HASKINS – As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Haskins, Ohio native Matt Palka – an author, singer, songwriter and award-winning filmmaker – is releasing his ode to America.
Moment in the Sun is an immersive audiobook that captures a life-changing cross-country solo bike ride that brought him closer to the soul of America. During that 2,361 mile trek from Haskins to Lake Tahoe, Palka faced challenges he never thought he would overcome, stripping himself of his ego while meeting ordinary Americans.
“I was a brazen young man who wanted to feel alive – to test himself and be out there, trying to be in touch with my maker,” he said.
Growing up, Palka was the captain of the soccer team at Otsego High School, where he also performed in musicals. So when he headed to Ohio University, he decided to major in theater, but he also picked up his dad’s guitar and began singing and songwriting. Palka fell in love with The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Van Morrison, whose stream-of-consciousness Astral Weeks expanded his world.
As he was set to graduate from OU in 1999, Palka was dealt a blow: his plans to get an acting internship in Minneapolis evaporated. During a party, a friend suggested he visit her and her boyfriend in Lake Tahoe. He didn’t even know that was in California. When Palka said his car wouldn’t make it, she said, “Ride your bike.”
His parents suggested that he take over their Grand Rapids fudge shop. Instead, Palka paid $100 for a 40-pound steel bike, and spent a few weeks biking from Haskins to Grand Rapids and running five miles a day.
“I was not in shape for the trip. And my bike was so heavy I couldn’t lift it up,” he said, noting that his bike was 150 pounds with gear, including pots, pans, cans of beans and a guitar so he could busk for funds when his $600 ran out. His goal was to refill his water jug in each town.
“I thought I’d make it through Indiana that first day. I only made it to Kalida, pushing my bike into town with heat exhaustion,” he said.
As he was headed into a restaurant/truck stop in Kalida, Palka met a cyclist who was headed to Boston from San Francisco.
“He bought me a Gatorade and told me his story. That gave me enough encouragement that I knew I could make it,” Palka said.
He laughs about the many other cyclists he met along the way, who rode lighter bikes and headed east to take advantage of the tailwinds.
“Someone told me I had the most loaded bike he’d ever seen. I was going 11 mph into the wind,” Palka said.
Some days he rode 40 miles, other days 80 to 100, stopping along the way in towns to listen to stories from local residents or others who were passing through.
Plenty of times he thought he wouldn’t make it, like when he was riding on the highest roadway in America – 20 miles of 7,500- to 12,000-foot elevation in Rocky Mountain National Park. Along that route, a 40 mph wind could knock a cyclist off a sheer dropoff on either side of the road. He had motorists throw glass bottles at him; spent an evening with witches; faced off with a bull in Nevada; and played chicken with a car on an empty highway in the desert.
In his 2012 book, Moment in the Sun, Palka shared his experiences on the road through the character Riley Holiday – who is also the protagonist in upcoming books.
This audiobook version of Moment in the Sun is fully immersive, using Dolby Atmos – technology that adds dimension to sound, creating a 3D soundscape rather than just surround sound.
“In the 11 hours of this audiobook, you’re on the handlebars. You can hear the gears shifting, the wind blowing, the cars blowing by. You can put my headphones on and hear the music and, at night, you can almost hear the stars shooting by as you look at the Milky Way,” Palka said. “Think of it as a Netflix series without the picture. You can imagine being in Ohio in July with the locusts, the tree frogs and the hooting of owls.”
Dean Hovey, an award-winning supervising sound editor, mixer, designer and composer, went to great lengths for accurate sounds, even taking that original steel bike to an abandoned airfield to record the actual bicycle used on the trip. The audiobook soundtrack features 39 songs that Palka wrote and recorded using real musicians, sometimes incorporating full string and horn arrangements. No AI was used in any portion of the project.
“Think of this as an Netflix series or 11-hour movie without the picture. In talks with Dolby Atmos, they believe this is the first first-person narrative where it’s fully immersive,” said Palka.
“It’s a transformative world. Maybe you’re not brave enough to go out there. Maybe you’re not physically capable. This gets people as close as they can get to being on the bike and sharing my powerful journey and experience.”
The Moment in the Sun audiobook releases on June 25, but Palka also has an album with 11 original songs coming out June 19. Palka discusses the audiobook and music further on Americana Bohemia, a podcast that explores the adventurous and creative spirit thriving in America’s most unexpected places. Listen to it here.
Next up for Palka is book two of his Life of Riley Holiday series, based on the time he spent as a clubhouse manager taking care of 30 professional athletes in the Toledo Mud Hens.
“It’s a fish out of water story – a hippie musician trying to find his voice among the modern gladiator world,” he said of the 40-song soundtrack.
He is working on book three, based on a VW bus tour throughout America, stopping in college towns, doing background acting work for TV and commercials in LA, making his own films and creating soundtracks for himself and other artists.
And it all started with that decision to get on his bike and ride.
“I was so lucky to take a chance. Whatever you want to do, you can do it,” he said.
For more information, visit mattpalka.com.
