Could you introduce yourself to anyone who doesn’t already know you?

Hey man, thanks for reaching out for this interview. I love what you're doing with the website - archiving and hyping all the cool stuff happening up here. For everybody else, hi I’m Matt. I live in Seattle and juggle hanging out with my three year old with playing in Chopping Block, hiking, camping, playing board games, and eating pizza with friends. 

What was your introduction to punk, hardcore?

When I was a teenager there was a venue in Redmond called the Old Firehouse that had shows every Friday. It didn’t matter who was playing, we’d know that our friends would be there so we were there. I think the OFH had a heyday that I was a little bit young for, but I saw a lot of cool bands and fell in love with loud live music. Seattle had a law called the Teen Dance Ordinance that really restricted all ages shows in the city itself, so a lot of all ages shows moved to the suburbs. 

My real awakening was in the summer of 2000. Hatebreed played with local openers Contingent and Everything Went Black. It blew me away and I knew that THIS was what I had been looking for. Hardcore kids flyered that show and we found out about this whole new world. I probably went to five shows in the next two weeks and twenty or twenty five that summer. Contingent, EWB, Stay Gold, Left With Nothing and other local bands l fell in love with. It was amazing. 

You've played in bands from The Answer to Chopping Block. Could you tell us about each one ?

Sure yeah. I’ve played in one band or another for most of the time I’ve been involved in hardcore. 

My first real band was a straightedge band called The Answer. We played from 2001-2006 I think? It was fun as hell and the guys in the band have an active text thread to this day. We had the opportunity to play shows and tour with some of our favorite bands, Terror, Killing the Dream, and others but what I loved the most about The Answer were the local shows. Mostly in basements and DIY spaces, packed in with familiar faces. I’ll never forget seeing kids seeing along to my lyrics in random places like Reno, Calgary, and Portland Maine. Part of being in the Answer, getting small and medium sized shows booked for us up and down the west coast, pushed us into booking shows for my friend's bands when they came through Seattle and Olympia. For a few years The Answer (along with Stop at Nothing, great fucking band) was sort of the 'house band' at Midnight Sun down in Oly and the West Seattle Legion Hall.

There's a straightedge band from New Jersey called The Answer nowadays, and I fucking love that. Floorpunch rules and The NJ Answer rages. If they ever come through Seattle I'm gonna pit so hard for them, and then I'll give them a 7" from my The Answer.

Vanguard was born in the immediate, angry aftermath of Super Bowl 48. Our Seahawks got robbed so me and my buddy Wayne went into our basement and immediately wrote four short angry songs. We wanted to write songs that were fun to play, fun to mosh to, with lyrics that mattered. Vanguard never did any long tours, but we had a great time on long weekends down to northern california or especially rolling through Kelowna and Spokane out to Calgary. (Calgary is NWHC.) My favorite memory of Vanguard, we were on a trip where we played Kelowna on Friday and Calgary on Saturday, then Vancouver Sunday night. The Kelowna show was an absolute rager (every OVHC show I've ever been to has been wild) and our guitar player Ian was getting wild and broke his ankle during our set. We thought it was just a bad sprain, but he couldn't stand and couldn't walk. The next morning we still hadn't decided if we were going to drive out to Calgary or turn around and drive home.

We in the van, at a literal crossroads - turn right onto 97A and go to Calgary, turn left onto 97 and head home. Ian is a fucking animal and said "fuck you guys, we're playing Calgary. Turn right. Let's fucking go." And so we did. And dude the show was an absolute monster, one of the best shows we've ever played. Ian was on stage in a chair right at the front of the stage playing and headbanging and the place went wild. I'd love to see a video of that set. It was an awesome reminder of how awesome DIY hardcore is, the energy at shows, and how if you show love to NWHC it will love you back.

(One of my big regrets is that neither Vanguard or The Answer have an internet presence. I don't have the CDs so I can't even listen to them! If anybody can dropbox me wav files I'll get those suckers onto Spotify.)

After Vanguard, I sang in a band called Clarity. I'm really proud of Clarity - definitely the best lyrics I've written and we had the opportunity to spend time in the studio and get things right. Clarity also has a real minimal internet presence. (This seems to be a theme for me.) What I love about that band was that we were committed to doing dope shit on tour. On our way out to Calgary we'd stop in Banff, or driving from Reno down to LA we stopped at Mammoth to hike. We went to Disneyland on tour, or would play basketball with friends. Shit like that. For me, Clarity was the band that I knew wasn't ever going to 'make it big' whatever that means for a youth crew band - so it let us relax, focus on writing the best music we possibly could, and having fun. Ian from Clarity went on to be in awesome bands Regional Justice Center and Militarie Gun. It's been awesome watching my friend continue to grow as a musician and songwriter.

Now I play in Chopping Block. Chopping Block started as a collaboration between Kevin and Antonio, I heard the demo and knew that I needed to be in this band! Chopping Block played our first show March 5th 2020, and then got sidelined pretty hard by Covid. My wife was pregnant and I was trying to play it all very safe, so we didn't practice or play really at all in 2020 or 2021. We put out some new songs in January 2024 that I really really like, and are starting to play out a little bit more. Some of the guys in Block play two of my favorite bands: Public Opinion and Punitive Damage. It's rad to see them out there crushing it, PubOp is on a month long tour right now. If you haven't checked out their LP Modern Convenience, stop what you're doing right now and put it on. It's so good.

