Tim Receveur and Mike DeMatteo are lifelong ska music aficionados.
It’s a passion that Receveur and his wife, April, turned into an 11-year venture organizing the Supernova International Ska Festival, which starts on Sept. 12 at Fort Monroe in Hampton. DeMatteo turned into decades of musicianship and audio-video work.
Now, some of the elder veterans of the scene are not too “rude” to give back to the next generation. That’s why they’re starting a program to give students from historically underrepresented communities hands-on experience in live event production, while exploring the history and culture of the Jamaican music genre.
Supernova Alliance, the Hampton-based ska festival’s nonprofit arm, received a $4,900 grant from the Virginia Humanities’ regional center at WHRO to get it started. The effort is also being boosted by DeMatteo’s nonprofit, the DeMatteo Family Foundation.
Ska music was born in the 1960s in a Jamaica celebrating its recent independence from the United Kingdom. Its sounds were a blend of popular African American music in the United States, including jazz, R&B and early rock ‘n’ roll, with the offbeat-emphasizing tunes of the mento and calypso genres of the Caribbean. Members of the Jamaican “rude boy” subculture were among its early fans, inspiring songs and becoming a longstanding identifier used by ska fans.
The genre evolved with new cultural influences, leading to notable offshoots such as reggae and ska-punk. It perhaps had its heyday in the U.S. during the mid-to-late 1990s when bands such as Reel Big Fish and No Doubt gained national recognition.
That was the decade Receveur and DeMatteo found ska.
Receveur, about 20 and staying in Japan, remembers a kind record store owner giving him the California-based Voodoo Glow Skulls’ record to initiate him. DeMatteo was introduced to it by older students in high school when he was a 15-year-old saxophonist in his school band, a common pipeline into the genre.
That early mentorship is part of why they want to serve a similar role today, while also giving young people an opportunity to learn about career opportunities in event production.
“Having that keep going, for us, it’s like one of the best things that could happen,” Receveur said.
The program, called Amplifying Talent, was first imagined in 2024. Bobby Wright, professor of music and audio engineering at Hampton University, reached out to get his students involved in the festival.
DeMatteo, a performer and manager of the festival’s livestream since 2021, saw the possibilities and welcomed them in.
“They thought they were just going to dip their toes in,” DeMatteo said. “Then they just became staples of the livestream booth; it was just pure enjoyment.”
This year, with more time to plan and funding for equipment and training, DeMatteo and Receveur are welcoming back interested students from Wright’s class and recruiting from other music education programs.
Some that they’ve reached out to include Revolution Rock Music School in Yorktown, Soundscapes in Newport News and an established Supernova partner in the Alpha School of Music, a Jamaican school known for helping pioneer ska music. Students from the Alpha School regularly visit the festival with a Jamaican government delegation.
DeMatteo said, in addition to growing the genre, it’s a way to give students outside of media powerhouses in LA and New York a chance to practice technical skills in a changing media environment that’s seen livestreaming grow into big business. He compared it to a trial by fire.
“You learn, real quick, do you like this or do you not?” DeMatteo said. “What you’ve done is you’ve sparked that instant moment where they go ‘Yes, I love this, this is the adrenaline I want, this is that fire I was looking for.’ ”
Recruitment is moving quickly now that the school year has begun. DeMatteo is planning to produce a video showcasing the students’ work this year.
Receveur is also eyeing next steps for the Supernova Alliance. He’s looking into building connections between the Alliance, the Alpha School and local programs to introduce young musicians to ska in the summers and invite them to play at the festival.
“We’re getting people involved younger and people are bringing their kids to this,” Receveur said. “It’s so ska just doesn’t die off with the old people in it.”
Editor's note: WHRO Public Media is home to Virginia Humanities' regional humanities center. Virginia Humanities has no involvement in the newsroom’s editorial decisions.
