ABOUT MATT HOPPER & THE ROMAN CANDLES --- EXTENDED BIO --- Matt Hopper and The Roman Candles' first full length (Bang! Bang! Bang! 2003) landed on CMJ charts when he was a 24-year old college student in Anchorage, Alaska. Their first E.P. (Firecracker 2001) was released a few years prior on now defunct Canadian label Absalom Records with a limited edition run of 1000 copies and inclusion on a benefit album featuring songs by Frank Black & The Catholics, The Autumns and Songs:Ohia. In the interim of these two releases the band went through various lineup changes in the Anchorage area. Brandon Hafer (The Builders & The Butchers) was an original guitarist while second drummer Erik Braund went on to play a gig with Jay-Z. A state fair gig with Anatomy of a Ghost (members now make up Portugal. The Man) in 2003 brought them in front of their largest audience yet, but unfortuantely the band was days away from falling apart. Asked to open a west coast tour with AOAG and Fear Before The March of Flames a few weeks later, Hopper had to recruit members of Anatomy to join his band to complete the tour. Hopper holed up with Shawn Simmons at Phantom Center in Seattle, WA to record The Roman Candles second full-length record (Keep Your Mouth Shut 2003) along with original bassist Christian Woods and Kristian Rosentrater (Brandi Carlile, Carrie Biell) after that tour was completed. He formed his own record label around this time, Hatcher Pass Records, to release the bands music and took the reigns as the primary songwriter for the band, forming a publishing company Bright Orange Flare Music through ASCAP. The recent college graduate opted out of a return to Alaska and ended up in Los Angeles for the winter of 2003. He eventually took a job as a mail clerk for Microsoft during the day and kicked off a solo career by night performing at clubs such as Hotel Cafe, Tangier, Silverlake Lounge, and Spaceland. His first gig in Southern California was at The Troubadour.
After reading Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild and recording a solo E.P. (Gold Rush 2004) an inspired Hopper left LA for his own version of Kerouac's On The Road. He toured non-stop as a solo artist from late 2004 to late 2005, crisscrossing the USA twice performing to anyone and everyone. After performing at the South Park Music Festival one writer from Summit Daily News describes him as "a monster rock n roll front man who writes brilliantly crafted pop tunes. He has the catalogue, persistence and the stage presence to be the next big thing in pop musics re-birth of the singer/songwriter genre. He’s already proven he’s among the best of his class."Despite increasingly glowing reviews of his live show and music, his dream was sidelined by a string of bad luck - his Chevy was broke into on St. Patrick's Day 2005 in Tacoma, WA and a few months later broke down east of Tuscon, AZ at 3 a.m. It was at the end of a long string of dates with new drummer Russ Lemkin (Linfinity) and the Matt Lewis Band, and the end of line for Hopper for the time being.
He was earning the respect of his peers and fan base the old fashioned way - driving to them, setting up his own guitar and amp, playing original songs and selling CDs he recorded and released on his own label on a tour booked on his own laptop. Performing Songwriter Magazine editor Abby White called him "Alaska's finest" while the LA Weekly stated "he has the appeal and talent of a quintessential American singer-songwriter. He writes alt-countrified songs that are pop without being cliched and delicate without being sappy." He was asked to submit a cover of a Lemonhead's song for a tribute album to be released in the UK. He recorded a solo version of "Paid to Smile" for this album, and later co-wrote a song for Evan Dando with friend Johnny Liszak. When asked to open for Dando in Boise, ID, the two performed so well, a reviewer for the Boise Weekly exclaimed in a title "Openers Better Than Dando".
After spending his last dime fixing the Blazer, he answered a call from Madison, WI based Blake Thomas & The Downtown Brown and moved to the mid-west in October 2005 to move in and record with their band. When Thomas expressed a desire to go solo, Hopper got busy reforming the Roman Candles with Downtown Brown members T.J. Pedriana (The Blueheels), Jeff Bail, and Justin Kunesh. Crashing for months on the couch he started writing songs for the band and they were soon performing coveted gigs after catching the ear of local promoter Tag Evers of True Endevers Productions. After opening for the Soledad Brothers and Heartless Bastards one night at the High Noon Saloon, Erika Wennerstrom approached Hopper and complimented him on the band's sound and songs. More shows followed with Damien Jurado, J. Tillman, Rocky Votolato, Garrison Starr and a tour with Cameron McGill and What Army to Nashville and back.