We’re having a great time in Chopping Block, writing new songs like crazy and playing out of town every chance we get. 

What are some of your favorite memories and shows?

Oh man there’s so many. The very first day of the first Rain Fest we had no idea what to expect. I remember rolling up the the venue at 5pm, an hour before doors, and seeing 40 kids throwing frisbees on the lawn at the West Seattle Legion Hall. RF felt like a big risk and seeing that much enthusiasm made me so relieved. 

Kind of the same thing, but fifteen years later, Chopping Block played the first show show at Pizza Twist and it was off the charts. Just high energy and great vibes and reminding me of why we put so much time and effort into this thing. 

You used to book Rainfest with Skiff and Zack. I think RF is alot of people's first thought when they think of the northwest scene. What are some of your favorite sets/memories from back then? Any behind the scenes stories about booking or getting it all together that you'd want to share?
Booking Rainfest was one of the highlights of my life, for sure. I became lifelong friends with Zack and Skiff, and learned so much about how I want to treat bands and people. 

Off the top of my head, some of my favorite sets…

- Set it Straight closing day three of the first Rainfest, and massive circle pit. 

- Terror at Viaduct, absolutely bonkers

- Rotting Out covering Andrew WK… and then that video going viral and us booking AWK!

- Angel Dust covering Bikini Kill

- Power, every Sunday. 

It was always so important to us to use the weekend as a showcase for the amazing things happening up here. We’d spend hours sweating the lineup trying to put every local band in the exact slot that would be best for them. Sometimes that was a little earlier than they “deserved”, so they could set the room on fire and defy expectations. Other times a bit later in the day, sandwiched between two hyped bands so that they’d have a full room to play with. 

My favorite thing will always be our decision to close out the last Rainfest with Power and Ill Intent. NWHC on top. I remember like it was yesterday, Zack and I were on the street outside Real Art when we called Ricky from Power to ask/tell them we wanted them to headline. 

Us: “Hey dude we’ve been talking about it. We’ve got Down To Nothing booked, but we want Power to close out the very last RainFest.”

(Long pause)

Ricky: “uhh. Like, to headline? Rainfest? Are you sure, ok, hell yeah.”

(Long pause)

Ricky: “can we get weird with it?”

So they did. 

I remember when you used to book shows at the West Seattle legion hall. Some of the first shows i went to were there. The place was really cool. Could you take about some of the shows there, how it came to be a regular venue for a while? (Shout out to the Hope Con show)
It was the summer of 2003 I think, and there just wasn’t anywhere to do small and medium sized all ages hardcore shows. A bunch of venues were closed off to us because of fights, some closed, and others had $500 room costs. I had picked up a buddy who lived in West Seattle and we literally just drove by the Legion Hall that had a huge sign “rent this hall.” Sooo… we did. 

From 2003 until 2011 or so I did a couple shows a month there. At one point they just gave me a key. It was just a room - we bring the PA and the cash box and the stamp, we figure out who’s gonna watch the door when the bands we want to watch were playing. 

We did some really great shows there. Everyone from The First Step and DTN to heavy bands like Thou. Punks and skins like Whiskey Rebels and Pressure Point. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot along the way. 

Who are some of your all time favorite nwhc bands?
There’s too many to list. Stay Gold was the band that made me fall in love with hardcore. Trial was the band that taught me hardcore needs to be about something bigger than ourselves. Brotherhood, Dead Weight, and Keep it Clear are the bands I still keep in constant rotation 
Who are your favorite current locals or bands you think people are sleeping on?

About fucking time we get here Miller! NWHC right now is better than it has ever been. It’s more inclusive and welcoming of people that don’t look like the two of us. Theres bands. So many good bands. There’s venues and promoters and good photographers and videographers. 

Are people sleeping on any of these bands? I don’t know. Let me tell you some of my favorites though. SPURR. Good band full of good humans. It’s been awesome watching them grow, and the single they dropped in March is fucking awesome chaos. CUJO. These dudes know how to riff and I love watching Kevin sing in bands. LAND LOST. Absolutely fire band. I like everything Caleb has played in, but this is my favorite. BAD IMAGE. Hardcore punk. Awesome live show. Great recordings. 

What would you like to see from the scene currently?

Honestly I love what we’ve got going on.Let’s keep coming out to shows, putting on for locals. Let’s keep the good vibes. Keep starting bands. The one thing we have to watch out for is we can’t get all cliquey. 100 kids at one show is way more fun than 50 kids at two shows, and infinitely better than 25 kids at four shows. So let’s keep the good things going and support each other. 
Is there anything you’d like to leave people with?

Well to everyone who read this far, thanks I guess. I want to end this with the very simple idea that hardcore is YOUR THING now. Take care of it, grow it. Make it better. You can’t sit back waiting for someone else to play in a band you like, you need to start that band. If you don’t like the way something is going, get involved and change the direction. And talk to people! I guarantee you they’ll take it better than you think.