Matt Brandberry - From Ashes To New 'I Never Gave A Sh!t About Popularity Contests'
The rise to fame for From Ashes To New has found the band encountering similar throwbacks to the High School echelons of our upbringing and frontman Matt Brandberry has not once yielded with his, and the band’s approach to creating memorable rap/rock music when others considered the genre taboo.
The mentality of not giving a shit about what others think of your music and their approach to being in a band is what has set the group up for an exciting future following the release of their breakthrough album BLACKOUT last year, which has just received a Deluxe re-release through label Better Noise Music.
To celebrate, Matt joined Wall of Sound for a chat all about it which you can check out in the video below, or read on for the best bits.
When discussing the recent shift in favourable opinion towards rap/rock – which combines hip-hop vocal delivery complimented by heavy metal instrumentals made popular in the early 2000s with the nu-metal phase we all dabbled in – Matt spoke about how the criticisms from those within the industry reflected a lot like the high school era in which certain groups dictated what was cool and what wasn’t.
“The music industry’s a lot like high school. Whatever the cool kids are saying is cool then you go and listen to it. People get the opportunity to be the cool kids from different avenues and outlets… I never really gave a shit about popularity contests, I’ve always just done whatever I wanted to do – so I’m glad that the popular kids are starting to make this genre cool ’cause I’m just gonna be like ‘Yeah man, I’ve been doing this shit for a long time.'”
There's just some bigger artists that are starting to incorporate this [genre] now and I'm actually really happy that they are because it gives us the opportunity to get in front of their fans.
From humble beginnings in 2013 to dropping their debut album Day One in 2016, sophomore release The Future in 2018 and breaking the Top 20 Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs US charts in 2020 with ‘Panic‘ – the title track single from their third album, From Ashes To New continued to dabble in the “taboo” before honing in on what they thought their fans wanted.
When asked about how the band took the jump from their last album Panic to this new and improved release of BLACKOUT, Matt explains:
“Everything we do is kind of a conscious thought. Panic was (more so) an ode to the nostalgic vibe of the genre and it was just because people kept saying ‘You remind me of this; you remind me of that’ and [we were] like, ‘You know what, we’ll give them what they want!’ So that’s why we did what we did with Panic. BLACKOUT was a conscious effort to be the best possible versions of From Ashes To New and just do what we want to do and not really look to much deeper into it than that.”
“We kinda got a little experimental there for a little bit from our first record to this record, but we approached this one by asking ourselves ‘What made the band what is was in the beginning and how can we evolve that in a way that still keeps that integrity but also shows our growth?’ And that’s where we’re currently at.”
Doubling down on the BLACKOUT release found the band collaborating with a stack of industry greats on new and reworked versions of songs - including MattyMullins (MemphisMay Fire), AaronPauly (Of Mice & Men), ChrissyCostanza (Against The Current) and lone wolf rapper Yelawolf. As for favourites and the collaborations he learnt a lot from, as expected, it's too hard for Matt to lock in just one...
"It's hard man 'cause they're all great. 'Barely Breathing' is crushing it at radio right now and we knew we needed a good female feature on there so Chrissy killed that. I've loved Aaron Pauly since he was in Jamie's Elsewhere so being able to work with him was really really really cool. And Yelawolf, I've been listening to him forever. I love his rap style. The dude's got some serious bars. They're all my favourite for their own specific reason."
As for when and if the band will finally get their butts to Australia, it’s not too far away, they’re just looking for the right invitation to make the long trek down it seems.
“As we grow, I mean we’re growing exponentially in America and I imagine by next year we’ll be doing co-headline style bills in arenas. That just means we’ll have the opportunity to play with some of the big artists of Australia that can give us an opportunity to get down and get in front of some new fans.”
Interview by Paul ‘Browny’ Brown @brownypaul
BLACKOUT (Deluxe) is out now via Better Noise Music.Get your copy here
From Ashes To New – Blackout (Deluxe) tracklisting
1. Heartache
2. Nightmare
3. Hate Me Too
4. Hope You’re Happy
5. Barely Breathing
6. Dead To Me
7. Monster In Me
8. Echoes
9. Armageddon
10. Legacy
11. Until We Break (feat. Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire)
12. Broken By Design
13. Barely Breathing (feat. Chrissy Costanza of Against The Current)
14. One Foot In The Grave (feat. Aaron Pauly of Of Mice & Men)
15. Live before I’m Dead (Hours)
16. Monster In Me (feat. Yelawolf)
17. Nightmare – Sullivan King Remix
18. Hate Me Too – Acoustic
