13 On 13

I joined Matt Joyce at his home in Rosendale, NY to talk about pursuing artistic endeavors on a professional level, the power of wi-fi, and continuing our secondary education later in life.

DISCLAIMER: Neither Frankie Becerra nor Matt Joyce endorse or condone underage drinking or drug use of any kind. Just wanna get that out of the way.

Matt Joyce: I’ll try to speak and enunciate clearly every syllable.

Frankie Becerra: I appreciate that. We love good enunciation. So what’s one way you’ve changed since high school?

MJ: One way? Just one?

FB: As many as you want to talk about.

MJ: That’s like such a broad-based question, I’m gonna have to actually think about it for a minute… About me?

FB: One way that you’ve changed.

MJ: That I’ve, ok… I guess I’m more measured in my approach to everything. When we were youngsters I was so… I don’t know I was on a short fuse when we were young.

FB: A “shoot first ask questions later” kind of thing.

MJ: Yeah! Yeah, so that’s probably the biggest one. The one that I feel like I’ve put the most focus and work into in ten years.

FB: That’s definitely the direction you want to go with that. Don’t wanna have it going the other way.

MJ: (Laughs) Aw man, yeah it was hard when I was in high school… It was like a fly by night type shit the way that I was raised and whatnot so I didn’t put a lot of thought into my actions… I just kind of did, so. Then like more superficially I guess I’m covered in stupid tattoos now.

FB: I don’t think they’re stupid.

MJ: I appreciate that. It’s like you get em when you’re like 21 and then a few years later you’re like “aw shit”.

FB: “I still have this arm!”

MJ: Yeah, it’s gonna be on me forever brother. But nah, that’s the superficial and the less superficial two. That’s two! That’s two ways. I gave you two.

FB: That’s two.

MJ: I know I’m just going above and beyond here.

FB: I appreciate that. Now what’s something you’ve accomplished in the last ten years that you’re proud of?

MJ: That’s funny.

FB: Thank you.

MJ: That I’m proud of… Making amends with people. Yeah, making amends with my family. I was ruled for a long time by just like the animus I had about my upbringing, the way that it all went down, and I’m definitely proud of just like putting that behind me and like working with my parents and family and moving forward. And not just with them but with other people too who I feel I may have rubbed the wrong way in the pasted or wronged and whatnot.

FB: That’s good. I think that it’s very good to be able to get that out of the way now because it would only get worse.

MJ: Oh, yeah, no I mean it’s like a good friend of mine told me just this week, one Mickey Blurr, he said you can either simmer in the way that you were raised and just let that be how you are, or you can just get a hand on it and try to move beyond it.

FB: That does sound like classic Mickey. So what’s something you hope to accomplish in the next ten years?

MJ: First thing that comes to mind would be homeownership. I would totally love to have my own crib because I did some math recently of how much money I’ve spent on rent since I’ve begun paying rent when I was 17 and uh, it’s too much money. It’s like half the money to get a house pretty much… I’m trying to recalibrate my financial choices and decisions to be more proactive towards that goal.

FB: Nice.

MJ: So that’s one thing. I totally also would like to press further into music even if it’s just like touring around for a couple years and if it just peters out after that I would be totally cool with that. Honestly I would be cool if it just is the way it has been. If I were to never play music again or anything and the legacy of it would be my bands from back when, the house shows, the house parties and all that stuff. If that’s all it ever was then that would still be fine because like I had so much fun with my friends throughout the years doing all this stuff.

FB: I’m at kind of a similar place with comedy now having just started grad school. It’s that kind of thing where it’s like, not giving up, but it is like a palpable shift in direction because with comedy it is kind of expect that if you’re gonna “make it” in this industry it kind of has to be this is all you’re doing. Like you’re devoting all your time to it. Like you’re supposed to, I say supposed to but like the people that have made it to the point where this is their career and what they’re known for, a lot of them say you really need to be out there doing it every night. Doing open mics, doing shows, doing whatever you can all the time. And having spent the past ten years, there was never a point where I was doing it every night but there were a lot of points where I was doing it a lot. And like you said I had a lot of fun with it and I got to places where I never thought I would get to with it and I am, for lack of a better term, starting this new chapter and it’s like if that’s all it ever was at least that’s what it was.

