Matt Hopper & The Roman Candles returns to Sedona on Sunday, April 14, at 7 p.m. They will be playing a free show at Mooney’s Irish Pub, 671 SR 179, in Sedona.
Matt Hopper & The Roman Candles are a quintessential Americana band. They blend rock ’n’ roll, blues, country, folk, reggae, pop and a healthy dose of psychadelia into their unique take on guitar- based music.
Critics have drawn comparisons to Paul Westerberg & The Replacements, Jeff Tweedy & Wilco, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Ryan Adams, Van Morrison, Mark Lanegan and many more.
The band expertly reads any room and can adjust their 130-song set list to match the vibe and the audience and, thus, have stayed alive for a 20-year independent career by playing all the dives and honky tonk gigs alongside the big theaters and outdoor festivals.
This band is so diverse, in fact, that they’ve managed to score gigs ranging from blues legends Dr. John and Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band to rock powerhouses like Everclear and Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons, folk artists like Todd Snider and Tim Easton, pop megastars Gin Blossoms and Barenaked Ladies to include 20 years of traveling and recording and playing shows.
Hopper has lived up to his last name, hopping the pond for tours in Europe, Canada and all over the U.S. He doesn’t live anywhere, preferring the road as his home, while spending quality off-time with family in Alaska in the summer and Arizona in the winter.
It’s a lifestyle branded by Jack Kerouac in the book “On The Road” that made a big impact on a young Hopper.
The passage that inspired the band name is as such: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”
Hopper has a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Alaska in Anchorage and his pre-career resume highlights are his time serving as the station manager, program director and music director for KRUA 88.1 FM Anchorage, music director for KNBA 90.3 FM Anchorage, music columnist and music critic for Anchorage Daily News, music editor for Anchorage Press and booking agent for The Bouquet, a 300 cap club in Boise, Idaho. He was also a computer lab technician at the dawn of Napster and mp3.com.
Warner Bros/Subpop recording artists The Head & The Heart covered his song “False Alarm” on their album “Signs of Light” and he has co-written with 2018 Canadian Folk Award Roots Artist of the Year Leeroy Stagger, Alaskan mountain climbing aficionado/The Whipsaws front man Evan Phillips, former Exit 51 front man Jon Liszak and many more. His 2010 effort, “Jersey Finger,” was produced by one of his heroes, Richard Swift.
His 2015 album “Grand Ole Hopry” is a collection of country-ish songs recorded in Nashville, Tenn., with guests Leslie Stevens, LA Weekly’s 2018 Best County Singer, Jaime Wyatt, Jodi James, Samantha Crain, Nelson Kempf, Keely Boyle, Tim Easton, Rianna Riggs, Tracy Holland, Steven Wilson, Freddie Stevenson and Julia Haltigan.
In 2006, Hopper collaborated with Cold War Kids, booking its first West Coast tour, and members of the band would back Hopper on a short set towards the end of the tour. His songs have been covered by Annalisa Tornfelt, Blackwater Railroad Company and Brothers Reed.
The band’s first West Coast tour was in the fall of 2003, opening for Fear Before The March of Flames and Anatomy of a Ghost — former band of John Gourley and Zach Carouthers of Portugal The Man — which saw him landing at The Troubadour for his first LA appearance.
Hopper and Jon Liszak opened for Evan Dando and woke the next morning surprised to find a review of the show in the Boise Weekly with the headline “Openers Better Than Dando.”
Years later, Dando himself welcomed Hopper’s band back to the stage opening for The Lemonheads. When singer-songwriter Freddie Stevenson lined up half a national tour opening for The Waterboys, he called Hopper to join him on vocals and guitar along with Julia Haltigan, as they warmed up such famous stages as the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Neptune Theater in Seattle, Wash., and many more.
The band’s has a new album coming out in 2019 that is currently being mixed by Shawn Simmons and features cameos by Charity Rose Thielen & Matt Gervais of The Head & The Heart, Courtney Jaye of Rogue + Jaye, Kathleen Grace, Jamie Drake, Tracey Holland of Vandella, Chris Tye of Vandella, Andrew Vait of Sisters and Brock Lindow of 36crazyfists.