Jobless for years at this point, Hopper co-booked a west coast tour with Cold War Kids in 2006 and left his band behind to tour the west coast solo to try to sell make some money pedaling CDs. Johnnie Russell, Matt Aveiro and Matt Maust joined Hopper on two songs nightly on that tour. Upon his return to Madison, the cold winter and lack of rehearsal led to a few bad shows and when his band failed to show up for a 3,000+ plus gig opening for Margot And The Nuclear So and Sos, it was the final straw for Hopper. He soon started making plans to move back out west. Joining up with McGill for a six week solo tour, Hopper made it back out to the west coast and cut his third full length (Reverse Odyssey 2007) in Boise, ID at Sean Hatton's home studio in Hyde Park. Cameron Runyan (The Devil Whale, Location, Location), Branden Campbell (Neon Trees) and Josh McLeod (Exit 51) rounded out the band on this recording, which featured a blend of Candles power-pop with Hopper's more confessional folk based solo material. A new friend, Leslie Stevens (Leslie & The Badgers), sang on the track "Keep You Around".
Hopper released the album late in the middle of a tour with Canadian roots rocker Leeroy Stagger that saw them start in Vancouver, traverse to Montreal, filter through New York, Florida, SXSW and back up the west coast. Hopper hitched a ride with Ian Moore from Austin to Los Angeles when Stagger went back to Canada for a portion of the tour. Hopper formed a touring band to join San Diego's Long Live Logos on a summer tour and began performing residencies in different cities throughout 2008. He drove over 1,000 miles to open for Page MacConnell in Aspen, CO and after being accepted to showcase at the 2007 AMAs (Americana Music Association), took over Grimey's one bed room apartment in Nashville while performing every Tuesday at The Basement until a newly separated Bobby Bare Jr. opted him out upon a tour return after he found himself homeless. Hopper found time to tour Alaska every six months and began performing with local lineups including Lavoy, members of Wagner Logic, and a few shows with Anchorage's beloved alt-country band The Whipsaws as his backup.
At the end of 2008, after an exhausting New York residency on the Lower East Side and a six-week tour with The Devil Whale, Hopper accepted an offer to live with Hatton back in Boise. He holed up most of the winter in the studio and joined forces with Hatton and A. Nigel Gates, whom Hopper was producing a record for in the basement studio. During the winter, Matt Hopper & The Roman Candles were hand selected by the Kings of Leon to possibly open for the band at a benefit concert in Chicago, but lost the opportunity to another band based on fan voting online. The Roman Candles were suddenly back on the map in Boise, ID as a power trio. Hopper spent most of 2009 writing new songs and started to tour again in the Northwest. Things lasted through the summer and a full band Alaskan tour and then fell apart in the early fall in the midst of re-recording The Gold Rush EP at their home studio. Hopper opted for the road as a solo artist, teaming up with Portland, OR based Old Believers and Drew Grow & The Pastors Wives for US and West Coast tours and made plans to record with Richard Swift after the musician welcomed Hopper into his private studio in Cottage Grove, OR.
Hopper, a prolific singer-songwriter with a 300+ catalog of original material, started e-mailing Swift mp3s from his past. After about 34 tracks made their way to Swift's laptop, the two settled on 12 songs and worked out a handshake deal. In early drizzly January, Hopper drove to Cottage Grove to begin the record but on the first day of recording, Swift suffered a fracture to one of his left fingers in a freak accident pulling a root out of the ground in his front yard. After x-rays and hospital visits, it was determined that Swift had suffered from an injury known as jersey finger and would be in a cast until his impending surgery. Progress on the record ceased as Swift dealt with the blow of possibly not being able to ever regain full mobility in his finger and a steady diet of pain killers. Hopper killed time by working on unfinished songs and started jamming with Swift's neighbor Dave Beeman, a tour manager for Cold War Kids and former drummer for David Vandervelde. Two songs were cut live between the two, and the rest were recorded to a click for Swift to finish once he regained mobility in his finger. In late March, Swift sent over the tracks with drum and bass laid down, and Hopper returned to lay down guitars and vocals. The record (Jersey Finger 2010) was released in June 2010 on Hatcher Pass Records.
|
