WHEN Nathan Lo Monaco ruptured the C4 and C5 vertebrae in his neck while playing first grade in the Newcastle Rugby League at 20 he was naturally devastated.
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Footy was finished. Years of dedication to training back in his hometown of Port Macquarie, and then in the Knights junior system, had seemingly been crushed in one painful instant.
Little did Lo Monaco know that the injury would revive his other passion - music. Since the age of 10 he has played guitar and at 14 Lo Monaco performed his first gigs. But as rugby league dominated his teens, music was placed on the back burner.
"It played out the right way because as soon as I stopped playing footy, I got back into music," Lo Monaco said.
Three years ago Lo Monaco played his first gig back at Mexican restaurant Antojitos before progressing to weddings and the Newcastle covers gig circuit. It was former Screaming Jets guitarist Grant Walmsley, who met Lo Monaco at a Wickham Park Hotel jam night, that urged him to persevere with songwriting.
The result was Lo Monaco's debut single Take Me, released in February and inspired by his late grandfather. Last week he followed with his second single Slow Decay.
The track was initially composed by Lo Monaco when he was 16, before the lyrics were re-written to reflect a more mature outlook. It combines Lo Monaco's various roots, pop and R'n'B influences.
"I drew from past experiences in relationships," he said. "A lot of the time we think it's love and sometimes it can be lust. My whole perspective on love has changed a whole lot since I was 16, so I told the story again, but from a more mature perspective."
Lo Monaco will launch Slow Decay at the Cambridge Hotel on October 31.
