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Right here.

Do you think that would look weird?

I like it. I'm into it.

-That's really the one. Yeah. -I like that one too.

-It looks good. -Okay.

-Let's make it happen. -All right. All right.

Let's make it happen for the Forevs.

All right. Here we go.

-I get so nervous every time. -Me too.

You don't understand.

Like, that band made my life happy

so getting the tattoo is just a reminder that, like,

there, you are a part of something much bigger

than yourself when you're a part of scenes like this.

I might cry. Hold on.

For me, that's where I feel the most connected

to other people, going to shows.

To be... in a large, awesome sweaty group

of people who all love each other.

Ten more songs. Ten more songs. Ten more songs.

Ten more songs. Ten more songs.

Honestly, I can't remember the first time I saw

a Matches tattoo,

because I saw so many.

I saw so many Matches tattoos.

We were not like a... tattoo-bearing band ourselves,

so to have all these fans covered

in our tattoos is like "Oh, shit,

our band is a permanent thing for these people."

Like... I better, I better keep it real.

Oh, wow, that's really flattering that we mean

that much to somebody that they would get a tattoo.

But then on the other hand it's like, "Don't do that.

That's like getting your girlfriend's name ta...

like, relationships end, like, bands break up!"

♪ Sweating in the dark we're freed ♪

♪ As the weight of the week ♪

♪ Falls away with a thud ♪

♪ Sweating in the dark we feed ♪

♪ On the forms in the light ♪

♪ On the floor we're the flood... ♪

I don't know, I, I don't know why they didn't become

the biggest band in the world. They should have.

♪ We bleed ♪

♪ Audio blood ♪

That sort of energetic live show and that hooky of songs

and that... good looking of boys.

There was nothing to stop them.

I thought that they were gonna be,

you know, the next Green Day.

They were different enough to be cool

and similar enough to make sense.

The world was whatever they could make of it.

♪ Day out, day in ♪

♪ And begin again day out... ♪

I was, like, this show is, is awesome.

They should be in are... in an arena.

I felt like I was experiencing, like, history in the making.

♪ ... my skin again ♪

They were such a great band. The songs were great.

The live show was amazing.

They set themselves apart from day one.

You know, together, they were wonderful friends, but,

individually, like, they were like the Spice Girls.

I related to Matt a lot because he was the business to the band

Incredibly studious. He was always the organized one.

Shawn was the mad scientist

who bled creativity.

I don't, I don't think I've ever met anyone like him

-and he's just such a presence. -It didn't hurt that he

kind of looks like fucking Johnny Depp or something.

Jon is the sport jock punk rocker.

He was always doing something,

push-ups or going for a jog at an hour that was weird.

-Justin's always smiling, always happy. -Always happy.

He encompasses the band as a whole.

He and Shawn were the two artsy guys in the band, I mean,

they were responsible for a lot of the artwork.

The aesthetic of the band was top-notch,

so it's kind of like, "How did they not blow up?"

What was The Matches'...

...downfall?

It has been a while since Bosnia has made headlines,

and in the past, it has usually been bad news.

Today, it's good and it centers

around the universal language of music.

News Center Four's Joe Oliver reports.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet The Locals,

an Oakland garage band featuring Matt Esposito on guitar,

Justin San Souci on bass, Matt Whalen on drums...

We named our band The Locals. We thought it was

really funny to be a local band,

and call yourselves The Locals.

We never really played a real gig

but, um, we did make a T-shirt.

I screen printed 'em myself. My mom helped me.

Once you, you kind of get together with other people

and you play music together,

like, it's... it's a lot of fun.

You plug in your instruments, and then

there's kind of this magical thing that happens.

You make a piece of art together.

You get, like, high on that.

The teen trio along with lead singer

Shawn Harris have already made their first

world tour to Bosnia.

Matt's dad was involved in a charity

that was bringing music and education

to schools that were rebuilding in Bosnia.

Which had just gone through a very brutal civil war.

They said, "We need an American band to come over here."

He said, "Oh, well, you know, my son plays in a band."

And they said, "Are, are they popular?"

And he said, "Yeah!"

It was a very eye-opening experience,

being in a, a war-torn foreign country.

Everybody there had gone through so much,

and, you know, you can still

play music, and laugh, and have fun,

and that can be pretty powerful.

It was kind of, like, the first insight

into the connections you can make with music.

We came back from that and it,

it, it kind of lit a fire under our feet,

"This is worth pursuing further."

Back then you had to send out

physical press packs,

and then hope that somebody would

eventually listen to your music.

One day, I got a call

from a, a guy named Miles Hurwitz,

who had heard our demo and saying he was a manager.

Like, we were all really excited, like, "A manager

wants to speak to us." Like, "This is crazy."

So we had this guy, this... adult,

who as far as we knew was the industry.

He told us, "Do you want to play stadiums?

Do you want to tour professionally

and... have this be your job?"

And we were like, "It, that's possible?"

Miles became our manager

and our guitar player, Matt Esposito,

he had just gotten into Military Academy.

He was like: "This guy's full of shit. Also...

...I'm not sticking aroun..." He was... we weren't able to convince him.

We were like, "We got to find a totally awesome guitar player

who can shred and is super cool to hang out with."

We were looking for the most perfect person in the world.

So I think we went through about, like, 30 auditions.

It felt like a parade of people coming in and out of the garage.

I mean, some of them were just...

...terrible. And Shawn was like, "Oh, man, this, this, like,

kid keeps, you know, messaging me."

First off, I wanted to be a fucking star.

I wanted to be on stage.

I wanted to be performing for people.

I wanted to be wearing, like, sparkly, glittery things.

His mom drove him to audition because he didn't have a license yet.

He's not 16, you know? He had a learner's permit.

I didn't have a lot of friends.

I was a talker. I talked to a lot of people.

Like, but no one really liked me.

I'd go home, and, like, I'd have all this energy still,

and I would put it into music.

So he shows up and, you know, loads in.

I think the first song we played was "Chain Me Free."

And we started playing, and it was just like,

"Holy shit."

And we played it once

and it, they were like,

"We're gonna go in this other room and talk for a minute.

"Him, him, right? That guy.

This is the kid. This is the guy."

And I was like, "What the f... It's fricking weird.

Can't we, like, maybe play...

...play it a few more times?" I was like,

"You're already gonna send me home?"

You know, we're trying to play it cool,

while we're, like, screaming on the inside. "Whoo!"

Pretty much every day from when we would wake to when we would go to bed.

-We were working on the band. -Ten to six every day,

you know, work hours.

I would jump up and down and, like, play scales,

and we took it really seriously, you know? Like, we wanted

to put on the best show that we possibly could put on.

Miles was also telling us, you know,

he was like, "You got to work on your songwriting.

It's really about the song craft and you guys have

the seeds of what could be great songs."

Miles showed me how to break those apart,

figure out what a verse is, what a chorus is.

I never thought about the craft of writing a song. That was huge.

And Miles presented a path, the background of,

like, how artists can get to a point

that they can get signed, and it's not just...

Luck is a huge component of it, but you can't just, like,

sit around and think people are gonna hear about your band.

Live 105.

We came out of the Oakland, obviously.

And, like, so there's bands like Green Day and Rancid.

There's this whole kind of punk scene.

We had the model of like, "Oh, there's bands

from our area that have done this,"

which ga... probably gave us a, like, f...

a false sense of confidence, you know?

We really wanted

to play this legendary punk rock venue called the Gilman.

But they would not have us,

which is why there was

a quest to find a venue that we could book our own shows at.

We wanted to create something that encompassed people and minds

and build a community, you know,

create something bigger than yourself.

It was Miles that found iMusicast.

And they were doing live streaming... of concerts.

Late '90s, the internet was starting to blow up.

And I had this idea, internet music broadcasting.

