Matt Van Duppen On Both Playing In & Managing Thornhill

16 November 2017 | 10:49 am | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

"I could tell they had their heads screwed on with songwriting, but they had no clue how to 'be a band' yet in a business sense."

Thornhill's most recent lineup addition, Matt Van Duppen (formerly of Set The Score and currently a member of Better Half) not only plays guitar for the metalcore band but also manages the young Melbourne group too. With this dual-role in the local group, with Thornhill starting to really go places here in Australia, and with their tour supporting Void Of Vision and Graves kicking off this Friday in Brisbane, we spoke the guitarist/manager about his position in the band, playing 7-strings for the first time, leaving Set The Score, Thornhill's future, and more.



First of all, Matt, what factors prompted you to leave Set The Score?

It was a combination of a few things. I think the overall reason was that it was becoming more of a chore for me rather than something to enjoy, so there wasn't much point in continuing something I wasn't enjoying. I also started to fall out of love with the genre in general. It was getting to the point where a lot of what I was writing was the same as the stuff we had previously released and every other band in pop punk was sounding exactly the same as well, which was disheartening. I felt like there was no room to move with what I was writing without completely changing genres, which isn't something the rest of the guys wanted to do. It's the main reason why I started Better Half and didn't take Set The Score in that direction instead. But in the end, admittedly I was putting more time into Thornhill and just needed a change.

With you managing Thornhill, you’ve been doing so since the band first started. Why did you initially take on that role? Was it a matter of paying it forward, helping a young up and coming band, or because you saw the potential these guys had?

At the time, I remember I had made a decision to start trying to get my foot in the door to some experience in the industry but wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. I knew Ethan (McCann - Guitar) from a music production course that we both did during school, and he messaged me saying they were about to go in and record their first EP with Chris Vernon. I remembered Ethan showing me his Northlane guitar covers on YouTube (which are still there if you dig hard enough) during that course which were sick, so I cancelled my plans the next day and went in the studio to hear a few tracks while Jacob was throwing down some vocals. Everything sounded so huge while I was in there so I messaged Ethan back that night and much pretty much said, "I need to manage this band". I could tell they had their heads screwed on with songwriting, but they had no clue how to 'be a band' yet in a business sense. So my main motivation for getting started with them was making sure they didn't waste their talent because of not knowing how to go about getting shows, releasing their music, advertising and all that kind of thing. It all really just fell together nicely for me and I didn't feel out of depth like how I probably would've if I started with an already established band. It's also really rewarding to see them grow from the ground up after having been there from the start.

Did you have any managerial role in Set The Score or is this Thornhill management your first time in this particular position?

I had a slight managerial role in STS, but it wasn't as hands-on as Thornhill. Set The Score had been doing this for a few years and everything we did was usually decided altogether without myself being the main influence and advisor like in Thornhill at the time. I would more-so just be in charge of booking the shows, sorting the invoices, those types of things rather than being a decision-maker.

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

In this role, what specific things have you done for the band and what have you helped brought their way over the past year or so? What things do you hope to further bring to the group?

For the most part, I would be handling invoices, payments, social media, booking shows, ordering merch, those types of things. I still do all of those things except for booking which we got Ash Hull on board for, and that has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders. Before Ash came into things, we managed to land a handful of shows with Hellions, Void of Vision, Graves and Architects, which helped the guys a lot to get some experience under their belts and start becoming more comfortable on stage. I don't think there are many specific things that I have in mind that I feel like I NEED to bring to the band, just as long as everything we do and every decision we make leads to growing the band and not plateauing or going backwards. It also helps a lot having Ash on board even it's just for booking because I do still go to him a lot for advice on how I should approach different decisions that need to be made.  

Have you found managing the band to be at times stressful? As in are there outside factors that affect your mental health or stress levels when looking at release times, setting up announcements, securing shows, etc?

It can be really stressful at times but I don't let it get to a point where it's affecting my mental health at all. Most of the stress happens because I put it on myself by trying to get too many things done at the same time that realistically could just wait until another day. Outside factors usually don't affect my work for the band because I still see it as an enjoyable outlet from everything else. I think the most stressful thing to deal with so far has been the track releases because I usually try and tackle the PR for that as well as the social media and everything that goes with it, but it ends up being rewarding at the same time when people are commenting how much they like the track and watching the views go up, etc. There are going to be far more stressful things to deal with in the future but luckily it's been fairly cruisy so far!

With you recently joining the band, was that transition at all made easier with you already being on the inside and already knowing the songs really well?

It was definitely a lot easier to transition from already having an involvement in the band and always being able to jam their unreleased tracks. We're playing a couple of new ones on this tour and I'd probably still be struggling with them if I hadn't heard them a thousand times in the month leading up to joining.

Likewise, have you helped out in the song writing process at all since fully joining or are you just there to play riffs and handle the business stuff?

I haven't had much involvement in the songwriting for the next release seeing as it mostly written before I joined. Every now and again I'll throw my input into an aspect of the song like the structure or something like that, but 99% of it is Ethan's songwriting with Jacob's melodies, and Cage will help out with additional production too. The good thing about Thornhill is everyone has their own role to play. Ethan will write the songs, Jacob will write the lyrics and his melodies, Cage will do all our demos, Ben will make tweaks to the drums and I'll handle all the business aspect of it. Everyone has a responsibility and it helps to keep everyone interested and motivated.  

What was your first live show with Thornhill like and how did it compare to the shows you’ve done with STS in the past?

The first show I played with Thorny went real well. It was at 170 Russell with Northlane so I got thrown into the deep end a bit [laughs]. Luckily I had played a few shows with STS that were a similar size to this one so I was somewhat used to it by then. The gear situation though, that's a different story. Setting up all my gear for STS shows was easy, seeing as I just had the Marshall head that I had been using for years and knew how to use it all inside-out. When I joined Thorny I had to spend all my savings on new gear and started using a digital rig which I barely knew how to use at the first show. Didn't help when ERRA's guitarist was having problem with his gear and cut down my time to set up my stuff, so I was stressing out hard. On top of that, I had never played a 7-string guitar in my life until I joined, so using that on stage was a bit different too, and moving around to a completely different genre as well was strange. I think I should have it all down by a couple shows into tour!

Also, due to the slightly younger ages of the other Thornhill members, do you ever feel like “the dad” of the band?

[Laughs] Nah, I don't really, all of us are pretty similar in age. Ben is the youngest at 19, and everyone else is 20-21. Cage is actually the oldest in the band at 23, but I just play the role of dad instead.

Now, as everyone’s seen the false announcement of the band supposedly being signed to UNFD due to Jacob’s vocal coach post on Facebook, would it just be fair to say that better and bigger things are on the horizon for Thornhill?

We've got some tours in the pipeline for 2018 as well as a couple of shows that we're really keen to announce. I think one of them should be announced shortly but we'll have to wait and see. Very excited to get it all out there and start playing for more people in the new year!



Catch Thornhill on tour with Graves, Void Of Vision and Reactions this month: 

Friday, 17th November: Crowbar, Brisbane 18+ 

Saturday, 18th November: Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle 18+

Sunday, 19th November: Red Ratter, Sydney Lic AA 

Monday, 20th November: RAD Bar, Wollongong Lic AA

SOLD OUT 

Tuesday, 21st November: The Basement, Canberra 18+

Friday, 24th November: Enigma Bar, Adelaide Lic AA

Saturday, 25th November: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne 18+