Grab your s’mores, your bug spray, a shot of Malort and pack your bags as Riot Squad Media is returning to Northeast Pennsylvania to take over the West End Fairgrounds in Gilbert, PA with Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like 7 Seconds, The Bronx, Less Than Jake, will take place from 5 July until 7 July tickets are available here. Matt Pless has joined TGEFM to discuss this year’s festival for the latest installment of our Camp-centric interview series: Happy Campers. Check it out below and I’ll see you at the campfire!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What can you tell our readers about yourself, your history, your sound, your mission?
No worries. I appreciate ya reaching out. I don’t really know how to describe myself and I feel ridiculous doing so. That being said I’ll just tell you what random people consistently say on YouTube comment threads under my music videos “One of the best singer songwriters you’ve never heard” “Criminally Underrated” “Woodstock in a Bottle” “The folk punk Bob Dylan” “Lyrical genius” A bunch of stuff like that .. I wouldn’t even classify myself as “folk punk” though.. I just write good songs. Some of which sound like folk punk. I don’t really have a mission other than wanting to leave a positive impact on the world. Inspire people. Be the best link in the chain of artists that I can be. I want to learn from the greats, become one of the greats, and inspire the greats to come.
What does the festival circuit mean to someone like yourself?
I’ve always associated festivals with jam bands and that whole culture. It means a following Phish or the latest Grateful Dead spin off band around the country and doing drugs in the parking lot of an amphitheater.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst? On the flipside to that one… Who are some non-Camp bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
There was no catalyst. This was what I knew I was here to do. It’s a feeling you get when you’re in touch with the invisible spaces in between. The world we can’t see. So when you catch that feeling, I think you’ll know which way ya gotta go, and you’d be a fool to ignore it. I’m fortunate to have found my lighthouse early on, not everyone does.
I saw this band in England called Cotswold Trash. They were great and a half! I think the folk punk crowd will really dig this band called cheap dirty horse I played with over there as well. Walter etc is the project name of a guy named Dustin, and I’m not saying this cause I just finished a joint tour with him. I wasn’t super familiar with his music prior to this recent string of shows we just did in Europe. He’s an excellent songwriter and his lyrics are pure Americana road poetry. I think he’s one of the best lyricists I’ve heard in a while. That’s about all I can think of that jump out at me right now. I’m pretty picky.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences within the scene so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
Just watching the scene evolve over time. Seeing things happen within it that I saw coming years before. Seeing how fashion has evolved, political ideology, music styles. I’ve seen a lot of kids grow up in this scene, a lot of bands rise and fall. Nothing about it really surprises me at this point. You can usually see what’s coming if you’re paying attention and connecting the dots.
Regarding live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Camp Punk audience? What do you want the campers to say about your set when they write home from camp this year?
Hopefully a mud fight like Green Day had during Woodstock
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
There’s not much I regret because I wouldn’t have written the songs I’ve written if things had gone differently. Maybe I woulda written other ones, but right now I’m proud of my catalog so, I guess because that’s the case, I have no regrets. I’d rather die in the gutter with the music I’ve written than stand on top of the world with someone else’s.
The punk and ska scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes. The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent? Why do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?
Because a lot of people want to feel powerful or superior to others. Even in subcultures that actively preach against that type of behavior. I don’t pay attention to all of that. You can keep your gate. I don’t want it. I’m more concerned with earning someone’s respect rather than gaining power over them.
You recently released “Comin’ Through The Rye.” I love the way it calls out the rose-tinted hypocrisy when looking at the past. Let’s talk a little bit about how the song came into existence and came together. What was going on at the time that helped kickstart the writing and recording process?
Thanks for diggin’ it. One thing you gotta understand is that I don’t really set out to write specific songs so answering this is not really an easy thing to do. Lyrics and melodies just come to me and I can tell when they are ones that I should build on. It’s a subconscious thing mostly. I’m just a lightning rod.
I had this lyric “let the heads and the good times roll” jump out at me one day and I started to think about the phony aspects of fame, the mob mentality we see on the internet today, John Lennon lyrics and how I could string his song titles together to make a new statement that reflected the message the song that became “Comin’ Through the Rye” had begun to convey. It seems like Every generation thinks they’ve got it all figured out. But much of the time, eventually the world they changed turns against them and the new generation upturns the established order in one way or another.
“Comin’ through the Rye” is a combination of all of those ideas thrown together.
I think it’s kinda funny. We as humans have a hard time facing ourselves and our own flaws.
I don’t think its fair to call it a revival because the folk scene is something that’s really ever gone away, but there is a massive rejuvenation of the scene right now. What is going on out there that has gotten so many people back on their boards to ride this latest wave?
I think folk music thrives during turbulent times and the waves have been rocky for a while now. The internet is adding to the spread of information and Influence. There are huge social and political changes accuring, the economy is a mess and its easier financially to grab an acoustic guitar and travel the country playing some songs ya banged out alone than it is to form a full electric band that requires buying a van and a bunch of expensive equipment. Also folk punk in particular is pretty supportive of just about anything anyone does with an instrument, no matter how poorly it’s executed or how bad it sounds and that is attractive to people. I’d say all of this contributes to the “folk revival” or whatever you wanna call it. It also offers community which I think is a huge pull to people living in an increasingly isolating world.
If Punksylvania were a real camp, what activities are each of you leading?
I don’t wanna lead anything, I’d just run your shorts up the flagpole
Lets pretend there’s some post show jams. What song would you like to perform around the campfire this year?
I was playing “Sally Maclennane” by The Pogues every night on my recent tour of the U.K and I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with that one. Shane Macgowen died last year and he wrote all the Pogues tunes. I think he’s one of the godfathers of folk punk, maybe the very first to really combine the two genres together. That’s something I think should be acknowledged through the spreading of his music. A lot of the younger kids in the scene probably aren’t aware of him.
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which acts are you most excited to see?
I have never seen Diesel Boy and I was really into them back in the day. Big D and the Kids Table are cool. I saw Catbite open for the Bouncing Souls a while back. I really like a couple of their songs. I’m looking forward to seeing Matt Pless. I’ve followed him around for years.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
Not particularly. I hate giving interviews. If you really wanna know what I’ve got going on upstairs, Listen to my songs
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
