Hey Matthew! So, what were you like as a teen back in the year 2000?
“Was I a bummed-out teenager? Yeah! I 100 per cent was not the typical rap-rock kid portrayed in the video, though. I was actually more of a hardcore kid, playing in a band with a UK ’82 vibe, but we managed to become friends with Papa Roach through the local music community. Our town had like 90,000 people, but it was very small-town minded. We had very little resource. Vacaville does not really support art. If you like sports, you’re fine, but if you liked the alternative you’d walk down the street and get called all sorts of inappropriate names. There was our band, the emo band, that one straight-edge hardcore band, and Papa Roach. We all had to stick together. They were friends and avid supporters of all things underground music – including us!”
So, tell us about your band…
“We’re called Monster Squad – like the ’80s movie, but in no way associated with it. We started in January 1997, when I was 15. June that year, we played our first show… and it was with Papa Roach. We were a proper hardcore punk band: Mohawks, leather jackets, big boots, plaid pants. In the punk community, it was considered kind of funny that I was featured in the video because we from are such different worlds. I understood why people thought like that, but those guys treated us like family and really took us under their wing when they didn’t need to. Monster Squad is actually still together – although we don’t get to tour so much nowadays as a bunch of us have kids...”
How did you end up in the Last Resort video?
“In the video, there’s a female who [segues] from laying down in her bedroom to a crowdsurf. That’s my friend Megan, who I’ve known since sixth grade and who’s still one of my best friends. I didn’t really have access to the internet back then, but she did, so she ended up signing both of us up to be in the video. The big hoorah – the main shoot – happened over at the Cal Expo centre, but my main memory is of the crew rolling up to my mom’s house at like 7am to shoot me in my room. My friend – now a renowned tattooist – Gustavo Martinez was supposed to be there, but he didn’t make it. My other friend Jason, from a band called Die Trying did, though, even though I don’t know whether he was actually invited! People always joke about how sad I look in the video – but what 17-year-old is going to look happy being awake at 7am on Saturday morning?!”
What have you been up to between then and now?
“I’m 37 now. From that local band, we went from being that high school band hustling our own demo tapes to eventually releasing our own records. I played in other bands called West At Seven, Great Apes, Build Us Airplanes. After Papa Roach got signed, it feels like every band around the entire Bay felt like they could too. They taught us work ethic: busting your ass for your band. And they taught us about treating other bands kindly. Outside music, I worked in music retail for a long time, then Apple retail. But I worked on photography that whole time, too! After Papa Roach got signed, MTV called me up to ask me if they could use some of my pictures. That gave me a lot of confidence. Eventually, it led me to my current job where I get to interview graphic designers, record the video, edit it and share it! And I still shoot concerts all the time and have photography shows here and there, too, where I’ll hopefully sell a few prints.”