Hi I’m Matt, I play drums in the ska punk band Less Than Jake. Here’s a little story of how I got here, it’s been an interesting trip! I moved to Nashville, TN from New Jersey in 1996 to fill in for a tour with a small punk band called Teen Idols. Little did I know this move would change everything for me. Teen Idols signed to Fat Wreck Chords and went on to release 4 full length records and tour internationally both headlining and supporting bands like NOFX, LESS THAN JAKE, Swingin Utters, Tilt, Mr T Experience, etc. While Teen Idols were on tour supporting Less Than Jake in 2001, I told Vinnie (the then drummer of LTJ) if he ever needed a drum tech to hit me up. Well, just a few months later he asked if I wanted to go out on the 2001 Warped Tour! I accepted and never looked back. In between touring w/ Teen Idols and teching for LTJ I also started touring with pop punk legends, The Queers. Playing in The Queers led to a TON of international touring and an opportunity to play on the bands Pleasant Screams record. Around that same time I was fortunate enough to also record on records by The Methadones and the Ben Weasel solo record Fidatavi. In 2003 Teen Idols decided to call it a day and just a short time later I started the band Bullets To Broadway with a few of the other Teen Idols members. Unfortunately Bullets only got to do a few tours and one ep (recorded by Roger LTJ) before disbanding in 2006. After another short stint with The Queers from 2007-2008 I then went back to LTJ, this time for good. Upon returning to LTJ this time I was looking at the tech job in a whole new light. I decided to REALLY dig into the tech side of the touring world. I learned everything I could: stage manager duties, production duties, tour manager duties, and eventually even mixing support bands on tours to get practice w/ FOH sound. All of this eventually led me up the ladder in LTJ land. I moved from Stage Manager to Tour Manager, from TM to TM / FOH sound, from TM/FOH to CO MGMT / TM / FOH. Honestly that’s where I thought I’d stay with LTJ (which is enough right??). But in Sept 2018, Vinnie decided to step down from drumming and touring all together and I got the call from the band saying “you’re up” . Holy S**t I was freaking out. My first show was less than 2 weeks later without a full band practice supporting Bad Religion and I GUESS it went well… Here I am It’s been a journey that’s for sure, can’t wait to see what this next chapter brings. 🤟🏻