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For web persona, musician, and entrepreneur Matt Cutshall, being emo was by no means a part. In truth, it was his future all alongside. As a teenager within the early ‘00s, Cutshall, like many others, gravitated in direction of the vulnerability and depth of emo music and took nice inspiration from the style. Eventually, he shaped his personal group IT BOYS! within the late aughts, which carried out on the notorious Vans Warped Tour a whopping 4 instances throughout their run as a band — making Cutshall a licensed, seasoned scene veteran.
When the style skilled a industrial decline within the early 2010s, Cutshall was left feeling a void that he was dying to fill. Thankfully, on the flip of the subsequent decade, emo, as soon as presumed useless, rose from the ashes and started to make a critical comeback. Not solely had been folks leaning on nostalgia as a type of consolation throughout attempting instances, however youthful generations started to find the music and way of life, successfully respiratory new life into the tradition as a complete. Cutshall acted shortly and started posting hilarious, partaking YouTube movies as his emotionally over-the-top, aptly titled alter ego “Emo Matt,” paying tribute to his favourite emo songs and enlisting a number of the scene’s most outstanding figures in cameos. With the success of the Youtube channel, Cutshall finally launched the approach to life brand Emo’s Not Dead, which has since ventured into the type and live music areas.
Read extra: Our favourite moments from When We Were Young Festival, probably the most emo event of the yr
This previous November, Cutshall and co. placed on the first-ever Emo’s Not Dead Cruise, which featured an iconic lineup of traditional scene bands together with Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory, Thursday, Underoath, and others, and set sail from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico. The cruise was such an amazing success that the group behind Emo’s Not Dead are already placing collectively the subsequent tour, scheduled for late winter 2024.
Even past Emo’s Not Dead, Cutshall’s additionally been returning to his songwriting and performing roots with a new musical challenge, Your Broken Hero, which plans to launch new “scene” music quickly. In an unique interview with Alt Press, Matt Cutshall particulars the resurgence of emo tradition, the genesis of the Emo’s Not Dead brand, and the very thrilling future that lies forward.
Why do you assume emo music and tradition is having such a resurgence in reputation in the mean time?
I believe every little thing finally circles again, and every little thing turns into a traditional in some unspecified time in the future. Though emo music is not fairly “oldies,” a lot of it is over 20 years outdated now, so youthful persons are simply now discovering it as music that their dad and mom [maybe] listened to.
In my opinion, there is no style fairly like emo — as within the feeling that you just get watching these live bands, how emotional it is, and how aggressive it may be watching bands like Underoath and Silverstein. The general vitality is large. With this comeback, this youthful era is seeing these bands live for the primary time and they’re blown away as a result of they’ve by no means seen something prefer it [before].
What had been these preliminary emo bands that particularly sparked your love for the style?
I went to highschool with two of my greatest mates Judah and Duck Leary and they had been in a [screamo] band referred to as Reclaim the Fallen. It was in all probability 2003 once I went to their first present and it was additionally my first time ever experiencing and seeing screamo music, crowd browsing, and the general vitality. From there, I used to be hooked and requested them who I ought to take heed to. They bought me into Emery, Underoath, the Used, Taking Back Sunday, and the remainder is historical past.
How did you develop your alter ego “Emo Matt,” and do you ever really feel like it’s important to methodology act to get into character, or is this simply one other extension of you?
I’ve a lot of expertise being that emo character. I began a band referred to as IT BOYS!, and we performed Warped Tour for 4 years, and I bought my expertise doing my [Taking Back Sunday frontman] Adam Lazzara strikes on stage. That stage presence and efficiency has at all times been in me since then, so basically I’m simply getting again to my glory days and bringing it again to life with this character.
I began releasing these movies in 2019, and it began in a Snapchat story the place my fiancé Arielle put her hair over my brow to make it seem like bangs and I sang Taking Back Sunday or the Used to the digital camera. That Snapchat story ended up getting a lot engagement. I bought so many messages like, “I haven’t heard that song in years,” or, “I miss Underoath,” and that basically sparked the thought to do movies exterior of Snapchat. I consider the primary video we did was me singing Hawthorne Heights as my emo character and it blew up on-line.
What was the method like placing collectively the Emo’s Not Dead cruise, and what would you say was probably the most fulfilling side of it when trying again?
This was probably the most tough job that I’ve ever achieved. When I first posted a survey on my Facebook to see if folks would need to go on an Emo’s Not Dead cruise, I anticipated to have perhaps 2,000 folks fill out the seven-page survey –– however then 40,000 folks ended up filling it out. I used to be fully shocked, in order that was the primary indicator that I had one thing. I’m so grateful that these bands trusted me to place this collectively. To present as much as that sold-out cruise and see all of those legendary bands play a cruise that I curated was an absolute dream come true. I’ve been working within the leisure enterprise for 16 years now, and this was by far my largest accomplishment.
[Photo courtesy of Emo’s Not Dead]
With Emo’s Not Dead breaking into the apparel world as nicely, it looks like it has already turn out to be a key fixture within the type of the fashionable emo tradition. How does that really feel?
I’m so joyful that so many followers are resonating with the merch. After my sixth or seventh video, I made a decision that I wanted to search out a strategy to fund the movies as they bought larger and larger. We needed to fly to completely different components of the nation to shoot with completely different band guys, so these movies had been including as much as a few thousand {dollars} a pop that I used to be popping out of pocket to pay for. I can’t monetize on Facebook or YouTube as a result of I don’t personal the songs, so I actually make zero {dollars} [in that respect]. My first drop was a plain black T-shirt that mentioned “Emo’s Not Dead” and it ended up promoting out within the first couple of days. I scaled the brand from there and now we now have a full-time designer and fulfill [orders] out of our personal warehouse in central Oregon. The merch is truthfully what’s fueling our brand and permits me to pay my workers, have a cruise, and create these music movies.
Speaking of the music movies, you’ve got already had so many iconic cameos and options from legendary scene figures together with Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional and Simple Plan, however are there any dream company you’re nonetheless hoping to work with sooner or later?
I’d like to get My Chemical Romance in a video. I’ve DM-ed a bit with [MCR bassist] Mikey Way and he loves what we do, so fingers crossed that we get them sooner or later as a result of I do know the followers would completely freak out. I actually need to get blink-182 in a video [as well], and I really chatted about it a little bit with Mark Hoppus. It was when he was going via his chemo, so I very respectfully left that alone and let him take care of what he was coping with. Thank God that he’s out of it. I’m so stoked that he’s doing nice and that blink-182 is again collectively.
What’s subsequent for the brand?
Live occasions are large and we love assembly and connecting with all of our followers and supporters, so apart from the cruise, we’re entertaining [the idea] of placing collectively some form of competition. It’s not a assure but, however we’re at first levels of what which may seem like. What I’m most enthusiastic about is Your Broken Hero, which is Emo Matt’s band that was named by Chris Carrabba. My objective for 2023 is to create a whole album, function a number of the best emo legends on it, and drop a fully wonderful, nostalgic-feeling album. My objective is to play the complete album on [the next] cruise in 2024 and then do an precise tour as Your Broken Hero.
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