I didn't know anybody else that was doing it.

Like, seriously, nobody else was doing it.

YouTube didn't happen until about 2004,

and we were doing this in January of 2000.

Locals. Here we go.

There was a young band on the bill, The Locals.

What's up everybody?

After the show, they came up to me and said, "Listen,

uh, can we do a show? Can we put on a show?"

When you have a venue, so many promoters will come up to you and say,

"Oh, man, we're gonna turn it out. We're gonna pack this place.

It's gonna be sold-out. I guarantee!"

No, no. Forty people show up, which was typical back then.

We'd put on these shows, and nobody would show up.

But, you know, "Tell me more, and they talked me into it."

So they came up with an idea,

"Let's call it Loud, Live & Local.

Let's call it L3 and that will be the thing."

Why they took a chance on us when we were unproven, but,

like, we did have an I... idea, like, how this could build.

And then, we were like, "Shit, like,

we have to figure out how to actually be promoters now."

Most people never look at flyers.

We were like, "Maybe if...

...we're playing the music...

...while passing out the flyers,

it'll resonate even just a little bit more

or we'll get somebody who might have just thrown the flyer away

to actually look at the flyer."

We'd go to concerts that had just got out

or, like, high schools.

We would take a stack, two handfuls of flyers,

an acoustic guitar, we would drive to local campuses,

run through the halls, and open up classroom doors,

and throw handfuls of flyers into classes that were being taught. "We're The Locals.

You should come to our show." I remember walking in... into Justin's room,

and there were these, like, maps of, like, high schools,

and, like, lunchtimes, and days of the weeks.

And it was just like walking into a conspiracy theorist's room

and I was like, "Oh, these are my people."

We were like outside of Slim's. We overheard somebody like,

"Oh, not these guys again!"

And it's like, "Awesome, it's working!"

They were outside at every show

with with flyers and busted their ass

to make sure that people knew who they were.

I remember just being, like, mesmerized by Shawn.

And I didn't even see the whole set. I literally saw the end

of it and I was just like, "Who are these people?"

Like, I was hooked from then on.

Going from 90 people the first show

to 350 people a month later to, like, 400 people

a month after that, then the next thing you know, it's, like, selling-out,

and we're selling 600 tickets or something.

The artwork for the L3 shows was awesome.

Every show had a really cool poster art.

It really made sense for me and Justin to do all the art

because we had artists in the band,

so we didn't have to pay anybody.

We were trying to cut costs at any juncture that we could.

You know, we had, like, a mom and dad at the door,

two dads on security, and, like,

a mom at the snack bar or something.

You know what I mean? It was uh...

The parents would take tickets and they would,

-Dan would go out, and he would... -I was the security.

-He would... -I would get my dog,

I would walk around the...

-... the parking lot. -And he would get to know

all the kids who would come to the shows.

-I would help the kids park. -And the parents would come and talk

-to Dan to check, to make sure everything was okay. -Yeah.

It's hard to describe.

It was like out of a movie.

They were just having so much fun.

These bands from all over the country were ve...

super excited to come and play

these L3s because they would get 500, 600 kids

to come and just go freaking nuts.

And that's kind of where the relationship

with the Plain White T's came in.

I swear to God, you guys are, like, the best crowd

we've ever played for.

We were able to come out and do an L3 show.

It was the coolest, live experience ever.

♪ Call me in the middle of the night saying that you just... ♪

We got to be a part of this already created

and thriving scene in Oakland in the Bay Area.

There was a tipping point. Anytime there was a show,

people would not only come

just to see the band that was playing.

They would come to see each other.

And a community formed,

and a scene popped up.

That was an incredible experience

to suddenly have a group of people

who felt passionate about this thing.

You know, it's like we, when you find that place

where you can go be yourself.

You don't have to hide or...

You know, you're worried about sticking out

in a high school and then come to L3,

and you stick out, but everybody else sticks out too.

It was this just, like, family-community atmosphere of,

"I don't care if my parents are there.

I don't care if my little sister is there."

You were there to hang out and see the music,

and be a part of something that was special.

And it was really special.

It, it was such a community-based feeling.

To be, to be their fan, you felt like

almost, like, a member of the band. Almost.

I see a lot of familiar faces and it's really fucking great.

Thank you. Come say hi to me

because I want to talk to all of you.

One more song! One more...

The whole act of being an artist is

that you make something that's true and real,

and people find their identity through something that you made,

and they make it a part of them.

And that's, in essence, what happened with L3.

Welcome to iMusicast. It's a place

that's developed a sense of community.

Before I came here, I only listened to, like, mainstream rap and stuff.

And now I'm totally into ska and, like, some punk.

The idea is to keep working it to maybe,

eventually, getting on the next iMusicast DVD release,

then a record contract, then who knows?

Eventually, the American Music Awards.

In Oakland, Don Sanchez, ABC7 News.

-Great idea. -Wow.

-Sounded good. -Yeah.

At this point, we realized we have enough songs,

we should record them, and then decide what to do with them.

We needed, like, to find somebody with, with some,

some, like, good equipment and, like, good place.

And uh... but we didn't go that route.

We ended up taking a chance on two guys we knew.

We recorded them, like, after, right after I graduated high school.

And I just remember being wildly excited.

When I, I burned them to CD and, like,

listened to them over and over in my bedroom

like, "Fuck, this is really good."

Whole E Von Dahl record was just so low-rent,

I cannot believe that we got anything of any consequence

out of putting amplifiers in laundry rooms and...

...microphones in washing machine barrels and...

Stuff that now you just would never want to do in a million years.

That whole time was such a blur of intensity,

and I just remember like, "Hey, these emails are coming in.

Like, what are we gonna do?"

Some band from Chicago

was called Yvonne Doll and The Locals.

They sent us a cease and desist.

And at first, we're like, "No, this is our name."

And then, we were like, "Yes, but we're not

really wearing those Hawaiian shirts anymore.

It's... a pretty lame name."

We were just writing down, like, any name you could think of.

I mean, hun... hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. So many names.

We came so close to choosing The Moxie.

Like, so close.

I think somebody decided

that it sounded too old-fashioned

and feminist.

"That girl's got moxie!"

I thought that was cool.

But, anyway, The Matches it was, and that's what it...

...will always be.

But we named the album

E Von Dahl Killed the Locals.

We sort of changed the spelling of her names

so that her lawyer didn't contact us again.

We went to disc makers

and pressed 500 CDs.

I put together, like, hundreds of CDs

and I spent so much time at Kinko's,

like, I think they knew me by name.

Actually having a physical CD

made it feel real, like "This is a real thing.

This is what real bands do, they make albums and they tour."

So it's like,

"Time to, time to hit the road!"

You know, they allowed us

into their world in, in the Bay Area,

so we brought them out to Chicago.

And we were young and dumb and hungry enough to driv...

drive 4,000 miles round trip to play for 30 minutes.

But in front of 1000 people.

Whatever we could do to get a show,

we did DIY style, sleeping on people's floors,

trading shows with ska bands in El Paso and stuff.

Way out on our own, places we've never

played before where nobody's ever heard us.

And that was pretty awesome.

Just put your heart into everything

that you do because you never know who's gonna be watching.

We were down in LA and the show that we had was...

...supposed to be at a coffee shop, it was a trade with some band.

The band didn't show up.

The coffee shop did not have

a PA, and a guy that was there

was just getting a panini or something like that.

He's like, "Oh, I have a PA.

I've got a studio space down the street.

Like, I'll let you guys use it." We were like, "Okay!"

So he shows back up with a van and a PA.

And they set it up, and we play the show

and he was like, "That was really great.

I manage a band called Reel Big Fish."

-And we were like, "Yeah? -Whoa, no shit!"

I don't know how to really describe it

because when you see a band that,

you just feel it in your bones that you need to work with them.

