we'll talk about and the story behind it in a moment. As it's your first time on Chatterbox, could you tell us a little bit about you? And I know you've done releases before, so tell us a bit about
yourself. Give us an idea what you've been up to in the past. How you got here? That's good. So my name is Matthew Joseph. I am a pop artist from North Wales. And I've just been building my career slowly over the last few years doing like pride shows, new music, a lot of performances and trying to like build my next stage, which is an album. headline tour. But yeah, everything's just become quite busy recently. So yeah, I'm excited. Brilliant, brilliant. Now we've got
this very special song called Psychic. And basically, there's the connection here. You make it clear in your press release, it's not a charity record, first of all, and your peak to highlight the issues of early onset dementia. Now, We've been hit with dementia in my own family as well, but not to the extent of yours. I mean, my father was diagnosed with vascular dementia about the age of 80, early 80s anyway. We did have him
till he was 94. We were very lucky. So of course I can relate to that, but not to the extreme that you can. You're talking about at least six members of your family, including your... beloved mum Jill, who was your number one fan, was there for you, went to every concert, just did everything, she was there, she was loved in every capacity. So tell us a bit about how the dementia is affecting you and just give us a picture of how it is for you with six family members and where that's
leaving you. I think because, I mean, this dementia genetic gene has just affected so many members of my family and it sort of brought me to this stage where I'm thinking you know what how much time do I have you know if I have this in the future and so many members have had it and it's you know it's because they've all passed so young with it with the early onset part of it it's it's really sad and I think it's really important to just do what you love so that's like being
a big passion of mine now is just to you know push for my dreams and do things that really inspire me and just make me feel excited, really. I mean, none of us in any capacity know how long we've got. I mean, there's always the saying that you could step out and walk in front of a bus or something. Anything could happen on
any day. We don't know. So it's always best to, you know, not hang on to your dreams to try and make them reality and do what you need to do and get that bucket just ticked off because you don't really know. But with this Early on in dementia, it wasn't until probably a couple of years ago when I started having friends, wives and partners who are in their 50s being diagnosed with it. And there was even one person, I was
38, something really horrendously young. And of course, it's not an old person's disease in any capacity. I think in my father's case, fascicative dementia is more of an aging one, to be honest.
So many different types. um but i mean can i ask you matthew what sort of age you'll be talking about with your family members when the diagnosis came um so yeah what you said is completely correct i mean you know it's not a old person's disease and there's so many different types and yeah my mum was 58 when she passed um yeah it's really young and i know it's no age is it it's not like it's you know you have so much time left at this age and 50, 60, 70 is, you know, to me, I think
the way the world is anti -aging and with social media and stuff, it's no age, is it? So I just think, you know, that's such a young age and her mum died the same age and she was, my mum was diagnosed when she was 56, 57, I believe, and I started seeing the symptoms when she was like 55. Okay. And so hers was quite fast, the
way it developed. um same as her mum exactly the same timing and everything um but her sister passed away i think she had um dementia for like eight years but it's just such a complex disease isn't it it is but in this terms against the sort of more age related ones this is very aggressive isn't it very aggressive yeah very aggressive yeah yeah What other family members, you're saying six family members, so you've got your mum and your auntie, so what other sort of close relatives
should we be talking about here? So there's so many people that have been affected really, like my uncle, he's got it now, he's quite young, he's in his 50s, my other uncle passed away.
you know there's so many cousins and my mum the number goes further back really because we've been trying to trace the family tree and to actually track it and see the you know the actual complexity of it all how big it is and and there's so many there's so many members of the family going further back and you know like cousins that I haven't met that are like you know Third cousins and
it's been a long time. It's been around for so long that I Wasn't aware and this is this is an eye -opener for a lot of people probably I wasn't aware I think my partner Sue was was aware when we were talking about you coming on and Last night. I wasn't aware that it could actually be hereditary I wasn't even aware of that. I mean, I could understand the second generation getting it and it's just lifestyle, but it's
not, is it, apparently? No. And again, it's just so tricky because I spoke to so many doctors and I didn't actually go through because when I was filming the ITV documentary, I was supposed to see the specialists and then things got changed last minute because I think the people in the docu -series were you know that was a very important fact that they needed to follow up on so we didn't actually get to see the specialist but um i did speak to them quickly on the phone and i remember
speaking to my dad and um the the doctor was like well you know um because i was saying the women in my family have been affected worse and um more aggressively like with my mum you know really fast and then he was like well you know there's loads of factors um you know if she smoked or drank and things and My mum did smoke and drink but her mum didn't and her mum died the same age and they say environmental factors and things and I think same with life isn't it all
these things do contribute but they're not going to be the main cause are they and my dad was very offended by that because I can see both sides and I can see that you know these things can attribute to certain factors and you know, make things worse. I suppose, you know, if you've got lung cancer in the family and you heavily smoke, then you're not going to help matters, are you? But, you know, like, it's just so complex.
