We’re looking forward to introducing you to Matt LaRocque. Check out our conversation below.
Matt, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
Our band’s gimmick and costume basis is a mix of ancient warrior meets modern day superheroes. The band itself has an overarching story and lore. It starts with us saving the earth at the beginning of time from evil, then freezing ourselves away until 2010 (when the band officially formed) where we thawed from the ice due to global warming and saw that the earth needed saved once again. In that time period, the “Merica” memes, YouTube channels like Epic Meal Time, and the MCU were at their peak, so we took the idea of these time traveling heroes who needed to rebrand themselves to the modern times, blending the 2 styles together.
Unfortunately a certain political side took what used to be funny memes and made it their entire personalities, so now when we post videos online we get commenters who don’t understand our background posting hateful comments towards us without bothering to actually learn about what we really are. We’ve had to adjust color schemes and start moving away from the America themed hero identity even though we had the gimmick long before politics got involved.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Matt LaRocque, aka The Freedomator, frontman of comedic rock/kazoo metal/party folk band Plethora from Flint, Michigan. We’re a band of heroes that mix styles of ancient warriors meets modern day superheroes in our costumed appearance. We write a plethora of different song styles if you will haha. We typically take a base song style of rock or metal and blend it with anything from folk, funk, techno, symphonic, and anything you can think of. Typically our lyrics tend to be about pirates, food, cats, drinking, partying, and even Guy Fieri. You never know what we might write a song about.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
A pre-school teacher of mine said I was destined to be an actor or performer because I was always running around singing and putting on costumes, so I guess nothing has changed haha. Today I see the world and it’s a sad place with a lot of people struggling to get by. We’re trying to write music that gives people a reason to laugh and forget about their life problems for 30mins to a couple hours when they come to a show. We put on quite an experience that is full of stage props, crazy costumes, and stunt guys/dancers who dress up in song themed outfits to get the crowd hyped up.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Half of these questions listed don’t seem like they tie in well to talking about my band haha. But I would say start learning how to self produce music way earlier, because we had way too many holdups out of our control that caused one of our albums to take 7 years to finish. Now we self produce 90% of the music and we’ve dropped 3 albums since 2020 and our 5th is coming out this spring. The only upside here is that we’ve written around 90 original songs at this point, so each album release now revolves around a theme based on overarching song styles. Our 4th album Folk It Up included a chunk of our folk inspired rock and metal songs. Our 5th album Kazoo Metal will be a collection of our heaviest material.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m committed to making this band successful. Eventually I’d like to tour and travel the world. It just sucks because we are 15 years into this thing and still at a local level. Typically it takes about 10 years for a band to “blow up” as they say, but we had so many setbacks between 2015 and 2022 that we feel like we are playing catchup. Our lives are busier now in our 30’s with members getting married, having kids, and full careers to work around, but we still make it work. So many bands have come and gone already in the time that we have existed and I have no plans to stop haha. At least we’ve been able to actually make some money at a local level which most bands never see. Half the time you’re fighting a promoter for $50 and a middle finger to go with your single drink ticket good for a PBR haha.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope our music and lore will live on long past our time now. I hope it will give people a reason to laugh and forget about the grind of daily life. We play full electric most of the time but we also play our folk rock songs acoustically at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. We have this ridiculous (and our most popular) song called Captain Crunch which is a pirate metal song about hunting for cereal. It’s completely non-serious and super catchy. I mention this song because one day at the festival a random person approached me and said “Captain Crunch saved my life” and in a way I was taken aback by this. It was heartwarming to know that our music really helped someone through a difficult time, but also I couldn’t help but internally chuckle at the statement itself about a cereal song saving someone. Hopefully if we never make it big, someone out there will find our music and it will make their day a little better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://plethoramusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plethora_music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PleThorAmusic1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PleThorAMusic1
- Other: Bandcamp
https://plethoramusic1.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
Roaming Roach Photography