MJ: Yeah, it’s the same with music it’s like you gotta grind like an mfer if you wanna do some real stuff. Or you gotta know people that’s the other big one.

FB: Oh absolutely, for sure.

MJ: Knowing people really takes you a long way. But now I’m in this band and we’re putting the work in and it’s just like every week. It’s a lot of work. And on top of it I have my job. I work five or six days a week usually, but I do that because I want more money (laughs). I feel like I’ve gotten used to this new routine. Like I was burnt out for a while, but now I’m just like this is just kind of the way it is. Every day, eyes open and it’s just time to go do a bunch of stuff. There’s almost no days now where I’m not doing anything.

FB: Yeah, that’s how it is sometimes.

MJ: See you know how it be.

FB: So what if anything do you miss most about high school? And it’s ok if the answer is nothing.

MJ: It’s not nothing. It’s definitely not nothing. I’ve actually thought about this before, I miss- it really comes with the age of being with high school because it’s not necessarily high school per se but it’s like being that age where you can have jobs, you can do this, you can do that, but really your only expectation is to go to school, and beyond that not much is expected of you, and I miss that. I miss not having to open my eyes every day and immediately getting to work just so I can sustain my existence financially and otherwise.

FB: Yeah I definitely agree with that.

MJ: I totally miss the simplicity. I miss having a, sort of like a baked in social life. Because like you go there every day, you see these people every day, and it’s kind of by default your whole social world. And I know for a lot of people that was terrible, but just from the standpoint of socializing it makes it a lot easier to be in high school.

FB: Yeah, I get that for sure. And that’s something that’s been coming up a lot in these conversations, kind of that sense of community of the whole thing-

MJ: Yeah!

FB: Where it’s like that kind of goes missing when we get to this big age that we are now.

MJ: Oh, yeah. I mean it’s weird, it’s like when we were that age I felt so ready to take on the world, like I was so old already. And now it’s like it’s ten years later and it’s like I’m still so young. There’s still so much. I’m not even out of my twenties yet.

FB: So that kind of leads into the next question nicely, do you think you left high school prepared for the next phase of your life?

MJ: No! Absolutely not. The way I grew up there was like zero discipline instilled in me, so I had no idea how much work it takes to really get ahead and excel. And I had no idea- I didn’t even know what rents were when I graduated high school. Ten years ago, this time, 2013, if you were to be like “Matt, what do you think the average rent for like a one bedroom apartment is?” I probably would’ve been like “$400, $500” or something. I had no idea of the value of money or anything. I mean I went to college right after high school and didn’t even finish the very first semester I went to. I was just in over my head and I knew it. And that took a lot of soul searching and adjusting to kind of get to the bottom of and be like “Wow, I wasn’t even ready for college” which is the next step that they tell you is the next step after high school. And so I really had to gather my bearings and learn on my own what it took to, like I said, get ahead.

FB: And I think our generation of high schoolers were kind of like that first, at least the way I saw it, one of the first ones where it was like college is the thing you are supposed to do. It felt like high school was pretty much just prepping you to go to college.

MJ: Yeah!

FB: I didn’t even want to go to college when I was leaving high school.

MJ: I had no thoughts or opinions on going to college, even when we were seniors in high school. I didn’t give it any thought until like halfway through senior year when everybody was applying to colleges, and then I just did SUNY and CUNY apps because they were public… I should’ve gone to community college straight away, I know that now. I did a year of community college after I dropped out of a four year, and that was pretty good actually. And I’m trying to now segue back into that.

FB: Nice.

MJ: Cause now it’s ten years on and I feel like I am ready to take on like college and figure out how to pull the levers of reality in that world.

FB: I feel the same way in that I wish I had done community college first instead of going away to a four year college. Two of my cousins did that, and my mom actually did that too when she was our age, or I guess our age ten years ago. But also another thing that has been coming up a lot during these conversations is almost consensus just people saying how that freshman year of college right after high school is just one of the hardest years of life.

