Matt Walst:

Early Years

 

At 12 I walked into my brothers room and found a black electric guitar. I picked it up and made some noise. Ever since that day I made riffs. After that I started Jammin with Buddy Jesse Wynne (drums). In my basement we jammed. We would watch the 3DG guys in awe and they would teach us the art of Rock. When I really started getting some stuff together was with a couple of pals in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. The trailer was cold in the winter and infested by bees in the summer. The mic used to shock my lips because of grounding issues. That was around the time when I met Gavin Brown. I played a couple of riffs for him when Three Days Grace was recording. Those are now songs Scared and Let You Down. Then we started working on my own songs. Working with a great producer, some tough times and having a psycho girlfriend makes for great song writing.

 

Small town to city

 

I realized I had to move to the city to be closer to the music scene. I had to be somewhere I could jam. I’ve always heard of a live in jam spot and it was a dream. Childhood friend Doug Oliver (drummer) also shared this dream. So he sold his house to move to the city to the 2 bedroom live in Jam spot. It was a big change for us small town boys, but we learned. Brenden McMillan also a childhood friend was going to school down the street and yearned to play in front of a crowd. With the help of our friend Chizzy we started building our skills and writing songs. We practiced every day with one common goal in mind…success! Eviction Notice It’s true what they say about starving musicians, because that’s what were. Mr. noodles and KD is how we got by. We were starting to play shows and get our demo cds out to everyone. We needed someone to believe in us and our music. It was grim when we got an Eviction notice to vacate our home. The reality of life started to set in. We were going to be homeless. A week before the date I got a call from a 604 number which was very unusual. I answered the call to hear a voice I have heard many times on the radio and on T.V., Nickelbacks frontman Chad Kroeger. He explained that he heard the demo and liked it and he wanted me to fly out to work on some songs with him and his producer Joey Moi. We spent over a year writing songs, perfecting our live show. We felt we needed to fill out the live sound so just before the tour we added a couple more people to the mix. With the addition of Sal Costa and Reid Henry we were now My Darkest Days.

 

First Major Tour

 

What we thought was going to be a six week tour in the US turned out to be a continuous year and a half of globe trotting. We started out in a 15 seater van with no air conditioning and 8 sweaty dudes in it. We eventually rented an RV and had a bed to sleep in on the road. It was amazing to play nightly with such talented musicians, bands that I had watched growing up and dreamed of sharing a stage with…and now I was. We continued right after we finished our first tour we went right into writing mode and created Sick and Twisted and went right back onto the road. We had moved up to BandWagon (1 level below a tour bus) and life was good. We toured with Nickleback, played festivals and headlined are own shows. My Darkest Days was officially a touring band!

 

Three Days Grace

 

As ironic as it sounds it was 3 days before Christmas when my brother Brad got the call that Adam would no longer be with the band. What is usually a joyful time of year for my family and I quickly became stressful and upsetting. The band weighed all the options and felt that asking me to join on a trial basis was the best plan for them as they had a tour in a month and I was very familiar with the camp. Before I knew it I was on tour with the band and after about a year and a half they made me a full member. It’s amazing to be playing not only with the band I looked up to as a child but with my brother. I am excited for what the future holds not only for Three Days Grace but My Darkest Days as well!