Best Kept Secret is an Emo-Alternative band based out of North Hollywood, California and is made up of Matt Skajem (Vocals), Brady Szuhaj (Bass), Benji Bryan (Guitar), and Jon Lundin (Drums). We had the chance to talk with frontman Matt Skajem about his band, life in Los Angeles, and their upcoming tour, the “Emo Is Back Tour” featuring Best Kept Secret, An Honest Year, Take a Breath, and This is All Now, with special guests Kick Box, We Are Forever, Beneath the Spin Light, and RVLS. Dates haven’t been released yet, but you can expect the tour to stop in Boston sometime in May.
How was the band formed?
We started in August 2015 and came together when my old band Out with the Old, and Brady's old band Late Nite Reading ended. Brady had just moved to California and was starting a new band with Benji who had just left his old band, Rezanova, they brought me in, and then I brought our drummer Jon who was the last drummer for my former band. We all came together after going through really similar situations so it all worked out
Who are some of your musical inspirations?
We take influence from a lot of different music ranging from Sum 41, My Chemical Romance, A Rocket To The Moon, and From First To Last, all the way to artists like G-Eazy, The 1975, and The Weekend. It's a unique bunch of influences which leads to our non-traditional sound
Have you been on a national tour before?
We went out on a US run with our good friends An Honest Year in November and that was our first experience playing shows together. We hit every region but missed a lot of markets, luckily on this next run we're hitting just about everywhere
Which cities are you looking forward to most?
Chicago is always insane, I'm excited to play in our hometown in Southern California for the first time on this run, and really can't wait to meet everyone that we didn't get to see last time. It's hard to pick a specific city to be most excited about because every market is insane in its own way
LA is a really huge market - how do you make your band stand out?
Well we're finally going to be playing a hometown show on the EIB tour so I can't wait to see how people react to our show, we try to mix the angsty in your face attitude you find at a punk show and mix it with the dance/party vibe you find in the EDM scene. We're adapting that vibe for this tour and I can't wait for people to see what we have in store.
Your music video has over 275k views - what's general response to it been like?
So far it's been amazing.
Where can your music be found?
We're in the studio working on our debut record right now so all we have released are a few demos from the album, but so far everyone seems to like the vibe we're giving off. It's going to be interesting to see how people react to the record because the songs we've released don't necessarily match the tone of the rest of the album, it's going to be gnarly. We're hoping to have the album out in late spring so when we drop that it'll be available on iTunes, Spotify and all digital outlets
What your go-to food in LA?
Sushi. Always. Where is the best place to get it? I just tried this all you can eat sushi place called Dragon Street that was popping, definitely would recommend that place