MJ: Oh god, yeah. And I didn’t even like go away or anything, I was going to a four year at first but I was still living in Brewster, but not at home. So it was like, to be seventeen and on your own, like living alone in an apartment, and not have parents or anybody telling you what to do day-to-day or guiding you, it’s really easy to go wayward. I was one of those troubled teens you read about (Laughs).

FB: So if you could change one thing about your time in high school knowing what you know now, what would you change?

MJ: Not care. Just not care about teachers, administrators, about getting in trouble. I was so scared of ever getting in trouble.

FB: Yeah, same.

MJ: In spite of way that I behaved, because I really pushed the envelope a lot of the time. It was like I knew how far I could push it without getting reprimanded, but every time I stepped over that line I was shitting myself.

FB: Me too.

MJ: And none of it matters at the end of the day. And I was so scared of my mom when we were in high school. Like she was simultaneously an absent parent and a helicopter parent, so it was even though I was going out of my way I was like not smoking weed, not partying, not doing those “normal” teenage things, my mom always thought that I was and really was hard on me over it. That’s another thing, along with not caring, I wish I let loose a little bit more. I wish I smoked pot with everybody, with all of our friends and I wish I had like blacked out drunk at a party and stuff like that because it wouldn’t have made a difference at home.

FB: No I feel that because as you know I also didn’t drink or smoke or anything when we were in high school and it was one of those things where looking back I honestly kind of regretted it. Like I thought I was doing the right thing.

MJ: You and me were simpatico like that.

FB: Yeah.

MJ: I remember you were like the only person who I could level with on that because, and we were both in the same boat too we were both like everybody I know does, I just really don’t care to do it, but now that I look back I’m just like… You know, I guess the way that I look at it is that if I had smoked weed and stuff when I was like fourteen and fifteen with all my other friends, maybe I would’ve gotten it out of my system sooner and then I wouldn’t have spent most of my twenties in a haze of being stoned all the time.

FB: I remember one of my concerns was that like in middle school I was very convinced that I was going to smoke weed in high school. In middle school I wanted to smoke weed in high school, but then once I got to high school all these older kids saw me and just assumed that I smoked weed-

MJ: Same.

FB: and I didn’t like how that felt. I even got it from adults. So my desire switched into I would rather just prove them I guess-

MJ: Subvert expectations?

FB: Show that the way I looked didn’t define me in, but in the least significant way one could do that.

MJ: Yeah.

FB: And having worked with high schoolers it made me think about this as well, it’s like it really doesn’t matter, cause you really can get away with a lot of shit.

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT TELLING TEENAGERS TO GO OUT AND DO SOME WILD SHIT. DO NOT GO OUT AND DO SOME WILD SHIT AND THINK IT’S OK BECAUSE I SAID SO. THAT IS NOT WHAT I’M SAYING.

MJ: Yeah.

FB: But like you said I was so worried about getting in trouble with my parents that I just like would not dare. Also some trauma, but we don’t need to get into that. But another thing, I really didn’t start drinking until I turned 21, and part of the reason I regretted that was because when I started going out to bars and shit I was just like, I don’t know what I like. I don’t even know what to fucking get.

MJ: Oh my god yeah, something as simple as that.

FB: Yeah because they’re not letting me sit there and read the menu, and ordering something you don’t like can be expensive.

MJ: In high school though it was funny because everyone thought that I was one of the A-list championship level pot-heads of Brewster, and I totally wasn’t. I just hung around with some of them. And I guess it was my look or whatever, like Brewster wasn’t very… I don’t know how it is today, but like when we were in high school there weren’t many “alternative” people around. It was like us, maybe ten or a dozen other people.

FB: I will say having worked there (Brewster High School) as recently as I have, it’s a lot more progressive.

MJ: Yeah that has a lot to do with like the proliferation of Instagram and TikTok and social media with all the you know… When we graduated high school I still had a phone that flipped up and down, and had keys on it, and it wasn’t until the summer after we graduated that I got my first iPhone and I went on Instagram for the first time and everything, and now it’s a different world.

FB: Yeah, it’s crazy.

MJ: I mean they banned us from the wi-fi, they did everything they could so that we wouldn’t get on the school’s wi-fi when we were there

FB: If the wi-fi is down nothing is happening at the school.