And they said that it's not hereditary in the specialist and officially to me on the phone. And as clearly it is. So there's members of my family that have been tested now. And I've had the question as to whether, you know, I want to be tested. And I'm still undecided at the moment. I do get the thing that you do say in your press release saying that, you know, what you're facing now is something that is something, of course, naturally that you are thinking about
every day. And, you know, one part of you wants to know, and the other part is, of course, terrified of what the answer might mean in the future. And I totally get that. I can understand why you're sort of not sitting on a bench at all, aren't you? Really? Yeah. Yeah, because it can
be powerful to have a diagnosis, can't it? Because if they said, I do have the gene and it's black and white, and you will definitely have it in 20 years, like the other family members, then that could be something to, I don't know, that would be some sort of control, I suppose, and you can do things differently then. But on the other side, it could massively affect mental
health, loads of things, and insurances. me and my partner want to adopt um children and you know that that would have a massive consequence on that so it's a it's a tricky one no absolutely and of course early onset dementia as i mentioned earlier i wasn't aware of it until uh friends wives and partners started getting diagnosed with it in the last couple of years And there are still going to be people, some of our member stations listening today to this, who aren't
aware of it either. It could be a young person's disease as well. So it's a real eye -opener. I seem to recall when they tested my father, it was done through blood tests and things. But have you managed to research it enough to know how... a test could be done with you to find out if you've got this gene? I mean does it show in a blood test or how do they find out? Because there will be people there thinking oh wonder if we're affected and they'd be wanting to know
of course. Yeah I mean that was one big question that I had which I didn't actually get the answer for but I have done more research on it since and it's an important question really and I think there is new research with blood tests for certain types and I think they do the overall, you know, when they do the psychology ones and all the different questions and that's what my mum did and then the scans as well that can show deterioration of, you know, the frontal lobe and depending
on which type. So there's a various methods that they can find out through and I don't know which one would be the most specific for my mum's type, but I am looking into it this week and I'm going to be doing more awareness on it on my socials, I think, because people people want the answers after because everyone's got someone in the family that has something as well and i've had a lot of people come up to me in the street since the documentary you know being like how do i find
out my mum had this or my dad had this or you know i want to know if i've got it how do i know and then i'm like i don't know right now because it's so complex per case it's i wish it was so much easier that i could be like come and check your arms you know if you have this love and everybody could It'd be an easy fix, but unfortunately,
it's not. It's quite a in -depth process. But once I know more, I am going to be putting it on my socials to create awareness, I think, because there's a lot of people that would want answers, I think, like me. With your interviews, maybe it was unwittingly, you seem quite happy to talk about them. You are going to be a great ambassador, and when you're bringing your songs out, people
can ask you questions like I am. Thank you. I think you want to get the message out because it is more important that it is important that people do get tested and find out, you know,
oh no there's that option. That's what I was thinking about was my father for instance, I know we're talking about an old person against early onset dementia, but came back years like from the time he retired in his 60s and into his 70s and he was eating all, no he had all this Health specialist and the doctor surgery and some and he was eating all the healthy food now that was supposed to prevent stroke heart attack and Dementia and yet you still got it,
but we don't have the situation. We're a very small family I'm an only child. My son is an
only child. My dad despite being born in the 1920s was an only child he father was killed unfortunately in an accident in the 1950s his dad died in 1913 due to a knockjaw you couldn't make all this stuff up so we're all very small family so we don't actually know if there is a dementia gene there or not because we were such a small family and nobody lived to old age till my father so we haven't got that so whether i just go and get tested anyway but we just don't
have that to go by no incredible you know And that is very unique, isn't it? A very small family like that. My cousin said that you have to get it for free as well, which is important to know. If you wanted to check with the NHS, I think you have to have an immediate family member that has been diagnosed with it. And because of all my family members and my cousin now getting that official, apparently I would get it on the NHS
and fast. but to get to pay I'm sure when I spoke to the specialist before it was a few thousand pounds and I think it was like three thousand I think for the first one and I was thinking you know some people don't have that many do they so it's a there's a lot of privilege with certain parts of being tested than health isn't there just for another day absolutely no I'd love to have you back on and chat some more about it. I know you've got your music side as well,
but it'll always be tied up. You just seem so sort of clued up with it. That's very important to a lot of people. Before we move on to your new single, Psychic, tell us a bit more about ITV today, the documentary thing you were doing. Tell us a bit more about that. Was it February you did that? It was not long ago. No, it was... Well, to be fair, you are right. It was February that it was out, but we filmed it in November.
