Matt Copley talks Bruno, Broadway, and Sky High

You may have seen an interesting new take on musical theater floating around Tik Tok with pop-punk versions of massive Broadway hits such as “Defying Gravity” from Wicked or “Wait for It” from Hamilton.

We sat down with Matt Copley to talk about his experience taking Broadway in such a unique direction, his upcoming cover of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” and spent a considerable amount of time discussing the movie Sky High.

When you first did a punk Broadway cover, did you expect to get the response that you did?

No, I had no idea. I didn’t think people would really like that. I don’t know. I didn’t think there would be such a big crossover between pop punk and theater kids and theater fans. But there’s such a big crossover that I was unaware of. I grew up a theater kid, I have my degree in musical theater, and I joined a pop punk band, so it was a no brainer for me. It all started just form our label that we were on at the time for Unwell was like “hey, we’re starting to promote your new EP, let’s brainstorm some different ways that would be unique to you guys to promote this.” And so, I brought up my past and just stuff about me and they were like “you should do punk covers of Broadway songs” and I was like “I don’t know about that, I don’t think it would be well received” and they were like “just try once and if it doesn’t work then fuck it.” And that was “Defying Gravity” and that just blew up and I was like “alright, I guess I’m gonna keep doing this.”

There have been punk covers of different genres for years now with Punk Goes Pop and Punk Goes Classic Rock being hits almost a decade ago. Was the label the only push to get you to do the Punk Goes Broadway/Disney thing?

No, no. Well, I’ve been seeing the Pop Punk Goes Disney for a long time. There’s Our Last Night, I think is the name of a band that does that stuff, and there’s a ton of bands that do Disney covers. That wasn’t really an interest of mine, but Pop Punk Goes Broadway or Broadway Does Pop Punk, whatever you want to call it, it definitely came up to me a few times before I did it. Like a couple of years before. I remember my brother having a conversation with me about it like two years ago and every time someone brought it up to me I always kinda brushed it off. I had this idea for, well I don’t know if I can credit it as my own idea, but everyone that contributed to it started telling me about this years ago, but I never had the means or the time. I don’t know, it just never really worked for some reason and then the timing was right with this one.

And I think the closest we’ve had to something like this is Green Day’s American Idiot but that’s the reverse of, that was punk that they brought to Broadway.

Right. I wish I was the right age during that time because I was pretty young when that happened [around middle school]. I wish I appreciated it more because I didn’t really know, or I wasn’t super aware of Broadway, or current events, or news or anything like that. So, it wasn’t a big deal to me. But it was a huge influence on me. That was my favorite musical hands down. I saw the tour of it when it was on the national tour sometime in middle school and I was like “this is fucking dope, I wanna do this.” Maybe that planted the first seed for me, who knows.

What has it been like gaining so much traction from a platform like Tik Tok? It’s almost like the MySpace of this generation.

It’s interesting you know. Everything on Tik Tok happens so fast because if you’re going viral it pretty much happens in a day or two, or so and it was just this instant huge wave of people and fans and new people that were discovering my band too. My band was around for about a year before this happened and like all this stuff was happening and it was awesome. There’s always two sides to the coin though and it sucks sometimes to be reliant on the algorithm to get your music out there. When I was first doing it, it was pretty new, and it was popping off every time I did it, everyone was loving it and I kept getting more and more traction.

I had some personal things in life, and I slowed down, I didn’t put stuff out for a few months because I was doing some other stuff and then when I came back to it recently with “Wait for It” and now I’m doing Disney, but I’ll talk about that later. That wasn’t my decision haha. When I came back it wasn’t, it’s a lot harder now and so it kinda sucks to have a fan base based on Tik Tok because if the algorithm isn’t favoring the video or your content so much anymore than it’s hard to get it out to people. Which I feel like a lot of content creators go through ups and downs of their audience and their waves and it sucks.

So that can be frustrating but it’s awesome. I mean, I never would have gotten to where I am today without Tik Tok, so it sucks to say this as well but I’m very grateful for Tik Tok as much as I don’t like social media in the sense that it just feels like a highlight reel of everybody. And I hate posting stuff all the time, because like all the good stuff in my life is just ten percent of what actually goes on. But it is what it is. I have to look at social media now as more business-y and it is to promote my music and to promote sales and streams and tour tickets and whatever. And the people that are close to me that I want to have a more personal connection with I text or call or that kind of stuff. Within recent months I’ve made that very clear distinction for myself or the people I love where social media is really just a place for me to promote stuff.

But it’s exhausting honestly haha. I’m not burnt out by any means form music or anything like that, but I’m a little Tik Tok burnt out in the sense of I only have so many ideas at once, you know to come up with new Tik Tok ideas; this interview has caught me at a down time where I have no idea what I should be posting but I’ll figure it out. I’ll come out of this wave.

What was it like working with No Resolve, who is another group who got their kick start the same way?