MJ: Nothing goes on. You need the wi-fi now and everybody is on it. It’s crazy how things have change.

FB: So as a member of the Class of 2013, do you have any advice for the current seniors, the Class of 2023, as they enter this next phase of their lives?

MJ: This is a great question because my sister is a member of the Class of 2023 and I’m going to her graduation on Monday.

FB: Nice.

MJ: So this thing that I tell my sister all the time is “take it easy”, you know? Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re still so young when you graduate high school, seventeen, eighteen, some people like nineteen years old or so, that is so absurdly young. There is so much time to think about what you want to do. Work a job, take up a bunch of hobbies, learn a trade, learn a skill, go to college, if you don’t want to fully go take a few classes, take a course, go down to the YMCA and learn some stuff, learn how to garden but just like don’t be hard on yourself, and understand that like at this age, and even the age we’re at now ten years later, you’re so young, there’s so much room for error, and you’ll get with it eventually in due time.

FB: Like I was saying, I only just started grad school and it’s interesting because I had two classes this week and I was looking around the class and I wasn’t even the oldest one there. I was one of the younger ones there, which was interesting because like that was something I was a little bit concerned about. Like in my brain everybody I know for the most part who went to grad school did it right after their undergrad. So I was like oh am I gonna be the old fogy in the classroom? And it’s like no.

MJ: Yo god willing I’m gonna be back if I can get the money together in the next semester or two, I wanna return to school and I’m gonna be like 28 years old going into my second year of undergrad.

FB: And I remember being in undergrad and also seeing people that I consider like full adults in my class like normal and it wasn’t weird. They were also just learning whatever I was learning.

MJ: That was a really big thing about when I initially went to college that was crazy to me. Like how college is stereotyped in media a lot as this pretentious institution where everybody has their heads up their own asses, the professors and the students alike. And unfortunately for me I went right to a college out of high school that is like that caricature. It’s like I go to Purchase, just name drop it, and it wasn’t for me. It was like there was just this vibe, you know? That I could not abide by at all… It was like the Smug episode of South Park, you know? It was weird. And then after I dropped out of there and the next semester I had moved to my dad’s and gone to community college, I found the community college to be like, I was like “oh this makes so much more sense”, it was way more relaxed. People from all segments of life were there, old, young. There were the children of the well-to-do, there were the children of the not-well-to-do, and people making it on their own, and single moms.

FB: That was like my exact experience also after I dropped out of Manhattan College and went to WestConn.

MJ: I’m sure WestConn even though it’s a four year university it’s also a very local college being that it’s in Danbury.

FB: Yeah exactly, it’s a state school too.

MJ: I imagine there’s quite a few people from all around there

FB: I remember I had this one class where there was these two old ladies in the class just taking it for fun.

MJ: And that’s what I’m saying to the kids who are graduating this year it’s like take some classes, have some fun. There’s so much stuff to do, there’s so much stuff to learn, and places to go. I wish now ten years on that I was a lot more well traveled than I am now. And a lot of it has to do with finances and ability to get away.

FB: Of course

MJ: But traveling is so fun and it’s so great to get out there and like see new places, eat new foods and whatnot (laughs).

FB: So while we’ve got the current seniors on our mind, do you think you would rather be a high schooler now or in the early 2010s when we were there?

MJ: Oh the early 2010s! Obviously that’s the nostalgia lenses because it’s like now that we live in such a different world than ten years ago I almost pine for that old reality. It was still very complicated, right? Because we would’ve said back then things were crazy because technology was really starting to pop off around that time. But overall it’s the over-saturation that there is now with Reels, and TikTok- I know the way my brain operates is that I would’ve just fallen straight into TikTok and just would’ve been doom-scrolling endlessly if I was a seventeen-year-old right now. I guess what I’m saying is it feels like there are a lot more distractions today, and that’s the main reason why I think I’d pick back then to be a high schooler. Plus it seems like the social environment of America at least is so much more caustic than it was when we were in high school. And that by and large has a lot to do with social media as well, people are a lot more further apart in their camps and so firmly planted in their camps. From what I hear from my associates who are in education, kids these days seem to have very strong opinions on some very adult issues, political and otherwise. Just be a kid, you know? It’s better to just be a kid. That’s another thing about myself, I wish I had took a lot of stuff a lot less seriously when I was young, and just sort of relaxed. But yeah I would definitely pick back then. Like I said just too much going on. I mean there was a lot going on. Like when we graduated high school there was like a new Pope, Obama sworn in for the second time.

