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For web persona, musician, and entrepreneur Matt Cutshall, being emo was by no means a section. In truth, it was his future all alongside. As an adolescent 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. Ultimately, 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 an authorized, seasoned scene veteran.
When the style skilled a business decline within the early 2010s, Cutshall was left feeling a void that he was dying to fill. Fortunately, on the flip of the subsequent decade, emo, as soon as presumed lifeless, rose from the ashes and started to make a severe comeback. Not solely have been folks leaning on nostalgia as a type of consolation throughout making an attempt 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 rapidly and started posting hilarious, participating YouTube movies as his emotionally over-the-top, aptly titled alter ego “Emo Matt,” paying tribute to his favourite emo songs and enlisting a few of the scene’s most distinguished figures in cameos. With the success of the Youtube channel, Cutshall finally launched the life-style model Emo’s Not Lifeless, which has since ventured into the type and dwell music areas.
Learn extra: Our favourite moments from When We Have been Younger Competition, probably the most emo occasion of the yr
This previous November, Cutshall and co. placed on the first-ever Emo’s Not Lifeless Cruise, which featured an iconic lineup of basic scene bands together with Dashboard Confessional, New Discovered Glory, Thursday, Underoath, and others, and set sail from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico. The cruise was such an awesome success that the workforce behind Emo’s Not Lifeless are already placing collectively the subsequent tour, scheduled for late winter 2024.
Even past Emo’s Not Lifeless, Cutshall’s additionally been returning to his songwriting and performing roots with a brand new musical mission, Your Damaged 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 Lifeless model, and the very thrilling future that lies forward.
Why do you assume emo music and tradition is having such a resurgence in recognition in the meanwhile?
I believe every thing finally circles again, and every thing turns into a basic sooner or later. Although emo music will not be fairly “oldies,” numerous it is over 20 years outdated now, so youthful individuals are simply now discovering it as music that their dad and mom [maybe] listened to.
In my view, there isn’t a style fairly like emo — as within the feeling that you simply get watching these dwell bands, how emotional it’s, and the way 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 dwell for the primary time and so they’re blown away as a result of they’ve by no means seen something prefer it [before].
What have been these preliminary emo bands that particularly sparked your love for the style?
I went to highschool with two of my finest mates Judah and Duck Leary and so they have been in a [screamo] band known as Reclaim the Fallen. It was most likely 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 hearken to. They acquired me into Emery, Underoath, the Used, Taking Again Sunday, and the remaining is historical past.
How did you develop your alter ego “Emo Matt,” and do you ever really feel like it’s a must to technique act to get into character, or is that this simply one other extension of you?
I’ve numerous expertise being that emo character. I began a band known as IT BOYS!, and we performed Warped Tour for 4 years, and I acquired 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 primarily 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 appear like bangs and I sang Taking Again Sunday or the Used to the digicam. That Snapchat story ended up getting a lot engagement. I acquired so many messages like, “I haven’t heard that music 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 Lifeless cruise, and what would you say was probably the most fulfilling facet of it when wanting again?
This was probably the most troublesome job that I’ve ever performed. After I first posted a survey on my Fb to see if folks would wish to go on an Emo’s Not Lifeless 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 point out 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 greatest accomplishment.
[Photo courtesy of Emo’s Not Dead]
With Emo’s Not Lifeless breaking into the attire world as nicely, it looks like it has already develop into a key fixture within the type of the fashionable emo tradition. How does that really feel?
I’m so blissful that so many followers are resonating with the merch. After my sixth or seventh video, I made a decision that I wanted to discover a strategy to fund the movies as they acquired greater and larger. We needed to fly to completely different components of the nation to shoot with completely different band guys, so these movies have been including up to some thousand {dollars} a pop that I used to be popping out of pocket to pay for. I can’t monetize on Fb 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 stated “Emo’s Not Lifeless” and it ended up promoting out within the first couple of days. I scaled the model 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 actually what’s fueling our model and permits me to pay my staff, have a cruise, and create these music movies.
Talking 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 Easy Plan, however are there any dream visitors you might be nonetheless hoping to work with sooner or later?
I might like to get My Chemical Romance in a video. I’ve DM-ed a bit with [MCR bassist] Mikey Means and he loves what we do, so fingers crossed that we get them in the future as a result of I do know the followers would completely freak out. I actually wish to get blink-182 in a video [as well], and I truly chatted about it a little bit 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 model?
Dwell occasions are enormous and we love assembly and connecting with all of our followers and supporters, so except for the cruise, we’re entertaining [the idea] of placing collectively some type of competition. It’s not a assure but, however we’re at the start levels of what that may appear like. What I’m most enthusiastic about is Your Damaged Hero, which is Emo Matt’s band that was named by Chris Carrabba. My objective for 2023 is to create a complete album, characteristic a few of the biggest emo legends on it, and drop a fully superb, nostalgic-feeling album. My objective is to play all the album on [the next] cruise in 2024 after which do an precise tour as Your Damaged Hero.