They wowed Reel Big Fish.

I mean, I think they did it within their first song,

Aaron looked and said, "Yes, we are bringing them on tour."

He, like, shows us the itinerary and it's, like,

every major city in America and Canada,

and you're going to get paid a hundred dollars a night guaranteed. And we were like,

"A hun... oh, my God. A hundred dollars a night?!"

It felt like I won... like, we won the lottery.

I remember, I remember, like, Reel Big Fish saying, "Yo, when you guys blow up,

you're going to take us, like, to open on your arena tour,"

like, betting on a future for us.

We learned some great lessons from them.

One, one night when we were on that tour

somebody yelled, "Sell Out."

And they were like, "Okay," and then

somebody yelled, "Beer," and they played that.

And then somebody else said "Sell Out" again and they were

like, " Are you kidding? We just played it... fuck it."

And they played "Sell Out" again.

They played for an hour and 15 minutes

"Sell Out," then "Beer," then "Sell Out,"

then "Beer," then "Sell Out," then "Beer."

They played both songs eight times

and they were like, "Good night."

It was amazing, and we're standing

at the side of the stage like, "Oh,

you can do that?!"

This song is called "The Restless."

It's on our album, E Von Dahl Killed the Locals.

We were still an unsigned band

going on tour with Reel Big Fish.

That's when people started, like, talking about us.

As soon as you have a band in front of a national audience

that doesn't have their CD in stores,

the money grabbers are like,

"Whoa, they sold how many copies

of Kinko's folded albums? They sold 10,000?

That's money! Let's amplify that." You know?

♪ These are the moments ♪

♪ We'll remember for the rest ♪

♪ Of our restless lives ♪

-♪ Ooh ♪ -♪ Ooh ♪

We wanted to be an indie band for our first couple records.

We didn't want to be sellouts.

You know? That was still a thing.

But also...

...if a major label was offering you a record deal,

like, you take the meeting,

you fucking take the meeting.

Jive Records, Epic.

The guys would come pick me up from my dorm room

and take me to their meetings and introduce me as their producer.

American, Immortal.

We just had no idea that it would get them introduced

to the biggest players in the music business.

Fueled By Ramen, a lot of them.

I'm forever indebted to them for jumpstarting my career.

So we were living, like, a very weird existence in that we're making just

enough money to get from point A to point B. We were not able to stay in hotels.

We were asking on stage to stay with people.

I would be splitting a footlong Subway sandwich

with Justin at lunch on our, like, meager per diem

mixed in with the occasional, like, an A&R guy

from a major label fly out and put us up in, like,

a Ritz Carlton Hotel for the night one night.

Buying, like, $200 bottles of wine.

And then, like, I'd eat, like, you know, an $85, like, Wagyu beef steak.

It was a very weird dichotomy.

But then when it comes time

to negotiate how much money

they're gonna put into our band,

they're gonna be stingy about like,

"Oh, I don't know if we can give you $20,000,

we can maybe give you $10,000.

We were very naiïve.

In my mind, up until that point was like,

"You sign a record deal, they give you money,

and they put a record out."

That is just not how it works at all.

So check this out.

Let's say every dollar

that the label makes, we make 25¢.

Let's say the label spends $500,000

to market and make an album.

So we're only making 25 cents for every dollar, right?

The label pays themselves back,

but we pay that back through our 25 cents of each dollar.

So the label would have to make $2.5 million

for us to pay back that $500,000 that they put into it.

Like, I can't even complain

because I'm obviously in a good position because,

you know, because the label

spent $1 million to promote us.

But we, from selling, you know,

five million plus copies of "Hey There Delilah,"

over a million albums,

we have not made any money

from the record label,

from music sales.

Publishing is really where songwriters

make their money, that and touring obviously,

but from strictly the songwriting,

recording process, it's all publishing now.

We had publishing deals coming in.

Like, Miles being like, "Oh, you wanna keep your publishing.

Like, you're gonna make way more money on the back-end if...

if you own your own publishing."

That was our biggest ask

was to just license E Von Dahl Killed the Locals

and be able to, to have the masters right back to us.

-One more song. one more song. -L3 is home.

This is where it's at.

This was a Miles Hurwitz idea.

Part of our prerequisite to any label

that wanted to seriously talk to us

was that they had to send somebody to come see an L3.

We felt L3 symbolized what we were about,

like the music, community,

the DIY ethos.

So, the record labels all started coming up.

The thing about the L3 was it just stood out completely.

Nothing about it was contrived.

It was just magical for everybody in that room.

Jive was like the biggest,

like, pop record label at the time.

Probably one of the best record labels you could be on

when it came to breaking something to radio.

Pablo came out and he was like "Cool," so he started

asking us questions like, "What do you guys want?"

In a lot of ways, we didn't quite know,

but we knew s... a lot of things that we didn't want.

You know? We were like, "We don't want

to have our career

be dependent on a single."

I know that if we signed them

to Jive, I know we would have had a hu...

like, a huge hit song at radio.

And he was like, "Cool. Well,

enjoy your dinner tonight guys.

Um...

You do not want to sign to Jive Records."

We're like...

..."Oh, okay." What better way to know

that you can trust someone than them speaking

against their personal interests for you, you know what I mean?

I would have done a disservice to them,

and that would have sat

with me a long time.

Eric Valentine thought he had the inside track to sign The Matches, right?

We were, like, so excited

because he'd done the Third Eye Blind album

that all of us were like, "That sounds amazing."

The Matches' first record, I was just totally blown away by it.

And then finally sort of put it together.

It was recorded on a laptop in a basement.

I, it was just astonishing to me,

it sounded impossibly great.

And they were a great live band.

I think Rick Rubin was there that night.

I remember Rick Rubin walking through the crowd

and people just being like, "Oh, were just like

hobo guy looks like Rick Rubin in the crowd."

Then Eric Valentine comes backstage

and the first thing he says to us is...

..."Du... Rick Rubin's here."

And we're like, "Nice to meet you."

You could tell that he was like,

"Fuck, I was going to sign this band."

Rick Rubin asked, "Well, what would be a perfect record label for you guys?"

And we were like, "Epitaph."

They were and still are, like, the biggest indie label in terms

of market terms and how many albums were sold.

Brett Gurewitz flew out

and met us somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Hung out with us and, like, he helped us load our trailer,

and he's just, like, the coolest dude in the world.

He was like, you know, "I, I didn't think

with all, like, the interest you guys were getting from,

like, other labels, like, you'd be too caught up

in everything else to talk to me."

And like, "No way, man. Like, you're, like,

why I love punk rock." You know?

We signed the record deal at a pizza parlor.

"We did it!"

Paper cup, cheers.

But then you realize, like, there's so much more work to do.

There was no like,

"Now we have a record deal.

Now everything is different."

We were still living at home with our parents.

There wasn't, like, bags of cash fucking dropping

by helicopter into our yards. Like, it's not what happens, you know?

They do a few amazing things for you,

but you have to take those opportunities

and you have to carpe the motherfucking diem.

Somebody was actually spending money on us.

So, we made our first music video for "Chain Me Free."

Yeah, it's a performance video, but there's a, really cool twist

on it which is, um, when it comes to the choruses,

everything that has, has happened in the video

suddenly turns around and goes in reverse.

So, uh, we actually had to learn to sing the chorus

with backwards, which goes, uh,

To have that kind of enthusiasm for anything in life,

it's, it's something that I don't see very often,

uh, from a... anywhere in music.

And sometimes it was like, "Well, shoot, how do we

market this band to this fan?"

Because they're just a little bit more on the outside,

but at other times it was like, "Oh, my God,

this band is so easy to market because, like,

of how unique they are.

You know, we were now trying to win over the world versus,

you know, trying to win over a local show.

Oh, boy!

Warped Tour. Hooo!

I'm going to pass out, even thinking about it.