They’re really cool guys, I really enjoy them. They’re on the same “label” I am, and I say “label” because it’s not like a traditional label where they own everything of yours and do everything. It’s a very artist friendly, independent label. It is very fair with their artists and its only distribution deals, they don’t do touring or live performances or merchandise, they don’t do any of that. It’s literally just focused on putting out music. When I signed with, they’re called Noise Machine, that was when I put out the first three songs, Phantom, “Defying Gravity,” and “The Greatest Show” full length songs. That was my first time working with them. Right when I signed with them, we did Defying Gravity and they were like “hey, we have this artist No Resolve that’s really popping off and we think it’d be smart marketing wise to put them on this song.” And they were so right. So, they made the introduction for me, and it was a no brainer, and they were cool to work with, very easy, really motivated people. And yeah, they were sweet.

It’s really nice that you have that support from your label because you don’t hear that often from a lot of bands.

Well, that happened with my band Unwell. We were on a label, I won’t name names, but we were on a label before our first EP and they just did not do anything for us, so now we’re independent; my band is. But that’s another thing, we’re doing good stuff over there too, but the Noise Machine label is really cool. Honestly, all of their artists help each other. I talk to a lot of their artists. They have a big country artist named Drew Jacobs that’s local to me and he helps me out a ton. I do talk to Oscar and Manny from No Resolve quite a bit and it’s just a cool little community of all these musicians who are all doing really cool stuff in their own worlds and it’s awesome to have each other.

You have your cover of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” coming out soon. What was your favorite and least favorite part of creating that?

My favorite part of creating that was how everything’s layered in that song, and I got to record all the parts to it which I thought was really cool. But honestly, I think as much as that was my favorite part that was also my least favorite part. That song is so unique in that, it has so many different voices and actors voicing those characters. When we were first creating the cover there was talk of putting all the Noise Machine artists on that one song, so it was gonna be me, Oscar from No Resolve, Drew Jacobs, and another guy and it was gonna be this cool four person song and we’d do all the parts respectively. I was so stoked and that’s when I said yes to doing the song, but slowly, I learned, one by one that each of them dropped out and I was left with the song. And they already started writing the song and had it made, so I was in a position where I could either do this song right now or I could wait another three or four weeks for another song to be written for me. And I was like “I’ll just do it.” Like I said, I love Pop Punk Goes Disney, I think it’s awesome and I love the covers that have been put out but for me personally and my audience it’s just not something I’m interested in. I wanna do Broadway songs because that’s never been done really, there’s been a few times but not fully. That’s what I’m interested in so I kinda got, for lack of a better term, “stuck with Bruno.” But I’m still excited, I’m really happy with how it turned out, I think it’s a really kick ass cover. My audience is not receiving it as well as the Broadway stuff but it’s okay by me because it’s trial and error. I’m happy that I did it, so we’ll see how it’s received once it’s fully out but so far, the pre-save campaign hasn’t been as well received as the prior releases. But it is what it is.

What musical theater song is at the top of your list to cover next?

I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing next for a full song. I’m not gonna say it just in case, I don’t wanna jinx it but it’s a very summery song, so I’m stoked about that. Some other stuff that’s at the top of my list, I actually have a thing going. I definitely want to do something from Sweeny Todd, that’s very high on my list. Something from Le Misérables is also very high on my list. “Heaven on Their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar I really wanna do to because it’s already pretty punk, and something from Rent because everyone always messages me and comments that they want Rent. Alright, I’ll do it, I’ll do it. But everyone that suggests song I literally put them in a note on my phone so when it’s time to decide what I want to do next, I look at what’s been recommended the most, or what people want to hear, that’s where these next ones come from. I’ve heard Les Mis, Sweeny Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Rent a whole lot so it’ll be something along those lines. Well, the next one I know that I’m doing is none of those but the one after that yes. The one I’m doing next is another one that’s been commented a lot, but we’ll see.

Does your band, Unwell, have any projects coming up in the near future that we should keep our eye out for?

We have a brand new single that we haven’t announced yet, but it’s all done. It’s uploaded to our YouTube and everything just private so everything’s good to go. I think we’re just deciding on a release date right now, and I think it’s going to be released the first week of June right before we start our month-long tour in June. We’re going out from June 7^th through the 25^th or something, going to the West Coast. We’re starting in New Orleans and making our way west, going through a lot of Texas, Arizona, doing a lot of California dates, Denver, St. Louis I know we’re doing. But it’s a month long run with our friends in Sink In who we toured with back in October when we went to the East Coast. So, we’re going to release a brand new single right before that tour and then tour with it and I’m really excited.

I think, honestly, and I know every band says that their new music is the best they’ve done but this new music is next level for us. It’s really good, we’re stoked.

If you woke up as the main character in your favorite book, movie, story, etc., but you knew the outcome of the story, what would you do differently?

This is so embarrassing, but you know the movie Sky High? It’s such a good movie and it still holds true today. I literally watched it three times in a row with my girlfriend like two or three months ago. It was a snow weekend in Michigan, there was a huge snowstorm, and we were snowed in for several days in a row and we just turned on Sky High and just kept watching it because it was so good. I remember it being good back when I was a kid when it came out and a lot of those movies that I remember being good I’ll watch today, and they aren’t that good anymore but Sky High holds up. So that’s probably my favorite movie right now as embarrassing as it is.