and yeah the ITV documentary because it was it was my idea because there was a documentary that I was getting filmed for another TV show that I can't mention the name of for legal reasons probably, that we were filming it and I do not want them coming for me after this week and that's all I'll say. They were doing a documentary and they liked the idea of making a TV show about me making it as a pop star while my mum is ill because that was her one thing. She was like
a stage mum from America. She was like... taking me to shows even when I was in my 20s and dancing front row telling everybody that it was amazing and she seen that I had star power she said and she wanted me to be a famous pop star so she was very active in my career as a stage mom and they you know they heard of the story and that she was sick and she was no longer remembering things and they were like while she still remembers you and is you know engaging with music and loving
this it'd be nice to do a show um of us following you up in the race of trying to get into the charts and while you're going to vegas and maspalomas and see if you can get there before she passes away so quite sad of course yeah so that was the the whole purpose and then that got scrapped because she died um very rude very rude um and uh so when she passed and then I thought no this story needs to be told you know there's a lot of um it's not spoken about enough and I thought
there was some things coming out in the media um you know a few presenters from this morning and you know there was a lot of celebrities like you know Chris Hemsworth had done a genetic testing and there was a lot of dementia with Bruce Willis and stuff excuse me so I was saying that it'd be really good to do a um documentary about this and you know to highlight a few of the key issues and um Yeah, so I contacted my friend who was a producer and she she loved the idea and then
ITV came on board and yeah, we did it and then as you know with TV things always change in the end and Because I didn't really have an active family member with it. They needed to tell other people's stories Which is also super important. So the narrative sort of changed and I didn't have as much control as I thought but there was still very important topics in it. So I'm very proud of it. I'm very grateful. This is Nick and Sue with Cheddar Box, giving you all you
need to know about musical entertainment. Cheddar Box! Cheddar Box! Cheddar Box! Cheddar Box! Cheddar Box! Cheddar Box! Right, let's talk about Psychic then, the story behind the single, so it's like... Yes, I'm part two of that question, thank you for that. So yeah, so then I was releasing music and the next single I was trying to think, right, which ones do I have? Because I've always got like a big box of my demos and which ones are going to work and which ones are new songs, which
ones I need to revisit. There's always, every artist has like 50, 60 songs that. And Psychic was one that I showed my mum in 2021 after lockdown. I would actively go there every, every few weeks and be like, man, which ones are these? Do you like, do you like this? And then she'd be very critical in a good way. She'd just be like, right, that one's good. You sound good on that one. That's a, that's very dancy. And she loved the dance ones where it was like a bouncy pop song.
And so I played a psychic and she was like, I love this one. And I was like, I don't know. It's not, it's not there yet. And she was like, no, it's, it's really happy and it's positive. And yeah. So she was really excited about it.
And then I ended up going with another song and then obviously when she passed I thought it'd be really cute to revisit this song you know in her honor because she loved it and um yeah and it's just an empowering pop song you know just about trusting yourself and not listening to other people and it's it's just taken on a deeper meaning for me you know since she passed
really. Sure and it's great that she's in the video as well you've done a really good video with it and I think it's lovely it's just really
special so that's great yeah. we had to have her in it just little clips because it's really hard to find clips I was saying to someone the other day it's really hard to find clips of someone you know in if someone from like the 90s or 80s or 70s you know to try and find those videos from the attic and that that was a yeah that was a tricky thing to try and find so I had just lots of mini clips that I could have this together for the video bless her uh so what's next for
you i mean you've been in the previous years you've been very active on the pride scene so is there more even in the usa so is there more of that because it's only weeks away really we're april already when you start adding it into weeks it's not long so um are you more of that around the place around the world yeah yeah definitely i think for me it always just comes back to to music and bigger performances taking things to the next level more music and I think I've got
a few shows lined up that they haven't announced yet but there's a few prides and I'm hoping to release an album so that's that's pretty much all recorded really I just need to do some final touches so that will be in May and that is called On My Mind and it's got various pop empowering songs like this that are about like mental health and breakups anything that is challenged your you know your mental capacity somehow and the dementia stuff and all these things that I've