I've always looked at it as a platform for independent music.

We kind of got known as that punk rock summer camp.

It's a great experience because you can

really expose your band to hundreds of new people.

It makes you appreciate the fans even more because there are

so many other bands playing at that exact moment.

The way they really stood out

was they would always, like, throw tricks, like,

not only with their music, but they were always great marketers

and great animators.

We had a day off, and we, just,

we stayed up all night just making this...

...this animation on a whiteboard

in a hotel in New Orleans.

Some people may have taken it, like,

offensive some of the stuff they sent me,

but it was more like, "Hey, these guys

are approaching it in a unique and different way."

Punk rock was about to offend in some ways,

except when they had me having sex

with a sheep. I forgot about that one.

It was weird.

You now, I don't think I ever had sex with a sheep.

I, in hindsight,

I can't believe we sent that out.

What Warped Tour does, is it will let you know, like,

how hard being in a band is gonna be.

Like, this is about as hard as it's going to get

'cause you're going from eight o'clock

in the morning until midnight.

And then you drive overnight,

and then you do it again for two months.

They'd play these parking lot shows.

You know, for kids who were in the show already,

and then a lot of kids who maybe didn't get into the show.

I don't know how they weren't losing their voices.

Showing up in the parking lot

and playing acoustic guitar was still important

to keep it about the community.

They could be playing Madison Square Garden

and they'd still be outside with their acoustic guitars

causing a ruckus on the streets.

A lot of people just wanted to be around them

and even if it meant making beans, if anything, for money.

Uh, I think that people really wanted to do them

a favor because they really believed in The Matches.

I basically sought out The Matches

and made them hire me because they'd become one

of my favorite bands at that point.

It's not like I got a four-year degree

to be a merch girl, like,

that wasn't what I thought was going to happen,

but... I never left.

Our ears perked up immediately when we heard The Matches.

It just stuck out in the best possible way,

like a sore thumb at Warped Tour,

and we just kind of made a beeline towards them.

We noticed early on that bigger tours don't come

from your booking agent or from your record label.

They come from, like, making one-on-one connections.

You know, Shawn is a phenomenal songwriter.

Justin is an unbelievable bassist.

Matt is some drummer, and Jo... you know, and,

and Jon...

-Just incredible. -... one of the most terrifying,

terrifying side men I've ever seen on a stage.

It's nice when you feel like you've got your kind

of little secret that you're letting everyone know about.

These guys are artists. They're not,

They're not just guys who play music.

They're actually, like, in a whole other world.

You know, you've got three guys making

art projects backstage and then Matt just like...

Like, they were all just weirdos.

And then, like, watching them live,

it was like a monster truck rally on stage.

I've wrung out their shirts and their shirts are just hanging

on the bus side view mirror, just airing out.

The nights that we had to headline, we'd be like,

"Fuck, we're gonna play after that."

The bands I was working with are pretty energetic

and full-on, but they were fucking explosive.

-Shawn was, like, he would write a song every day. -I remember he said,

"I'm going to write a song every day on this tour," and he did.

-Yeah. -He write a song. One time,

we had amassed all of this beer.

He came in dressing room, I remember.

And he's like, "There's no water again?"

I'm like, "Dude, they're all gone"

and he goes, "Fuck," he's like,

"What the hell? We are human beings...

...we need water."

Little did he know we did need beer.

-We did need beer actually. -We did need the beer.

After the shows, we'd, like, jump out

and sell CDs. We were selling

so many CDs out the back of our van

that SoundScan wouldn't count them

because they thought we were cheating.

And we were like, "No, like, these are the real numbers."

SoundScan's re... response was,

"You either have to accept this

or we're not going to count all of Epitaph Records."

And we were like, "All right, whatever, we lost, we lost that one."

We were really hoping that, like,

we could kind of cross that 100,000 level.

We, we just, you know,

came up, came up a little short.

When I started working here, it was 2003.

And that's, you know, around the time arguably when,

um, just the overall profits

of the music industry started to dwindle.

As soon as you think that you know something,

you're setting yourself up for failure.

The idea is deceptively simple.

It's called file sharing.

The first time I really used Napster,

I downloaded tons of music,

but all of it was terrible quality.

And like half of it was, like, labeled incorrectly.

And I could only listen to it on my computer

with, like, my crappy computer speakers.

So, you didn't really think, like, "This is

gonna be the new thing"

because at the time it was like, "This is just

a... broken piece of junk."

It's unquestionably,

the biggest transition the music industry has gone through.

And it's one of those things where it's like,

"That toothpaste is not going back in the fucking tube."

There's just no way. I mean, people just love getting free music.

And you're like, "Okay, we just got to make this record

in a few weeks and that's all the money

that we can justify.

There's no artist development.

The period between,

"I think you have promise," to "Where's my hit record?"

is this big now.

A band like Pink Floyd, you know, it took a while

for them to get to The Dark Side of the Moon.

If that band started now,

they'd never get the chance to make that record.

That's the, the, the danger of, um, what's happening now,

is... the lack of support

to be able to develop an artist through that process

and to actually get to that point where they make

a genre-defining, career-changing

zeitgeist record like Dark Side of the Moon,

which became one of the greatest selling records of all time.

It wouldn't happen and we'd miss out on it.

As we started to think about making a second album,

I don't remember whose idea it was.

It was probably Miles and Shawn's idea,

but it was like, "Why don't we just, like,

try recording with all these different people?

They do this in hip-hop and pop all the time."

Some bands we knew from the radio,

thinking we would never exist in that same world,

thinking that it wasn't a possibility.

It was really cool and brave of them

on Decomposer to use a lot of different producers.

It was one of the first times that I had heard of,

uh, a rock band doing that.

To be honest, you know, I was glad to be part of that.

Some of those hooks was just like,

"Yes, I, I, I love this band,

I want to work with them, sign me up."

There's an internal musical argument happening

in every single one of their songs.

They were so different than a lot of stuff

that I had worked with in the past.

We couldn't afford to do a full record

with any of these people,

but when they realized,

"Oh, they just want to do a few songs?"

It's like going from making a little indie movie,

trying to make, like, our big-budget feature debut.

It's the kind of stuff you dream about as a kid.

It was like a great crash course in,

in recording for us, Nick Hexum's approach

versus Mark Hoppus' are so different, you know?

Mark is, like, punch every line.

Like, there were guitar chords where he's like,

"The guitar chord doesn't sound, like, perfect enough.

Here, play, play all five notes from that chord separately,

and then we'll put them on different tracks

and play them at the same time."

And that has a sound to it.

And then Nick was like,

"Everyone in the room together,

everyone play it live," and we're like, "Oh,

that's totally the opposite."

I know we were doing things unconventionally,

but... that's how great things get done.

Um, I remember...

...you know, Miles, their manager was

more involved than I had been used to a manager being.

It was just unlike anything that I'd seen before.

It was almost like, um...

...like a controlling father.

Um, I'm calling Christopher.

-Why are you calling him? -Christopher, uh,

uh, you told me to.

Like, Mark Hoppus or John Feldmann

would be like, "Miles, shut up, leave the room."

This is the guy from blink-182. Let him do his job.

He know, he knows how to make a hit... quiet.

When he was gone I would say to the band,

"Is this what you guys want? Are you cool with this?

Like, I'll do whatever. I don't work for your manager.

I work for the band, obviously."

They kind of were like, "Yeah, I guess, you know,

if, if he wants, if he wants that then,

yeah, let's just, let's just do it."

And it was definitely a, a strange dynamic.

It got to this point where Shawn

would have to bring his creative ideas to Miles

before bringing them to the rest of the band.

It sounds crazy talking about it now,

but it was a way to control Shawn.

And I know that our record label was so annoyed with Miles.

They just wanted us, just like, "Be a simple band,

be like everyone else."