So, if I was the main character, his name’s Will, Will Stronghold, I would just not treat Layla, who ends up being his love interest, but he thought his love interest was Gwen who, spoiler alert, was the evil person if you remember. She was like the pacifier, or whoever the evil person was. So, I just wouldn’t treat his best friend/later love interest so bad. I would treat her a little better because she’s the one that’s always there for him. And it’s so clear to us as the audience like “oh my god, Layla’s so into you wake the fuck up, don’t fall in love with the villain.” But he does. Silly boy.

What/Who was the last:

Book you read?

Oh my god I do not read as often as I should, but I honestly think the last book I read as the self-help book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck.” It was really helpful. I don’t really read self-help books, or I don’t read a lot in general. I like to but my attention span is so shitty these days. But that book was really, really good. I really enjoyed reading that.

Movie you watched? Please tell me it was Sky High.

No, no it wasn’t Sky High, although I wish it was. I’ll watch that on my flight tomorrow. I saw Morbius recently. I thought it was good, I enjoyed the movie. Everyone’s shitting on it, but I didn’t think it was that bad, I thought it was good. I also like Marvel movies but I’m not a huge fan. I don’t know comics, I don’t know anything, I just like to enjoy. I enjoyed it. I thought it was a sick movie. It was a lot darker than some of the other ones, so I really liked that. I think Morbius was the last full movie I watched in a while. I’ve been hopping around different series lately. I watch a lot of YouTube people so that’s what I do before I go to bed. I’ll just hop on a YouTube video or some channels I subscribe to.

What’s your favorite channel right now?

There’s this channel called The Grim Life Collective and it’s this couple from Hollywood, it’s a spooky channel because I love Halloween and everything spooky, it’s like my favorite thing in the world and I kinda celebrate it all year round, and they’re like very big spooky Halloween people. They do reviews of masks and costumes and right now what they’re doing is they’re going to famous serial killer locations and documenting stuff, interviewing people, and showing where stuff happened and that’s realty interesting. They do a lot of haunted house attraction walkthroughs, so they’ll go to some of the best haunted houses in the US and meet up with the owners and walk through them with the lights on and stuff like that. It’s so cool to see how everything’s made. It’s a dream of mine in the future, I wanna own a haunted house. An attraction, not an actual- well, maybe an actual haunted house would be cool too, but I wanna own a haunted house because I think it would be so fun. So that’s a ten year plan maybe.

Show you binged?

I think Dave on FX or Hulu, it’s like that Lil Dicky show.

Cooked/Ate?

Last thing I ate was literally one of these chocolate Cadbury eggs, I have a bag of them right in front of me. Last thing I cooked was I made this vegan, gluten free cake yesterday or two days ago that was really good. It was like this snickerdoodle cake.

Place you visited?

I think Atlanta when I was on tour. I don’t know if that counts as visiting because we kinda just go to the venue, load in, load out, go to the next venue. But that was the last place I was other than home.

Picture you took?

It’s this picture of these pumpkin seeds I got, and I thought it was really sick. My girlfriend and I are doing a garden this year and so we’ve been planning what we’re gonna do and I saw these pumpkin seeds and had to get them

Who was the last person you hugged?

My girlfriend. Actually, no, yep, no, yeah, my girlfriend. I just had a friend visiting from LA and I thought it was him, but it was actually her.

Who/What was the last thing that made you cry?

Today, I was listening to this spoken-word poetry guy, I forget his name. He was on America’s Got Talent last year or two years ago. I was listening to him do some stand up poetry and it got me moving. Whatever he was talking about I was going through it in my bedroom.

Song you sang?

It was my cover of The Greatest Showman, shamelessly.

If you could trade places with another person for a week, famous or not, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?

Deryck Whibley, the lead singer of Sum 41. I would trade places with him for a week. Just because I really love Sum 41, they were the band that got me into pop punk music when I was in middle school. They were the first alt band that I listened to, and I still love them to this day. Their new music not so much but I still listen to them. I’m just a really big fan of them so I would want to trade places with him and see what it’s like to be in this crazy, huge, famous band.

If you had an unimitated budget, what would your dream stage design look like?

I haven’t given too much thought to this yet but off the top of my head it would probably be something spooky, because we all love spooky. Like one of our songs called “Carve” is like a spooky song. It would be really sketchy, it would be, I don’t know, spooky that’s all I really can tell you right now. I haven’t given it that much thought. But something spooky, something to keep the crowd interested. Something that really plays on the look of the stage. Something like what Motionless in White did on their live streams in the penitentiary or just when they go on tour. Their stage setups are always really sick and spooky. I wouldn’t go as far as them because they’re obviously like a metalcore, horrorcore kind of genre but something kinda similar is what I would go for because I think it’s so sick.

 

We’d like to give a huge thank you to Matt Copley for taking the time out to chat with us! You can check out his new cover of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” out April 29th!

Don’t miss Unwell on their West Coast Tour starting June 7th! Get tickets here if you haven’t already!