been battling, you know, after a breaker, my mum passing away, thinking about this. So, yeah, it's all about the music and bigger performances. And I just love big stages. So I'm always looking for the next challenge. The bigger, the better for me, I think, every time. I have no doubt your mum's watching you. She's still your number one fan. To be honest with you, you've got the looks and you've got the sound to make it. You give a great interview and I'm sure you really
will. I absolutely do think that. I'd like you to keep in touch with Chatterbox really because I think it probably was the podcast you heard, was it? Yes. I could easily be found there. So just leave a message. I mean, when you got something coming up, you know, I still want to find your face, but if not, you know, you can find me there anyway. So you always leave a message and work things out from there. So that'd be great. What
about new releases? I know we've got this we're approaching this now, but and you mentioned an album. So, yeah, let's just ask you this question. If you were to come back in, say, six months time, what would you like to be telling me you've achieved? I love that question. My boyfriend told me that I'm not allowed to say I love that question, but I love interesting questions about
my work. I'm hoping that the album would have been out, it would have been a success, there'd have been a few more TV, I'd have been on some
TV shows and doing more interviews. all my Pride stuff and my performances will have been announced and it would be nice in six months if I could say that you know I've just started my headlining tour because that's the goal isn't it but I want it to be successful I want to have enough successful songs that people are gonna really enjoy the show because I've got my dancers and stuff and I really like to do a full production I'm like the Lady Gaga like I do want everything picked
and grown. And I'm probably quite annoying. It'd be really good if I just got up there with a mic and a guitar and would do a show every week. But because I put 100 % into it, I I'm quite selective of what I do. And whether that's good or bad, it's just I have that just that moral capacity like that I want to do things to a high
level. and yeah so it'd be really nice if I if all that stuff will have come true by that point successfully and yeah I have lots of music but I again I don't want to just release just this is a song every every other month I want to put my heart and soul into it and really know that it's gonna mean something you know so yeah the next song is ready as well so yeah. Perfect.
Are you able to do festivals at all? Yes, but I always find like because I do everything on my own at the moment I am pretending to be my own manager and I do have some family and friends and I have like my my boyfriend is my fake security because he's like six foot six and my best friend yeah he comes and he's very supportive and he comes to my festivals and prides and stuff and it's been really helpful actually because before I was doing it all on my own but he's he comes
and he tells people like you know if they've got my name wrong because I'm a smaller artist or if they've put me on the wrong time or and he will deal with that for me which takes a big stress off me and my friend who comes my best friend she's like my assistant and my my you know my friend who's marrying my brother she is like my manager and helps me with all the legal side and emails and stuff so yeah the the festivals and stuff they they're all helping
me and trying to get on the biggest ones and there may be some surprises this summer so I'm excited about that. Can we expect to see you down at Brighton Pride this year? Are you able to make that one do you think? Brighton Pride would be amazing. I have been in talks with them. I haven't had the confirmation contract signed yet. How amazing would that one be? I would be honoured. Biggest cross, let's hope so. Manifest for me. That's our nearest large pride because
we're not far from there, you know. It's big now. Absolutely. It's a great city to have up the road, isn't it? It really is. Absolutely. It really is. OK. I mean, I did say, you said, how long would this be? And I said, oh, 15, 20 minutes. But you have been so interesting. That's nearly half hour. Sorry about that. I don't shut up this way. That's what we want. That's what we want. It's been so interesting. And we've
learnt a lot. Absolutely. Before I let you go though, Matthew, let's do some social media. How can people find you and take a look at you? So people can find me on all platforms. It's Matthew Joseph or Matthew Joseph Official. My Instagram is Matthew Joseph Official and there's a link tree in my bio there that has all my links. So, you know, my Spotify, my TikTok, Twitter, there's about 12 of them. You know how it is. It's been great meeting you. It's been a fascinating
interview and let's do it again. Thanks for coming on Chatterbox and we'll catch you again sometime. Thank you very much. I would be very grateful to come back. Thank you very much. Every success. Take care. Bye bye now. Bye. You've been listening to the Chatterbox Redux podcast and today our
special guest was Matthew Joseph. If you're interested in becoming a future guest on the Chatterbox Redux podcast or the radio show Chatterbox UK, you're welcome to submit songs, books or whatever it is you do and send us a CV, synopsis or press release. However, we receive several thousand such press releases every week and it's impossible to reply to each one individually. Why not email us or leave a comment because we'd love to know
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Chatterbox Redux podcast. In the meantime, take care, we thank you for your company and we catch you then. Bye bye. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical attainment Chatterbox the best interviews with Nick and Sue the best news