Like, "Okay, let's,

let's try it their way for once.

They know what they're doing.

They've been doing this longer than we have.

What the fuck do we know?"

♪ Oh, day out, day in ♪

♪ It's the alarm versus me ♪

♪ And the snooze button wins I've been... ♪

When it came time to do a video for the album, they were like,

"Great. Here's $40,000," which to us was like, "Holy shit."

I, I think at first we were like, "Well, let's take $40,000.

Let's make, like, three or four or five videos

off the album because we want to showcase

a lot more of the album." And they're like, "No,

spend it all on one, have a huge single with it."

And then we didn't have any budget to do any other songs off of it.

"Salty Eyes" we really wanted a video for, um,

you know, we shot that video for about $800.

This video we, we made on our own dime

and on the budget of...

...friendly favors from

the people that you can't see

that are standing behind those cameras.

Shawn and Emilee drew up, like,

a dance step plan for everything and, like, marks for everybody.

While we were in there rehearsing, and then we,

one day when we got the room,

we only had enough TVs for, like, one take.

One, drop, two, drop, three.

Drop, four.

Drop, five, drop...

♪ Do you belong to a song? ♪

♪ Does it drag you along by the tongue ♪

♪ At the top of your lungs? ♪

♪ Are you drunk? ♪

♪ Have you been drinking? ♪

♪ Do you below the overpass go ♪

♪ With a fifth in your fist reminiscing the kiss ♪

♪ Of a love that just didn't love as much as you did? ♪

♪ Please don't give up dear walls... ♪

Epitaph was, I think, really surprised.

♪ ... fall when you belong to a song ♪

♪ Salty eyes ♪

♪ You belong ♪

You know, "Papercut Skin" ended up with maybe a,

a 1/10 of the amount of views that "Salty Eyes" got.

And we got so much more press and attention for that one.

They were like, "Sorry, we were wrong.

That's a great video. Thank you.

Can you make more now?"

"For no budget?"

To me, Decomposer was, like, "The Album,"

like, I just... I, I heard that

and it just "Oh, my God."

It was very emotional for us, you know

we put all... everything we had into it.

We were dreaming big.

We were dreaming real big.

So this was coming out on a label, we had

built a really strong fan base,

and things don't always go exactly as planned.

This funny thing happened between 2004 when

E Von Dahl Killed the Locals came out on Epitaph,

and 2006, when Decomposer came out,

it was like the dream, like, full transition

in the music business from people actually buying CDs,

to really not buying albums at all.

It had a decent start.

But it kind of tapered off.

These numbers that to us,

were kind of depressing,

but to have people around us telling us like,

"No, like, numbers are going down for everyone."

This number is basically the same as what that number was a few years ago.

♪ What the hell are you doing with me? ♪

♪ I'm going back to your house... ♪

It was confusing because record sales,

in general, were declining.

but our shows since we'd put... put so much time in

as a touring band were still kind of growing.

Everyone felt like Decomposer was going to be the record that broke them.

When it didn't I think it was a little bit of like, "Uh,

what, what are we going to do?"

Hi, I'm Shawn from The Matches,

I want you to get our new CD. I'd love you to buy it.

A bunch of you will get it without buying it, though.

And that's all right between you and me, but,

see, it poses a rather large scale ideological problem.

Okay. There are two types of people in the world.

Those who believe there are two types of people in the world,

and those who know this is a banal simplification.

But for the sake of communicating my point,

let's just go along with the two types, okay?

Those who download records and those who purchase them.

Now, though I'm a musician,

my livelihood in great part depends on the latter...

Everybody thinks that you make way more money than you do.

I weirdly watched tons of, like,

late night talk shows when I was a kid.

You see a band on there, and you think any band

that if they're just on TV, like, they must be millionaires

and making all this money. No, not even close most of the time.

And all of your friends back at home

and all of your family, like, they see you on tour,

and they see you putting out records and they think

that like, "Oh, like,

you're doing it, everything is amazing."

Touring is expensive,

so is going into the studio,

so is paying your crew. It just adds up.

Probably most people don't realize just how expensive

it is to operate a band.

You got to buy a lot of merch,

gas, you got to have hotels, travel is expensive.

We had a guitar tech, Ben.

We had our merch girl, Monaca.

Even bands that are losing money, they still need a guitar tech on the road.

I was making, like, $350 cash under the table,

Uh, $350 week.

I never had to file taxes,

because I never made enough money

to have to file taxes.

The money that came in went directly to pay those expenses.

We lived off of a whopping $10 a day that the band paid us.

If you, you want to be in a band, you want to be a musician

and, and be able to make a living doing that,

you're most likely going to be on the road

and probably be on the road a lot because that's just

how you survive and unfortunately...

...it's also the thing that breaks a lot of people.

We had to keep touring.

We basically just had to... continuously tour.

♪ We've come, come to chameleon ♪

♪ In your pubs, clubs ♪

♪ Nah, we don't want no trouble ♪

♪ Sit down Nick, Nick I'm dirty... ♪

I, I like that you're asking me how, how many tours we did.

How many times have you brushed your teeth?

Between 200, 300 shows a year.

We put 250,000 miles on two different Chevy Express vans.

♪ ... to the tube stop, whoo ♪

People have kind of a preconceived notion about glamour and touring.

There's not, any, it's dirty,

it's smelly, it's gross.

They worked their asses off, and they weren't living it up.

They weren't in fancy tour buses,

you know, they were in a van most the time.

They didn't splurge on, you know, anything.

They'd wear the same clothes

you know, like, every show

and the smell was so bad.

I used to call Shawn, soggy britches,

'cause he would like, change his pants,

but keep his, like, saggy underwear on.

It was so gross.

When you start to get into your mid

to late twenties and your friends are, like,

starting to have real relationships with humans.

They have all got apartments and can afford

car payments and stuff, and you're like,

"I can borrow the band van, if I need to come over."

You know, at the point where I had to, you know,

borrow money from my dad

to go drive to band practice and I was, like...

...28 years old.

It, it just sort of extended our adolescence

in a sort of uncomfortable way the older we got.

We got to finish the next record because, you know, maybe

the next record will you know, push through the ceiling.

That's kind of where A Band in Hope came from.

That's where we were, we were just, like,

we were hopeful for good things, but we're all,

you know, we kinda need help.

We were trying to figure out how to finish these songs

and found this place called Talking House in San Francisco.

We created this studio, um,

so that we would have a place where artists

could settle in for quite a while and not be on the clock

and not be charged for studio time

and really craft their product.

Miles first sent me Decomposer

and I loved it immediately,

and we said, "Absolutely, we'll work

with you as much as you want to work with us."

When we were at Talking House, Miles had a, had a heavier hand.

It was lik... I, I feel like we were never,

I feel like we were never in a room

with just the four of us anymore.

He wanted, like, to produce our songs and music.

He really wasn't a producer.

I don't know. It, it was, it was not as...

the record wasn't as fun to make, so...

But I've heard, I've had people say that,

I've had people say that that's their favorite of our records too.

So, I don't want to color it by saying, I, I just,

my experience making it wasn't as... as fun. Yeah.

So what do you think you're going to buy today?

Uh, I think I'm going to get The Matches.

I'm going to get The Matches.

Let's go.

A Band in Hope seemed to be very well received by our fans,

by people in the scene, by publications that reviewed it.

We were on the cover of Alternative Press,

we were on the Alternative Press Tour

and at the time that was a really big tour to be on.

But album sales had further eroded in the industry by 2008.

So, it was like seeing our SoundScan numbers was kind

of, like, you, you can't put much, like,

stock in it because nobody is selling

even close to what they used to sell.

I remember joking about how every record

sold half of what the previous one sold.

Instead of A Band in Hope I was writing everywhere "Abandon Hope."

That's kind of how I felt.

