Exclusive Interview: Matt Good on the return of From First To Last and their new EP Kickstarter

From First To Last co-founder Matt Good sent the internet into a frenzy earlier this month when he teased about a “very cool announcement” coming soon for FFTL fans. The news hit an already nostalgic FFTL fanbase like a vortex and created the perfect storm of rumors and speculation. “Tour with Sonny, please,” said one of the first fans to respond to the news on Twitter–the always-timely shot heard 'round the world. “I think pigs would fly out my butthole first,” replied Travis Richter. “So that’s a yes?” asked another fan.

Twitter debates aside, we can confirm that with their having just launched their EP Kickstarter, From First To Last are officially back, and they’re ready to make some new music. AP spoke with Matt Good in an exclusive interview to learn all of the details surrounding the band’s reunition. He shed some clarity on the matter and dropped a couple bombs: A new From First To Last EP and some news that may even have Sonny Moore traditionalists excited.

Interview by: Matt Crane

VIDEO: KICKSTARTER

What’s going on with From First To Last?
Well, basically we went on hiatus in 2010, and it’s been quite a while. But every day when I go on my Facebook or my Twitter, there are always people saying, “Bring back FFTL!” There’s actually this group called “Revive From First To Last” or something like that, and they keep getting all these people to spam us all day. And we’re just like, “Man, I guess people still wanna hear some stuff.” I haven’t made any kind of rock music in a pretty long time now. I’ve actually just been producing bands; I have a studio now. It just kind of dawned on me a couple weeks ago. I was like, “Maybe we should do another record, since all of these people seem like they want to hear something, and we have the time.” It feels like a good time to do it. Everything, since we’ve started making these announcements has lined up perfectly in a way that’s almost unexplainable. I just feel like, for some reason,  this is the best time that we could possibly do it. So, we decided to make a new record, and we’re going to do it through Kickstarter because we don’t have a label, and it’s a cool way for fans to feel like they’re contributing to something.

The fan response to the early announcements has been pretty wild.
Yeah, far more than I expected. I think the first thing I said was, “I’m going to have a cool announcement coming soon.” When I originally wrote that, I honestly didn’t think more than a hundred people would even see it or care, and I was like, “Well, that’s cool because we can just make an EP for the diehard fans that are still around.” But, honestly, the response to it was kind of insane. I couldn’t believe it.

And next thing you know, you're making headlines.
Yeah! [Laughs.] It definitely was not the plan. I wasn’t sitting around going, “Yeah dude, I’m gonna put this out, and next thing you know, it’s going to be everywhere!” [Laughs.] I literally thought no one would care, but they do! It definitely feels like people really miss the band being around. We’re all older now, and we have different perspectives on life because of everything we’ve been through. And, since most of our fans are probably older as well, making a new record now will be a really cool thing.

Aside from the fans really wanting it, why do you want to make FFTL music again?
I miss making music that rips. You know, just really in-your-face music. I haven’t made anything for myself in forever. I’ve been recording other bands, which is really awesome and fulfilling, but there’s just something about making a record that’s your record. I have the itch so bad right now to make something that’s just crazy awesome. Heavy music is in a really interesting place right now. When we put out Throne To The Wolves, we were still doing more of the post-hardcore thing—less metal, more rock—and even though it was still pretty heavy, people were really wanting full-blown, all-the-way heavy. We just weren’t as heavy and groovy and “breakdown-y” as people wanted to hear. But since then, I’ve seen a lot of resurgence in post-hardcore rock, especially with bands like Sleeping With Sirens. It’s not the same, but it’s definitely a lot more similar than we would be to a band like Asking Alexandria. It seems like there’s a group of people who are really interested in that kind of sound again, and that sound is something that we do really well. I have a lot of really cool ideas of how to make the sound like it was but fresh and new and interesting as well. It’s something about the raw qualities: It’s produced, but it’s not so produced that it takes away the human element. When you have the human element there and you feel that raw vibe and emotion coming from the band—through their playing, lyrics and vocals—it’s something that’s always going to connect with people. That’s why bands like Glassjaw can still go out and play these amazing shows, and they’ve been around forever. >>>

