Tell Me More...

At the age of 11, Matt earned his spot on the NSA's "People to Monitor" list by building a nuclear submarine for the school science fair out of a broken washing machine, a vinyl copy of "Love Gun" by KISS, and the business end of a duck. Two years later, he successfully hacked the internet-radio company Pandora, authoring a computer code that allowed him to capitalize on a weakness in their security buffers and download all their songs one night while he was sleeping. When he woke up he was the proud owner of several-thousand new songs, and Pandora was justifiably irritated. The weakness at Pandora has since been fixed. Matt's first self-purchased album was a cassette of "Appetite for Destruction" by Guns & Roses. He did not buy the edited version, because that version is for sissies and Nancy-Boys. Matt is considered "The RainMan Of Electronics," and the other fellows in the band have nicknamed him "The Sony Whisperer." In fact, Matt's friendship with lead singer Luke was sparked after Luke tried to lure an unsuspecting Matt into his house to try to sell him gear that he didn't want. It became clear that Matt knew more about gear than Luke did and was overwhelmingly more qualified to operate said equipment, so Matt was officially placed in charge of running the Marshall Catch soundboard and dialing in the sound. After original Marshall Catch bassist Aidan Foshay accidentally knocked up his wife and had to matriculate himself into a job, Matt was promoted to bass player because he knew all the same quotes from South Park that Aidan did.
Matt's favorite Soap Opera Character is Bruce from "The Young & The Restless." His arch-nemesis is Luke's Chihuahua, Peanut. While they both vie heavily for the front seat of the tour bus, Peanut is, according to Luke, "much better at picking up chicks" and therefore usually wins.
In late 2014, Matt almost quit the band because Tyler suggested that they start covering the song Black Betty. In tears, Matt explained that he had had a secret and non-school-sanctioned affair with a teacher in high school named "Betty Press," his first love. After being caught in the gym closet, the other students nicknamed their relationship "Permanent Press" after Matt's luxurious and naturally-frizzy white Afro hair and his amore's namesake. To this day the song Black Betty makes him weep violently. On the other end of the musical spectrum, Matt has proclaimed proudly that he "is a Belieber," and can often be seen through the open windows of the tour bus angrily responding to any negative posts on Justin Bieber forums while wearing his limited-edition silk Justin Bieber Boxers.
Matt's Ernie Ball Music Man bass is named Velma, in honor of his great-grandmother. He also has a five-string bass with a low B, named Myrtle, that he only breaks out for special occasions. Matt used to own a nice fender Jazz Bass, but it was destroyed when he assaulted an audience member who kept yelling "Haun solo!!" every time a bass solo came up.