It was a really kind of tough time.

Okay, action.

Hello, we're The Matches. I'm Matt.

I'm Shawn. I'm Jon.

And that's Justin. Uh, we are...

I knew something was up with Justin

during the Alternative Press tour.

-He was not himself. -Yay!

We had a particularly intense period of touring.

We can't wait to go to Japan.

We can't wait to see you. Till then,

buy our new album, A Band in Hope.

You could tell he was burnt out.

Usually he was, like, a pretty happy-go-lucky jovial person and,

and he loved talking to fans.

I remember on that tour, he was not wanting

to be out by the merch table, and to me, that, I,

if, like, Justin doesn't want, like, to hang out

with people, that's, that's not the Justin I know.

Like, overnight, it seemed like Justin stopped being so playful.

I was like, "Oh, man, this is, this is bad."

I could see the trajectory.

You know, you could see, like, really successful bands

spending 20 or 30 years on the road.

Just takes, like, a crazy toll on you.

When you're 40, and you live in a van,

you know, you're still crashing on people's floors, like,

that's not a very appealing future.

And all that stuff starts kind of creeping in.

It's hard to focus on the creative stuff anymore,

you know, when you don't,

when you can barely feed yourself.

Justin was my closest friend

in the band when we started the band.

We were art buddies.

It was sad and heartbreaking to... face the realization that,

you know, this thing that we built together, he was like,

"This is fucking up my life. I can't do this anymore."

You know, you just feel like everything you've done for,

like, the last ten years you're just kind

of turning your back on it.

And, like, I felt I was just constantly sick.

Like, I always, like, physica...

I was, like, physically ailed.

It was the hardest decision I ever had to make.

I just had to completely leave,

you know, kind of separate myself from that world.

I left the band, put my, my bass in the closet and shut the door.

It was just weird when somebody you've known for so long

who's been, like, next to you every day

for years is, like, no longer there.

I was still hopeful for the future.

Still, like, ready to give it another album.

I wanted to see this through to the point

we'd originally planned which is

indie label to major label.

We were still like,

"Let's just give it one more chance.

One more...

...big push."

We've been on the road, like, pretty much nonstop

since, like, 2003 or something like that, 2002.

Uh...

We're lucky enough to have it be our life, you know.

They got their friend Dylan to start playing bass

but it didn't feel, it didn't feel as much like,

"Hey, it's still The Matches."

Dylan's awesome for the record,

but it just wasn't the right fit.

I don't know if anything was the right fit.

We were trying to bring in a person

to save the band, and that's not fair.

The album just came out,

we're going to have a high-profile tour.

It was the first time ever since we started touring

that we had nothing.

Usually somebody wants us to tour with them.

Nobody's calling.

We never had not toured in the summer, ever.

I fel... we felt like we kind of had the gun to our head.

It's really scary to have this dream

and passion that you've had for your whole life...

...to admit like, "Oh, this thing

I've been working on for ten years,

I don't think it's what I want.

I don't think, it's, I don't think this is it."

That's really freaking scary.

I had no resentment towards the other members of my band.

We had gone through so much together.

Little things like spilling milk

in the front of the van: Jon.

Throwing a bass into a kick drum

at the show: Justin.

These are all very forgivable

because we had spent so much time,

like, working as a, as a team.

We were doing, like, a show in Philadelphia

and Shawn texted all of us,

"Okay, like, can we all meet up before we go to the show?"

So we went in to his hotel room

and he was like, "Hey, like, where are you guys all at?

I feel like we're all not feeling this right now."

And then Shawn is actually the one that brought the idea of

like, "Maybe we should just...

...call it. Like, maybe we should just walk away now,

like, while we all still, like,

like each other." And we unanimously agreed like, "Yep...

...it's time."

I pitched the idea of doing a last show.

We decided it'd be a cool way to honor the fans

and also just a chance to say goodbye.

We didn't make it to where we wanted to make it,

but we made it way further than almost anybody

ever makes it in the grand scheme of how many musicians

try and do this for a living.

It was such a freaking crazy emotional roller coaster.

We sold the Fillmore out, which was crazy to do.

Everybody wanted, like, to make the, make last one count.

Yeah, it's kind of a weird night, it's, uh,

it's the end of some kind of chapter

or maybe a book or something, I don't know.

I'd like to just have a really good time with you guys.

Hi, Justin.

Justin played for most of the show,

it was really important.

Of course, he should be playing that show.

There's this video of us playing

"Sick Little Suicide" and, like, the chandeliers in the Fillmore,

there's just, like, debris coming down from the ceiling.

It looks they're going to break.

I remember that the venue emailed us

and said, "That is one of the most intense crowd reactions

we've ever seen in this venue.

Like, that's one of the loudest crowds...

...ever. Like, off the charts."

So, you know, "Go, Matches fans,

you guys, like, almost broke the Fillmore."

After the show,

I was just, like,

paralyzed for a week or two.

Like, I couldn't feel feelings.

It wasn't for lack of effort, you know? I don't think we can

look back and say, "Well, if only The Matches said this,

that would have broke them."

Shawn called me and he was like,

"I think I'm going to have a new project, will you manage it?"

And I was like, "Whoa.

Yes, absolutely, I would."

I had to register all of his songs.

I had to get access to his BMI and all that stuff.

So he gave me his password and I go through everything.

And I realize that there's only four Matches songs registered.

And when I realized

that there was four albums worth

of songs that weren't registered...

...I thought there had to have been a mistake,

and there wasn't, they weren't there.

And radio play,

video play, none of that money was retroactive.

Wow, that's unconscionable.

If the songs were never registered,

then every album that was sold

and every s... song that was streamed

just goes nowhere. Nowhere.

It's like opening a movie theater and not charging anyone admission.

That's one of the most important things to do.

I just registered some

of our songs yesterday. So...

-What? -Yeah.

Oh, that's a lot of money.

That's heartbreaking.

You know, when you're a manager,

your job is basically

to let the band be the band...

...and try to eliminate all the ancillary

business stuff that keeps them from creating.

I would understand if there was some kind of, like,

band that was doing this for a, like, hobby,

but, you know, here's these guys

that were all blood, sweat, and tears.

They would go out and tour and do, like,

11 months out of a year,

and come home and have no money.

We were under the impression

that our music had been registered with BMI

because Miles had told us that he had registered it.

As far as we thought, it was because

pretty much everything we made went back

into all the expenses of touring.

And, I mean, I, I get it. We didn't really, you know...

I don't get it.

I don't fucking know.

We pass up our publishing deal

and then we didn't even register our songs.

One of the things that

led to us breaking up

was we weren't making any money.

And then to find out that,

oh, we could have been making money.

So we really were missing out on,

like, six years of income,

money that could have kept the band going

at times when, like, money got tight.

There was the question at that point,

"Should we, like, get litigious

and hire a lawyer and, and sue him?"

But we'd neve... it would,

it just would have been an, an ordeal.

He would have stood to made a lot,

to have mane a lot of money off

of registering the songs as well.

The reality there would have been zero Match...

The Matches just wouldn't have existed if it,

if not for his involvement at the beginning either.

This song is called "To Build a Mountain."

Aah!

Aah!

Aah!

♪ Maybe a Saint is just ♪

♪ A dead prick with a good publicist ♪

♪ Maybe tomorrow's statues ♪

♪ Are insecure without their foes ♪

♪ Go ask the frog what the scorpion knows ♪

They had... everything that it took to get to that level,

but something was missing in that formula.

A lot of times your best traits also hold you back.

The Matches, loyal to a fault, all of them...

...none more than Shawn.

Shawn is insanely loyal to his people.

Shawn loved Miles.

I think he might have some guilt about that now,

and that breaks my heart because

it's such an amazing quality

to have that kind of loyalty.

And I think that it messed him up for a while.