When exactly did you decide that you wanted to make FFTL music again? Walk me through the process of putting the band back together.
I’m working with this band right now, and they’re huge fans of Ross Robinson. I showed them these videos we made with Ross when we were in the studio recording Heroine. I hadn’t seen them in years, and when I watched them, I started getting that reminiscent, emotional thing going on. [Laughs.] I got a little watery-eyed, and I was like, “Man, that was a really cool experience.” To this day, [recording Heroine with Robinson] was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and when I saw it, it just brought back all of these feelings—like, super-hard. So, I started thinking about that, and it kind of didn’t leave me. I was just hanging out, my iTunes was on shuffle, and one of the songs from Heroine came on. I saw some people online talking about FFTL, and I was talking to Travis. I was just like, “Man, I think I wanna do a new EP.” And he was like, “Yeah! I think that’s a great idea!” [Laughs.] That’s kind of how it started. Then I talked to Matt Manning, and he was like, “Yeah, we should do that!” And then I talked to Derek [Bloom], and he was like, “Yeah dude, I’m down.” That’s like the basic member lineup right now. I have reached out to Sonny; I actually hit him up this morning, so we’ll see what happens. Obviously there’s all this debate about the band with Sonny and the band without Sonny, and it’s really unfortunate because it kind of pulls fans away from what the music’s all about. We all loved having Sonny in the band, and he was an awesome singer. If he would do a song with us on the EP, it would be absolutely awesome, and it would make a ton of people happy. But if he doesn’t, I still want to make a great record and show people that we’re a band, and we just like making music.

Even today, are you still seeing that “Sonny vs. no Sonny” debate among fans?
Honestly, yeah. As soon as I started posting about FFTL, I saw that instantly. It was the first thing people started talking about. You have to look at it from two points of view: Obviously, people are talking about it because they care, and I appreciate that. But on the other hand, it’s like, man, let go of that for a second and maybe just think, “Oh man, it’s a band that I grew up loving, and they’re making music. That’s awesome.” In a perfect world, that's what I wish people would see it as. If [Sonny] wants to get down on it, I would be more than happy to have him for sure. He's a cool dude, and he can sing like a motherfucker, so if he wants to get in, obviously, we're going to be more than okay with that. But if not, I don't wanna harbor on it and let it get people down.

And Matt Manning is back. That’s really the most important thing.
Yeah. [Laughs.] His beard. Full force.

So, we have Travis, Manning, Derek and yourself. It’s kind of the self-titled lineup. Will Chris Lent not be playing keys this time?
For now, we’re just going to keep it simple. I love Chris to death, but I don't even know what he's doing right now. I’m just trying to let this thing grow. I wanna start with the core and then just see what happens because it’s kind of weird to say we’re coming back when we have all of these people who have contributed to the band at different times. I don’t know who else wants to be involved and who doesn’t. I reached out to people, and they seemed interested. So, I just want to let it play itself out.

Throne To The Wolves was the first record you made without Travis in the band. Did you and Travis have to reconcile anything before this new effort could begin?
It was a long time ago. We were just going through a lot of weird personal things with people. That whole era was a rough time for us. Nothing was easy, and we were going through all of these management transitions, and none of them were working out well. We started getting that feeling of “Man, I don’t know, maybe we should just stop.” Once you start getting that underlying feeling in the group, it starts to unravel things, and it changes the way people perceive things. I talk to Travis every day, so, obviously, there are no hard feelings. At the time, a lot of decisions we made were because of the stresses that were on us every day.

Did leaving D.R.U.G.S. open you up a little more to the idea of bringing back From First To Last?
Actually, at first, it didn’t. When we all left D.R.U.G.S., I really didn’t have any plans on playing music anymore after that. It just made me feel like I was tired. I was tired of trying to make something work and working so hard. I was really worn out from the grind, and I didn’t foresee myself doing anything in a band after that. But it’s been, like, two years since then, and I’ve had a lot of time to kick back, reflect, work and be around music every day—it’s obviously not my music, but I still work on it, and I still have a very deep love for it. Doing that kind of kept me attached, and I couldn’t contain it anymore. >>>