I had the opportunity to sit down with Matty Arsenault, the singer of Boston pop punk band A Loss For Words at Warped Tour July 19th. Check out the interview below!

WRBB: You’ve been on the whole Warped Tour so far.  How’s it feel being in Boston (your hometown) right now?
Matty: Yeah, my brain is totally scrambled. Now that I’m home it’s great. I would say that every day’s just a parking lot but at least this parking lot is filled with the love of my friends and family, which is way cooler than the regular parking lot at all the other shows.

I’m sure. What’s been the best date you’ve played so far?
Best day so far was definitely San Francisco; that was cool. But I know for a fact that today will be the best one.

How was yesterday (7/18) in PA with the huge hurricane?
(laughs) Yeah yesterday! Well we played first so it was actually a really good day for playing first since we kind of got to skip that whole storm thing. We kind of just sat on the bus afterwards.

You guys just released an album last year—
Yeah we actually had two records in the last year: No Sanctuary was the full length with the full band and then we also just did an acoustic EP called Returning to Webster Lake, so we have those two new records out this year.

Awesome, how has your fan base been reacting to those albums?
Good, good. I mean it’s funny to see the difference between the new fans and old fans: the kids only singing the new songs and some that sing both, so it’s cool to see the new record is definitely catching on. The music video that we just released for “Raining Excuses” is getting a lot of clicks too, so it’s going well.

Do you have one album that you could listen to over and over?
Acceptance: Phantoms. One of my favorite bands. We’re actually doing a cover of one of their songs today over in the acoustic set at 5:40; I think we’re the last acoustic set of the day.

How do shows now compare to Norwood legion shows back in the day?
Oh man yes! Wow, yeah I used to book the Norwood legion back in the day and The Cadence used to book it too, and The Northwood—uhm yeah I mean back then it was just awesome. It was more like innocent, you know, young. We didn’t really think we’d ever get this far. Norwood is definitely one of my favorite venues of all time. I mean we had so many awesome bands come through: The Receiving End of Sirens, As Tall As Lions, Four Year Strong, you know all these bands that came through before they got big. And I mean Vanna, us, Lions Lions, we’re all still kicking around. But yeah, I definitely miss the Norwood legion though. Much respect to you guys who came out to those shows!

Who are some of your biggest influences?
This band called Light You Up from the UK. They brought us over on our first tour. I love them, they have a new record coming out soon and it’s really good. Alkaline Trio, New Found Glory, Saves The Day—

How does it feel being able to play with some of those bands (on Warped Tour)?
It’s crazy now that we’re friends with some of these bands. New Found Glory: they’re my friends and it’s weird because I still kind of look up to them as a musician, but as a friend it’s not weird. I mean I don’t think of him as “Chad from New Found”; he’s just Chad.  But when he’s on stage I’m like “oh it’s Chad from New Found, he’s awesome!”  So, yeah it’s definitely crazy though.

If you were a superhero who would you be?
I’d be Megaman. Something always intrigued me about that fist that just shoots out big bullets.  I mean, f**k Superman, he can fly that’s cool whatever, Spiderman shoots webs everywhere—Megaman’s OG, he was a Nintendo character.  He’s not as tough, not as cool, but he’s awesome.

Where’s the best place for people to check out your new stuff and help promote you if they’d like to?
Youtube music videos. I think everyone wants a visual, so I’d definitely say Youtube.

Alright awesome, thanks so much for chatting with us.
Awesome, thank you guys so much. I hope I see you guys later on today!

Photos by: Julia Gawle