Like, I think that he was cutting people loose

because he didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

He probably carries more guilt than he should about all of that.

♪ You gotta dig a hole ♪

You can look back and Monday morning quarterback,

all kinds of things, but you can't go back and change it.

♪ ... digging holes ♪

♪ Yeah sorry that's how it goes ♪

♪ And I thought everybody knows ♪

♪ We're stock piling souls ♪

♪ Saying, "so it goes" ♪

Yeah, what was I saying? Um, I had this great, I'm,

I'm going to relate this to, like, you know, drug addiction type stuff.

But, um, like, when you first become sober, you're,

like, you know, inches away from, like, a brick wall.

You can't see anything, but just brick.

And then each day that goes by where you don't use,

you suddenly realize, "Oh, here's a building,

with, like, a door and, like, windows."

And then you take a few more weeks,

months back and you realize, "Oh, there's many buildings."

And then you take a few more months, a year

or whatever and you realize, "Oh, this is an entire city.

Like, I see what I'm looking at here."

For me, that has become life advice,

is that time gives you... more perspective.

Twenty years driving The Matches van trailer coming in handy here.

-A big turd? -Yeah.

-Ooh. -By, by some hoof prints.

Ooh! It would be more something

that can jump around this mountain, so like a...

-Like a mountain goat. -... a gazelle or goat.

A gazelle? I want to see a mountain gazelle.

That would kick ass.

When The Matches broke up, I moved away from the Bay Area.

I felt like it was time to go off

and try out some different things.

Just completely start from scratch.

Escape Shawn from The Matches.

The airstream ended up being an attractive life option.

I've been out in this thing for, like, a year and a half now.

Hey, Bob, you want to come on up here?

So...

♪ Let's go, wander, let's go ♪

Pretty much all of my gear fits in a backpack.

There's an independence to that.

Uh, I thought that would be really complemented

by the airstream life.

I didn't fall into a, a routine

that felt that different from at least

that of being an artist or a musician.

I'm definitely curious to hear

what Matt and Justin have to say about this though

because they, like, switched gears with their careers.

I think that's gonna be an int... more interesting question

answered by them.

After the band, I didn't have a clue what to do.

I really got to give credit to my mom

where she basically just kicked my ass. She's like,

"You can't stop. You got to keep moving.

Like, don't lose momentum.

Try and figure out what you're working for."

The joke was always, if music doesn't work out,

I'll always have art to fall back on.

And I did.

This is my, I guess my first real art job,

Like, professional art job.

I remember him telling me, "Dad, my first paycheck

was more than I, I made

in three years with The Matches."

I think a big part of moving forward,

you know, moving past the band is emotional growth.

Like as becoming an adult and,

like, being able to have a relationship and settle down.

-Let's go. Come on. -'Cause being in a band

really doesn't teach you how to life, live a life.

You know, I had to find my own life.

My place.

Not playing music was the next step for me.

You know, I actually didn't want to be creative for a little while.

Everybody's still trying to figure out what to do.

What the new revenue model is, how, how to make

the industry work financially.

So I figured I was better suited, uh, going to college

and getting a degree and then, you know,

coming back a few years later and see where things are at.

I'm very interested in, like, intellectual property law,

which has a lot to do with music.

Using my personal experience from being in a band,

but then also actually having some kind

of deeper knowledge to help other people.

Coming straight out of The Matches...

...I wanted to keep doing music,

touring, make records,

be a rock star, all that stuff.

I think I was probably working,

like, 10 to 15 hour days,

No.

And then started experiencing some health problems.

It started as hand pain

and my first reaction was like, "Oh, that hurts.

But, nah, nah, just ignore it."

It got to the point where I couldn't, like, grip things.

So I figured I should actually probably go to the doctor.

Things kept getting worse and worse and worse.

Pain was starting to go up the arms,

it was starting to go down my back.

Both hands turned purple and cold and sweaty

and I started having back spasms all the time.

He couldn't even open a door.

He was just totally disabled.

The prognosis was he'd never play the guitar again.

I couldn't create and I had a lot of people

who would play guitar parts or keyboard parts

that I would dictate to them

and that allowed me to keep making music.

I eventually found a sports medicine doctor.

He figured out that I have a disease called RSD

which is a nerve disease.

There's no cure, but there's treatment options.

I was asking him if I would ever play music again.

He told me that if, if I was lucky

and if I followed my treatment,

like, very specifically, within two years

or so I might start to be able to play a little bit again.

And I'm like, "Okay, I mean,

if that's what it's going to be, like, I

I'm not happy about that but, um, it's...

...it's better than what I have now."

A little over a year after I got my diagnosis,

The Matches met up for... lunch.

It was the first time all four of us

had been in the same room in years.

At the time that The Matches broke up,

I mean, we may have felt older,

but we were just kind of really old boys.

Like, we were haggard boys.

Do you know what I mean? To be honest, we needed time to,

like, turn into men.

While we were having pancakes,

uh, Matt was like, "Oh, we get our record back from Epitaph.

What do we do?" I was like,

"I guess we just put it up on iTunes ourselves.

Otherwise, it's not on iTunes anymore.

Like, wait a minute.

Let's fucking put out some vinyl."

Or maybe we could do, like, a show or something. Like, play the album.

And, I don't know, I instinctually turned to Shawn

because I was expecting him to go like,

"No, we don't need to do that."

And then he was the first one who was like:

I think that 200 people will

remember and be stoked.

And then, like, me and Justin looked at each other like,

"Shit, let's do this!

Like, and let's have fun!"

Fast forward. They, you know, Shawn called me and he was like,

"Well, would you be interested in handling this?"

I was like, "I would love to.

You know, I've been waiting ten years."

You know, I always wanted to work with The Matches.

Shawn was like, "So any desire

to sell merch for a Matches show?"

And... I mean...

...I, my jaw probably hit the floor.

I could not believe what I was hearing.

God. I don't think I had played a note on a guitar

for, like, a year and a half at that point.

I love it.

That's awesome.

We look like 12-year-olds.

I could probably, I could probably do it.

Matt's talking, like, nine months from now.

I could probably play one show

and, like, be okay.

-What are you doing? -Looking up our show.

First show was about to go up on sale.

And my girlfriend was like, "Oh my gosh, like,

I should probably get some, you know, extra tickets."

And I was like, "Oh, you know, don't worry about it."

Well, the site's crashing on my end.

-So... -Mine too.

At like 10:03,

my dad called me... and he was like,

"Hey, like, I'm trying to buy tickets for your show.

And, and, like, it says it's sold out." And I was like,

"That... no. That's not..." I was, like,

"Dad, you're on the wrong page. Like, you probably don't

you don't know how to use a computer, like...

-My computer crashed! -Yeah.

-I can't get on it. It was on... -Yeah.

...and then, like, I got disconnected.

This was like at 10:05.

The server... it's not there.

And we're basically trying to figure out, like,

"Is this real?"

Then I was, like, mad. I was like, "This could mess up,

'cause people are trying to buy tickets

and they'll think it's sold out,

and it's really not sold out."

10:07.

It actually sold out

in a matter of minutes.

We were stunned.

And I just started crying.

I was like, "Oh, this is real. Oh, my God!"

Like, "Holy shit, should we...

...should we do another one, huh?"

We put a second show on sale

and it sold out right away as well.

I don't know if I can even play one show yet.

Now we're going to do two shows.

Okay. It'll work out. It'll work out.

Okay, I guess we need to add a third show. Okay.

Fuck, like, what if I can't even do the one.

I didn't tell the guys this at all.

I didn't tell them I was afraid of this.

This was all just, like, going on in the back of my head.

And now Matt just suggested playing

some New York shows. So...

This is so crazy.

I literally sent Matt an email

and I was like, "Will there be Australian shows?"

Well...

...if they're asking us to,

I'd hate to be rude.

We saw so many bands just come and go

and there's, like, no trace of them.

We figured once we broke up, like, that was it.

To sell out a show in two minutes is, is kind of mind-blowing.

Never did it occur to me to assume

that we were going to come back being anywhere

near a quarter of the size

that we were when we left.

Ho... how would that be possible?

You can ask me questions all day about it.

And I don't understand it,

Uh... it's cool.

So I do all the treatment which was all these different specialists.

After a few months, I was able to, like, play my first chord.

I actually played my first chord on my birthday,

and it was awesome.

It was really amazing. I think it was a G chord.

Good chord. Good chord.

I know the smell of those guys, you know?

They walk in a room, I'm like, "That's Justin."

We haven't played together in five years.

-Was that right or wrong? -I don't know.

Do, do it again, I'm not going to think too much about it.

I think we all fell back into it naturally and,

I mean, I think that the fact that there was no real expectation

and pressure beyond wanting to do well for our fans.

Stepping back into the band stuff after having,

like, this solid foundation of, like,

my own personal life has been just amazing.

Hungry.

I took my recovery really seriously

and I came out of it on the other side.

I look cured, but I'm not cured.

Like, I will manage it for the rest of my life.

I ha... I have no idea what to expect.

I'm going to be pretty let down

if the crowd is all like dead and acting really 30.

So...

I've probably been to about almost 60 Matches shows over the last ten years.

When I heard they were getting back together I was out here in a second.

Yeah, I think I, I squealed, like, in my car at work.

It was like...

-They were my favorite band. -Yeah.

Oh, they're still my favorite band,

what am I saying.

There's a huge sense of community

when you come to a Matches show.

It was the first band that they hung out afterwards

and they were they were actually people,

and they were really cool, and I could talk to them.

I grew up in, like, super redneck,

like, Minnesota, and, like, so, I had, like,

no friends, and then I go, and I went and saw The Matches.

And then all of a sudden, I met people

who liked the same stuff I did.

And, like, then I had friends magically.

Which way does this go, I can't tell which is front or back.

Why are you laughing?

We got on stage, plug all our stuff in,

People were, like, getting antsy,

really antsy. We were getting antsy.

So you are the people that broke the internet, huh?

And then it's time to, like, play the first note.

And we were just like, "Okay, I guess,

I guess we're going to do this!"

♪ I'm just a dog-eared page you turn back to ♪

♪ Where's the place for me ♪

♪ When we're both in love with you? ♪

And from the very first chord,

just the room erupted.

♪ As the weight of the week ♪

♪ Falls away with a thud ♪

♪ Sweating in the dark we feed ♪

♪ On the forms in the light ♪

♪ On the floor we're the flood ♪

♪ We bleed, we bleed, we bleed ♪

♪ Audio blood ♪

♪ Audio blood ♪

♪ This is how we bleed in audio... ♪

I forgot about how wonderful

that connection with the crowd was.

It kind of felt like being home again.

They're a part of who we are.

They've helped to create us as individuals.

It was an experience to be kind

of reliving and paying homage

to this thing that we were all part of.

It felt like a family reunion, because we recognized

every face in that room.

The crowd was, like, incredibly loud.

They didn't want us to stop. But it was like,

"We don't have any more songs we can really play.

This is all we rehearsed!"

Ten more songs.

Ten more songs. Ten more songs.

This is our last one everybody.

And it goes like this.

Their energy that they had during those shows were just awesome.

And the love that they showed each other, and the fans,

it touched a lot of people's lives.

When they played "Salty Eyes" at that show, it was like,

"Holy shit. Like, I almost, like, forgot how good this was."

There's no level that means you made it.

Any artist, that gets to create something,

that changes anyone's life, has made it.

It's something that I, I can't translate.

The Matches is more than just this band that I worked for.

It's beyond the music. It isn't just like, "Oh, I was a fan of the band."

It's like a part of your identity.

The relationship that they have with their fans,

and that their fans have with them is

different than any band that I'd seen.

I mean, they know their fans,

and people are still getting Matches tattoos.

♪ Our generation ♪

♪ Made anything worth saving ♪

♪ Made anything to last ♪

♪ Longer than the life ♪

♪ Of a match ♪

We felt the love, and we weren't expecting it on that level.

When you put that much of your life into something

to have people react so positively

years later, is really, really rewarding.

I think in the grand scheme of things,

The Matches were successful.

But I, I think it also kind of...

...it changes my idea of what success is, you know?

Doing it on your own terms, and actually having people

that care about you.

And still having something to come back to.

Those initial reunion concerts for me weren't just about

being in The Matches again.

It was also about feeling like I was back.

I was moving as much as I did back in the old days.

I, I... I have an appreciation for everything that I never had.

Whooo... I almost a little,

I almost got a little teary-eyed there for a second.

I was like, "Oh, fuck, don't,

don't cry on camera."

I guess at the end of the day, like, "What bides your time?

How do you justify...

...staying alive?

How do you get from, from birth to death?"

I'm just honored, that we still get to do this.

♪ I swear that you believed me ♪

♪ When I told you that I was Superman ♪

♪ With you I can even fool myself ♪

♪ We've been friends since we were 12 ♪

♪ Now I'll be 17 on the 24th ♪

♪ You've posed for five years on my shelf ♪

One, two, three, four.

♪ I counted seasons 'till the fall ♪

♪ When I would steal your heart ♪

♪ You left the scene before my crime ♪

♪ I think about you when I'm sick ♪

♪ And tired of stupid girls ♪

♪ I think about you all the time ♪

♪ I am Superman with you ♪

♪ Oh, c'mon, you know you're my hero, too ♪

♪ Oh, it might sound like a lie ♪

♪ But I know and you know ♪

♪ That Superman can fly ♪

♪ Stared through the menu on the wall ♪

♪ We've read too many times ♪

♪ Lit a match to watch it burn ♪

♪ You keep me waiting longer every day ♪

♪ But I'm still here ♪

♪ The more you live the less I learn ♪

♪ I am Superman with you ♪

♪ Oh, c'mon, you know you're my hero, too ♪

♪ Oh, it might sound like a lie ♪

♪ But I know and you know ♪

♪ That Superman can fly ♪

♪ Went to Marine world ♪

♪ Try to find the words to say to you ♪

♪ But I couldn't find the place to start ♪

♪ I love you, I hate you ♪

♪ All I know is that I don't know nothin' ♪

♪ And nothing's gonna break my heart ♪

♪ Break down to a thousand pieces ♪

♪ I am Superman with you ♪

♪ Oh, c'mon, you know you're my hero, too ♪

♪ Oh, it might sound like a lie ♪

♪ But I know and you know ♪

♪ That Superman can fly ♪

Bring it in. Group hug. Come on everybody.

We love you guys.

-We'll miss you guys. -Yes.

You're national treasures.

Ten more songs. Ten more songs.

Ten more songs. Ten more songs...

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Get outta my song ♪ -♪ Get outta my song ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Get outta my song ♪ -♪ Get outta my song ♪

♪ I just want to sing about the blue skies ♪

♪ And I just want to focus on the good vibes ♪

♪ Then just when I'm feeling better ♪

♪ You come to mind and then I just want ♪

♪ To die again ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Get outta my song ♪ -♪ Get outta my song ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Get outta my song ♪ -♪ Get outta my song ♪

♪ I just wish that you never existed ♪

♪ Then I'm sure that I could hear the muses ♪

♪ There's so much anticipation ♪

♪ This has to be a great song ♪

♪ You're standing in my way ♪

♪ Well I just want to write something of substance ♪

♪ To justify why anyone should listen ♪

♪ I could sing about anything ♪

♪ The wonders of simply being, instead ♪

♪ Of repeating your name ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪

-♪ Mary Claire ♪ -♪ Mary Claire ♪