FB: North Korea was poppin off.

MJ: North Korea poppin off, Boston bombing.

FB: Kony.

MJ: That was junior year, but yeah same timeframe, Kony 2012. We also had planking in high school of course, the lesser known gargoyling, Faith Hilling.

FB: There was a little Faith Hilling involved.

MJ: I mean it’s like everything, the more thing’s change the more things stay the same. There are so many aspects of society that like ten, twelve, fifty, a hundred years ago, so many things on a base level are so different but at the end of the day it’s like people are people.

FB: Yeah, absolutely.

MJ: So in essence I think it kind of doesn’t matter if we were in high school today or ten years ago because it’s like, maybe it wouldn’t matter. You know?

FB: Maybe.

MJ: Maybe things would’ve just been the same, but I don’t know, I don’t want to get into quantum mechanics.

FB: That’s fair, I think that’s for the best.

MJ: I failed physics in high school so I’m not good at that stuff.

FB: So now we’re wrapping up here, one thing our high school never did was senior quotes. Do you have one you think you would’ve used back then or one that you like now?

MJ: You know, one that I like now that I would probably use, I’d probably from one of these shows that I love, Boardwalk Empire or Better Call Saul or The Sopranos or something, so if I just scroll through my files of my mind I could find something. But if I’m talking 2013 Matt, I probably would’ve just made “Thank you Based God” my senior quote.

FB: I believe that.

MJ: Like you were one of my best friends even back then so it’s like duh that’s probably what I would’ve done… I was still firmly into Lil B and Based Freestyles in 2013. Quote from now, I would probably pick “I’m what time and circumstance have made me”.

FB: I like that. So now before we finish up, do you have any questions you want to ask me? And it’s ok if you don’t.

MJ: How was your train ride today? That’s one.

FB: It was pretty good (laughs). As I was getting into the subway I hopped the turnstile (sorry mom) right as my train was pulling up. Literally it was just one swift motion from the turnstile into the 5 Train. And then that brought me to Grand Central nicely and I was able to get on my train and sit there for a couple of minutes before it took off.

MJ: I feel like lately every time I’m training down in the city I’ve been making my connections perfectly, like getting into each transfer right when the train is there.

FB: Well that’s good because normally that doesn’t happen for me.

MJ: I know normally I’m rushing around everywhere like crazy. I do have a question that’s related to this interview process though.

FB: Hit me.

MJ: Has doing all of these interviews with everybody, has it stirred up any emotions in you, and feelings, that you would like to expound upon at all?

FB: So for context, this is the tenth out of thirteen interviews that I’m doing, so that is the timestamp of this question being answered. I have already done most of them, this one is wrapping up, and I’ve got three left to do in the following days. I would say the emotion that I’ve been feeling the most is kind of a combination of surprise, relief, and joy with how the process has been. I think these have been so much fun to do and I’ve been so happy with pretty much all of them, honestly all of them so far. I think they’ve been going really well. The people I’ve been talking to, I’ve been very happy with how happy they have been to participate. A lot of people that I reached out to were just really grateful that I reached out to them and asked them to be a part of it, and so it was nice to see that. And also some of the people that I’m talking to for this project I’m talking to for the first time since high school, and so it nice to see that I could reach out to them and be like “hey, I have this idea for a project” and they were on board. They were A) willing to hear me out and B) willing to participate. And like I mentioned to you prior to our beginning this, I did get a handful of noes throughout the process when I asked certain people to be involved, but that was to be expected, so I’m really happy with how everything is going. When I started the project I was really unsure about how it would turn out, and at this point in the process I feel really good about it.

MJ: Hell yeah. Hell yeah. So should I bow to you?

FB: You don’t have to bow to me.

MJ: I’m gonna bow to you (bows).

FB: Ok, thank you.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity)