Endorian Guitarworks Fret Less Rock More with Matt Ackerman

Matt Ackerman thinks you should Fret Less and Rock More.

Hear the journey of this Washington State musician from Little Nickel Want Ads guitar to owning Endorian Guitarworks in Olympia.

Life is a journey and Matt shares his stories with us during this episode. If you have ever wanted to stop working for “the man” and strike out on your own you will enjoy Matt’s adventures.

Endorian Guitarworks MAtt Ackerman Episode Transcript

Matt Ackerman [00:00:00]:
The the goal was the American Fender Stratocaster, but, you know, no kid had a thousand dollars in his pocket. So we went and picked up the the little nickel want ad pages. Are you are you familiar with that? Yeah. I know.

Scott Cowan [00:00:29]:
Welcome to the Exploring Washington State Podcast. Here’s your host, Scott Cowan. Well, welcome back to this episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast. My guest today is Matt Ackerman, and Matt is the owner of well, Matt,

Matt Ackerman [00:00:46]:
you tell the people.

Scott Cowan [00:00:47]:
I don’t wanna talk. You you you introduce yourself, tell us what you do.

Matt Ackerman [00:00:50]:
That’s a I’m gonna have to use an intro that quickly the next time we do our broadcast because that was that was on point. I I own and operate Endorian Guitar Works out of, well, it’s not in the city of Olympia, Washington, but down here in in Thurston County, Washington.

Scott Cowan [00:01:07]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:01:08]:
And yeah. So it’s, it is a business which started off as repairing guitars, and then sort of went down the rabbit hole of, well, what else what else can I do with this? What is my purpose and my calling around music? And, so we started offering, like, an educational component.

The next place I went with this was a podcast or it wasn’t a podcast. It’s an Instagram broadcast, called Endorian GuitarWorks Backstage. And the mission to that is, a guided look at the life experiences and ways and means of a guitarist journey. So that’s that’s probably one of the most fun things that we do at Endorian GuitarWorks is bring on hosts much like you do and and talk about or guests much like you do and, talk about what they’ve been doing in the music industry and and their challenges and their passions and the direction that they’re going.

The whole point to meet other guitar players on their journey, and help people take the next step, whether they’re, like, a seasoned pro or whether they’re just considering picking up the guitar for the first time. Really try to meet anyone and walk with them.

Scott Cowan [00:02:13]:
So before you opened up Endorian, what did you do? What was your what was your journey to get here?

Matt Ackerman [00:02:20]:
Man, I think I got lost on that map. I, you know, I a map? I never had a map. Well, you know, it was scribbled on the back of a of a Denny’s napkin. Right? So I’ve been a musician. I’ve I’ve been a guitar player for the better part of my life. I picked up the guitar when I was 14, and I knew that I wanted that I was a musician and that’s what I wanted to do. But then at some point, I let, probably one too many people talk to me about money and retirement and safe lifestyles and, you know, the big quote and safe. So I became an office worker and, so I went to college and then came out of college and, almost immediately ended up working for the state of Washington in various various roles at various agencies.

Matt Ackerman [00:03:07]:
And most recently, I I I just left my state job of four years at the Washington State Health Care Authority as a communications consultant. And it was a great time. Met a lot of wonderful people and had wonderful experiences, but, you know, sort of the fast story through through COVID, through pandemic, through all the experiences of realizing that life is short and I have one chance to do this. I recognized it was time to reconnect with what really, you know, fueled my fire, which was music in one capacity or another.

Scott Cowan [00:03:40]:
Okay. So when you were 14, what was the, what was the motivation? What what what inspired you to pick up a guitar?

Matt Ackerman [00:03:49]:
Well, I think the motivate like, when I first time I picked up a guitar was more like me hassling my parents into, I need a guitar. I need a guitar. I need a guitar. I think I was probably six or seven, and and I heard, the Van Halen solo on Michael Jackson’s Beat It and, broke tons of my dad’s record needles just sneaking down into the basement listening to that guitar solo over and over and over again. And, my dad finally hooked me up with a guitar. And what that really means is we went out to the garage and grabbed a couple slabs of plywood and a two by four and nailed them together and, stretched some, like, literal string from one side of the two by four. This thing was so incredibly heavy. And given that I was, you know, step forward a couple days spinning around in the basement playing rock star, my mom ran an in home daycare.

Matt Ackerman [00:04:36]:
I’m effectively swinging this insanely heavy, hazard around, and no no one died, which is fantastic. But that that that was, I think, when I knew I wanted to play guitar, but there was no real guitar in my future. And then and then around the time around the age of 14, we were hanging out with, some other families that went to my parents’ church. And one of them was, like, was a guitar player. And, he handed me this nylon string, classical. And I just started he showed me two chords and I just started trying to string ideas together with these two chords. And it was on the and during that weekend where our family friend looked at my dad and mom and said, you you probably ought to nurture this a little bit. I think he he might actually know how to do this.

Matt Ackerman [00:05:30]:
So, got an acoustic and just sort of embarked down that was that was the beginning. Okay. And, of course, that was the year that I think that was about it was a couple years after Green Day Dookie came out. And I remember hearing that tune when I was 12 years old painting the fence in the backyard, hearing Basket Case for the first time come on over the radio. And I was of course, I was two years prior to actually owning a guitar, but I’d that was just, you know, feeding it, feeding it, feeding it. And, yeah. I had Scott an acoustic when I was in eighth grade. And, then that just became that was my purpose.

Matt Ackerman [00:06:08]:
If I wasn’t at school, I was at home playing guitar. And sometimes I would fall asleep with it and then wake up, keep playing, wake up in the morning. Oh, I Scott shower and get to school. It was guitar. That was life.

Scott Cowan [00:06:21]:
When did you, get your first because, you know, Green Day doesn’t really translate to the acoustic very well, I guess, to me. I

Matt Ackerman [00:06:28]:
mean It doesn’t. It doesn’t. But that didn’t stop. You just you just play.

Scott Cowan [00:06:31]:
Right. But when did when did you get your first electric? And what was It

Matt Ackerman [00:06:34]:
wasn’t long it wasn’t long after that.

Scott Cowan [00:06:37]:
Yeah.

Matt Ackerman [00:06:37]:
I remember we picked up god. Because at that point in time, there wasn’t I mean, you had to have money. You know, if of course, the the the goal was the American Fender Stratocaster, but, you know, no kid had a thousand dollars in his pocket. So we went and picked up the the little nickel want ad pages. Are you are you familiar with that Yeah. I think back in the day?

Scott Cowan [00:06:58]:
I was. Yes.

Matt Ackerman [00:06:59]:
Picked up the little nickel want ad pages and just looked for something that was, you know, in my budget of mowing lawns, and found a for $75, this, Harmony Electric. And for any listeners who some of them are probably have some experience with Harmony. But Harmony was an interesting brand. They they started off as sort of a boutique brand and then they quickly became a JCPenney catalog brand. And now they’re back to the boutique, side of things producing some fairly high end stuff. If you walk into Chicago Music Exchange, they have an entire wall of harmony and the guitar start around, like, $2. Oh, okay. But but this guitar, was more of the JCPenney caliber.

Matt Ackerman [00:07:43]:
And, it came with a guitar amplifier, which was powered by, I think, like, six d batteries. But it was an electric guitar, and that’s that’s all I cared about. And that was gonna that was gonna put me in the pocket and I was gonna learn how to play. So I spent $75 on that. My dad and I hopped in the car. We lived in Renton, Washington effectively and drove over to the neighboring town of Issaquah and, picked it up from this kid who was trying to, quote unquote, save for a a real electric guitar. Should have been a tip-off, but I wanted an electric, so I bought it. And, I remember upon leaving his apartment, he said, alright.

Matt Ackerman [00:08:23]:
Now we can afford pizza tonight. And my dad just I didn’t really understand how that was a really meaningful statement. Like, if you’re gonna save for something, actually, save for it. But I bought a guitar, and he was getting pizza. But that was my first electric.

Scott Cowan [00:08:36]:
Okay. Alright. And how was that guitar?

Matt Ackerman [00:08:40]:
I was lucky enough to find a friend who wanted to trade.

Scott Cowan [00:08:45]:
Were you still friends after the trade?

Matt Ackerman [00:08:47]:
Yeah. He wasn’t as passionate in playing as I was. He had one of those three quarter sized electrics that was actually built very well.

Scott Cowan [00:08:55]:
Okay. And I

Matt Ackerman [00:08:55]:
had a full sized electric that didn’t play. I was more concerned about being able to play the instrument, and he wanted something that looked more normal when he held it. And so I guess it was an equitable trade given the motivation. But yeah. So guitar number two was this thing called a Gremlin, and I played that until I could afford a Mexican Squire Stratocaster. One pickup, a volume control, and it got the job

Scott Cowan [00:09:21]:
done. K. Have you ever in your journey gotten the American made Strat?

Matt Ackerman [00:09:26]:
I did not purchase an American made Strat. I decided to make my own. So, like, you know, I I don’t know. I I I like building guitars now. So, I could go out and get one, but I like the one I built better. So I’m happy with it.

Scott Cowan [00:09:43]:
So middle school, 14, 15, 16 years of age, you got your first electric, then you got a three quarter size electric that you actually play. Did you do did you do the whole garage band thing? Were you or were you just the kid that sat in your room and and practiced all the time?

Matt Ackerman [00:10:02]:
It was a little bit of both. I I spent most of my time practicing in the bedroom. What stopped me from doing the full on GarageBand for a while was just simply not having an amp that was, like, loud enough to compete. Right? Uh-huh. But eventually, you you find you hang out with the right people, you meet the right people, and you realize that sometimes there’s just gear left over at the house. And not having the right gear is not necessarily a barrier to to playing music. So I started, spending a lot of time with the really good high school drummer. And we’ve become really good friends and still are to this day.

Matt Ackerman [00:10:42]:
Played yeah. I did some garage band type stuff and then actually ended up spending a couple years in high school jazz band with each other, which was an amazing opportunity for growth and really kind of challenging what you thought you what you challenging what you thought you wanted to be as a musician and where you were gonna hone those skills. But playing behind a big band really affords you the opportunity of getting better fast. So we did a lot of that.

Scott Cowan [00:11:07]:
Playing in high school jazz band.

Matt Ackerman [00:11:09]:
Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:11:10]:
Where were you getting your inspiration from in that in that arena? What sort of jazz players were you listening to that were inspiring?

Matt Ackerman [00:11:20]:
I probably should have done more listening to jazz. I never really felt like my jazz vocabulary was pushing me. It was just knowing that, you know, I had a job to do and that was to support, you know, to to be part of the rhythm section. Mhmm. I actually was I think, my biggest I wouldn’t say he was, Cowan an inspiration because he wasn’t or I was into Buddy Rich. You know, we everything that we were doing was was really, really intense, powerful, driven jazz, and I was just a guitar player. And I didn’t really I wasn’t really in love with jazz music. I just loved to play it.

Matt Ackerman [00:11:55]:
I I really didn’t I think at the time, I was really just trying to be involved rather than carve out what I wanted to do. So jazz band, I knew, like, it was important to me to be part of the jazz band because I was surrounded by surrounded by incredibly talented musicians. But it wasn’t really jazz that they called to me. I was always gonna be a rock and a blues player. So if I was, you know, if I was listening to jazz, I was I was listening to Buddy Rich. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:12:22]:
And where’d you go to high school?

Matt Ackerman [00:12:24]:
I went to Kent Ridge High School.

Scott Cowan [00:12:26]:
K. Yeah.

Matt Ackerman [00:12:26]:
They had a

Scott Cowan [00:12:27]:
pretty good jazz bar

Matt Ackerman [00:12:27]:
too. Right? They did. It was under the direction of of Paul Harshman who is now in Seattle. Yeah. Yeah. I I I figured you might know that name.

Scott Cowan [00:12:37]:
His,

Matt Ackerman [00:12:43]:
So you understand the, you understand the

Scott Cowan [00:12:45]:
Oh, yes. No. No.

Matt Ackerman [00:12:46]:
The expectation to grow and and be incredibly good. His brother, Chris Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:12:53]:
Had the dorm room next to me my freshman year.

Matt Ackerman [00:12:56]:
And as I understand it, Paul Harshman still hold I I think he was a hell of a runner.

Scott Cowan [00:13:01]:
Yes.

Matt Ackerman [00:13:01]:
He I I think he still holds some tracking or a track record at Central to this day.

Scott Cowan [00:13:06]:
The three Harshman brothers were

Matt Ackerman [00:13:08]:
Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:13:09]:
Not normal. They were they were superhumans. They they all three had these larger than life personalities. I’m a I’m a kid, so I went to my first year at Central was 1980, to give you perspective. Okay? I grew up listening to seventies rock and roll, sixties and seventies rock and roll. And Harshman, he’s listening to jazz music. Never heard any of this stuff before. Right? I’m like, what is this stuff? And just but over time, because I had no choice but to listen to because he played louder than I could play my stereo.

Scott Cowan [00:13:46]:
In his one roommate was really into The Beatles. So, there was this they were just an interesting trio of brothers. Let’s just put it that way. Super outgoing, super big personalities. Yeah. That’s funny that you say that name. And like I said, before we hit record, all roads seem to lead back to Central in some capacity.

Matt Ackerman [00:14:07]:
They they really do. Auditioning for auditioning for Paul at, I think, what? I’m 40 now, so it was twenty some years ago. It was it was a real experience. The first year the first year I auditioned, I guess, it was my how did they do high school? Well, we did we started high school in the building a year after high school actually started. So it was tenth grade. So tenth grade, I wanted to audition for Jazz Band and he wasn’t he wasn’t having it. I don’t really remember the reasons, but I think it had something to do with one, I wasn’t good enough. And two, I wasn’t playing in the other band.

Matt Ackerman [00:14:44]:
And it you know, I needed to I needed to earn some of this cred before I could walk into the school and audition for this band. So I was not allowed to. And I spent the next year my goal was to be good enough to walk into those auditions and land it. And no one was gonna tell me that I wasn’t gonna be good enough regardless of what kind of music I was inspired by. Mhmm. And so junior year of high school my god. I can’t believe we’re rehashing these memories. It’s fantastic.

Matt Ackerman [00:15:15]:
I walked in and not and I had no idea what to expect. There were two guitar players, me and a a guy who absolutely loved to death. Haven’t seen him since high school, but great deal of respect for this kid named Jeff. And, we I I I didn’t realize it at the time, but I now I know what Harshman was doing. And he was he had two very, very good kid guitar players at his disposal. And he was going to not necessarily, like, pit us against each other, but he knew that we would use that competitive nature to to drive each other up. And I won’t say this officially, but I don’t I don’t think he really wanted a guitar player in the jazz band. But if he was going to have one, he might as well have two that are pushing each other to be the best that they can be.

Matt Ackerman [00:16:01]:
And so he actually sat two guitar players in the jazz band that year. It was which which, you know, in a high school jazz band, that’s not un unheard of. Mhmm. But it was unheard of for for Paul Harshman.

Scott Cowan [00:16:14]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:16:15]:
So so he and I so Jeff and I, pushed each other the entire junior year, which, you know, culminated in the last the last concert of the year. He actually let us do, like, a guitar battle guitar solo over some Thad Jones funk. And I think I I think that year of my life really, formed the expectations that I would have for myself and that level of perfectionism that I was gonna take in everything that I ever attempted to do in my life, which is I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing, but it is it is what it is. And I will always remember that year as the year that I knew that I had to bring my best to anything that I did.

Scott Cowan [00:17:01]:
Okay. Well, what happened what happened senior year? Were you in jazz band

Matt Ackerman [00:17:05]:
your senior year as well? I was. Senior year, it all fell apart, because a lot of the seniors, you know, that that guitar the the band from the previous year, was mainly seniors. So they had all graduated and it was just sort of a a thing of timing. The jazz band that year was dominated by incoming sophomore yeah, sophomores because freshmen were actually in a a different building in that structure. They were in junior high. So it was effectively like a jazz band of of tenth graders. And a brand new and a brand new jazz director because Paul had decided to switch districts. So it it was not a good year.

Matt Ackerman [00:17:47]:
I was frustrated. But, you know, any 18 year old does not understand necessarily that you’re gonna have to push your sometimes you have to make the best of what you have. But I don’t think I was mature enough at the time to understand.

Scott Cowan [00:18:01]:
Yeah. Mostly, most most

Matt Ackerman [00:18:02]:
of us at 18 weren’t. So Probably not. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:18:05]:
So I and we know or at least I know that you ended up at Central because I did. The whole road leads to Central.

Matt Ackerman [00:18:12]:
I did. Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:18:14]:
What was your what was your musical experience like at Central?

Matt Ackerman [00:18:18]:
It was great. You know, I chose I looked at a couple different universities in in Washington, and it was it was a weird experience, like, even trying to figure out where I wanted to go to school for music. I did not look at the University of Washington because I didn’t think I needed to get further away. I looked at Washington State University and they wanted to throw money at me and train me to be a drummer, which I didn’t get. And they’re like, they didn’t have a guitar program at the time and they were building an audio production studio, but they openly said, we’re not gonna have curriculum for this for another two years. So I was like, well, this this just feels weird. I checked out Western Washington University whose jazz program was under the direction of, Chuck Israel’s who’s just, you know, incredible. But I think he was a little strong for my personality at the time.

Matt Ackerman [00:19:13]:
And I was well, I was really on the defense by the time I went and met with doctor Peter Gries at at Central. And when I walked in to go meet him before I even auditioned, he was so incredibly welcoming and accepting and just wanted to meet me as a person before we even talked about music. And that was what I think I needed. That was the instant that was the moment that I knew that if they would have me, that that’s where I was going to go because I needed this. I needed that component at that time. And, so I I did my requisite, freshman, you know, music basics classes. I I was aiming for a major. I ended up only getting a minor because I made a switch into communications.

Matt Ackerman [00:20:01]:
But, you know, I took the theory classes and the class piano classes and, oh, I don’t even remember half of them. But I do remember I do remember all the all the classes that were taught by doctor Griese because he, made he made learning music theory just it it was so incredibly exciting to understand the physics of sound and the mathematics of sound and and and what there was hidden in the notes that you wouldn’t necessarily know was there. And it made it it like, for a for a guy like me who also likes science fictions, like Star Trek and Star Wars and all this kind of stuff, like, I wanna tease everything apart and understand how something works. To walk into a room where the for the first time, somebody says, alright. I’m on absolute silence. And they open up this Boston door for grand piano and just smack down on the lowest key on the piano and just insist on silence as that fundamental note separates into ten, twelve, 20 four. All these different like a choir of notes all emanating from the same fundamental note and then explaining how this works. That was such an incredible experience and that that, that style of learning was was prevalent with every instructor that was there.

Matt Ackerman [00:21:22]:
When I was in jazz band two, under Gary Williams, he had that same encouraging nature to to get me to to get out of the box of just the typical big band guitar player. I had sort of been conditioned to you stay over there, you stay in your lane, and you make sure there’s a feel. I’ll get I’ll let you know when I wanna hear from you.

Scott Cowan [00:21:47]:
Mhmm.

Matt Ackerman [00:21:47]:
But when I was playing with Gary, he said, you’re part of this. I wanna hear what your ideas are. And that was, that was important, I think. I think I think that helped sort of lend balance to the to the other experience.

Scott Cowan [00:22:06]:
So with Gary, did you ever hear him play any Rush?

Matt Ackerman [00:22:15]:
I heard I don’t there may have been a Rush cover when I heard him play with his band, Ecstasy and Numbers, but I did not explicitly hear him play Rush.

Scott Cowan [00:22:24]:
Yeah. He was, it was frightening listening to him play Yeah. In in a good way. You know? Oh, yeah. It was he was a he’s an amazing drummer.

Matt Ackerman [00:22:38]:
When I so I I played under Gary for my freshman year. And then as I’d mentioned, I I sort of made a move into the communications land, and I didn’t see Gary again until I moved down to Olympia, Washington. And I didn’t know I was gonna see Gary. But down in Olympia, they have this, festival two times a year. They have Arts, and it happens in the spring and in the fall. And I just started this job. I’ve clearly fast forwarded a bit, but I just started this job and I didn’t know anybody. And my coworker said, hey, you’re gonna head down to Arts Walk.

Matt Ackerman [00:23:10]:
There’s this there’s this trio I wanna see. There’s this the band’s got this amazing drummer. This coworker happened to be a drummer. And he really wanted to see this drummer. I said, yeah. Sure. Let’s let’s go. And we walked into this, little store that sells tea and there was this jazz trio set up.

Matt Ackerman [00:23:26]:
And lo and behold, it was Gary. Gary, I hadn’t seen you know, last time I saw him was in Ellensburg, Washington. Here he is down in Olympia. Because he had moved to Bremerton to teach. So he he was down in Olympia quite frequently. And I hadn’t seen him for probably eight years and walked right up to him. And he struggled with my name, but he absolutely knew who I was. And we caught up, and he was such an amazing man.

Scott Cowan [00:23:51]:
Yeah. He was. So he was, yeah, he was the same same year at Central that I was. So, kind of referencing back to the whole Harshman thing. Yeah. All these loops that connect back. So so after central, you started doing the office worker gig because you, like, you I built

Matt Ackerman [00:24:12]:
the pay.

Scott Cowan [00:24:12]:
To to to paraphrase, people got in your head and told you you needed a job with with retirement. I grew up with that same, that same advice coming to me too is, like, you know, save 10% of what you make, work for a union job, and retire. Yeah. And tried to follow that. I was the I was a round peg in the square hole. Then it was just you know, I I ended up needing to do what I do. So after college, were you were you were you still playing guitar? Did you did you put it down for an a period of time? Or

Matt Ackerman [00:24:44]:
Directly after college, no. I I left the rock band that I had started in college because I knew that I was coming back over to the West side of the mountains. And so there was a there was a departure. Not like some big dramatic VH one behind the music departure. But, you know, I I said goodbye and said, hey. You know, this this isn’t goodbye. It’s see you later. But I came came back over, yeah, came back over to the other side of the mountains and and tried you know, at the time, there was no I don’t even remember if we had Myspace yet, but there was Craigslist.

Matt Ackerman [00:25:16]:
And, you know, it it felt weird to be surfing Craigslist to try to find somebody. You didn’t really know what you were gonna end up with. And I I found a couple of musicians that, you know, tried to try them on like shoes, and it just wasn’t really happening. So I just kept playing and kept playing. And then, as luck would have it, several of the members of my band decided that they were done with Ellensburg and they were gonna move back to the Seattle area. So we we kinda put the band back together with a slightly different lineup and continued to play from early two thousand five to 02/2009 or so.

Scott Cowan [00:25:51]:
And what was the name of that band?

Matt Ackerman [00:25:53]:
That band was, named Northwater. It was named after Northwater Street in Ellensburg, Washington where the where the jam space was. And, oh, no. Okay. Let’s see. The Dairigold Building. Right?

Scott Cowan [00:26:09]:
Oh, I see. So so much changed over there. That area of town, back when I was there, we called it Dog Town. And, there was nothing going on over there. And now when you drive through Ellensburg, it’s kinda frightening. But Northwater okay. That was sorry. That maybe

Matt Ackerman [00:26:25]:
that maybe Dogtown Dogtown was still on the other side of the, this was a lot closer to downtown. It was Yeah. I think it was an old an old Elks building. But, like, if you’re heading down Main Street, like, you’re going to the Palace Cafe, but you head I guess, it’s to the west. Yeah. That’s where water yeah. And there’s this old building that it wasn’t quite where I think the Dairygold Building was in Dogtown, and that was a that was a trip.

Scott Cowan [00:26:51]:
But The Old Elks is now the, Hotel Windrow. I think they move that into a a nice hotel.

Matt Ackerman [00:26:59]:
And I don’t you know, someone’s gonna fact check me listening to this, so I don’t know that it was the the Elks. But it was it was I I thought it was like an old, what do you call those? Elks, Eagles? The the Fraternal organizations. Fraternal organizations. Yeah. I I thought it was one of those that that nothing was going on. So the landlord basically, like, loaned out keys and rooms and

Scott Cowan [00:27:19]:
Right.

Matt Ackerman [00:27:19]:
Said here. So that’s how that that’s how that band got its name. And and then we played in Seattle quite a bit. And and then as many bands do, there are certain substance abuse issues with certain members and it just fell apart. Okay. But that’s what because at the time, I was having a kid, so I needed to be dad.

Scott Cowan [00:27:39]:
So what type of, musical influence was that band?

Matt Ackerman [00:27:43]:
That was very, very tool heavy. Tool and, if you can imagine a blend between Tool and Chevelle, that was that was North Water.

Scott Cowan [00:27:54]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:27:55]:
Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:27:57]:
What happened after that? You had a kid, so dad dad mode, but you’re still playing guitar. Right? You you didn’t

Matt Ackerman [00:28:04]:
Yeah. I I never stopped playing guitar until probably, and when I say probably, like, there there was an acknowledgment in later in life that I had stopped and didn’t realize I had stopped. But I I continued with the intention of playing until about 2016. I played in some various side projects. I did a lot with, a lo a local Olympia theater because I was not successful in putting any bands together. So I hooked up with, a theater troop who was interested in doing well, at first there wasn’t guitar. They were like, do are you interested in doing sound design? So I did some sound design for some productions and then they said, we wanna step this up a little bit. We wanna do this music.

Matt Ackerman [00:28:48]:
We did Cannibal the musical.

Scott Cowan [00:28:50]:
Mhmm.

Matt Ackerman [00:28:50]:
And we wanna have it backed. We want live music for this. So would you be interested in trying that hat on? I said, yeah. So we formed this, little one, two, three. This three piece, playing playing the the soundtrack to Cannibal while also running sound for Cannibal while the actors were on stage. And I did a lot of that type of work to scratch the musical itch between 02/2010 and and on. And, yeah, that’s a wild experience, by the way. Like, if you if any theater group ever comes up to you as a musician and says, are you interested in doing a musical? Just don’t even yes is your answer.

Matt Ackerman [00:29:33]:
Just give it a try. It’s fun.

Scott Cowan [00:29:35]:
Well, elaborate on that. Why? Why do you why do you feel so strongly about that?

Matt Ackerman [00:29:39]:
Well, it’s a whole different experience. You know? Like, I think a lot of people will lump musicians and actors in the same bucket of artists and just say that they’re all the same type of people, but it’s it’s they’re not. And it it it stretches you to to figure out how to do what you want what you want to happen. So there’s, like, this first phase of of of musical maturity where it’s, like, you realize that when you’re trying to make music, you’re not just trying to be self serving, but you want to serve the music. But when you’re doing musical theater, you have to serve the music so the music can serve the actors.

Scott Cowan [00:30:14]:
K.

Matt Ackerman [00:30:15]:
And there’s a whole different, you know, there’s a whole different level. And then the relationships that go along with it and, you know, just every what it takes to conceptualize just go from a a reading of a play to strike after the last show. It is I mean, it’s an emotional mess of a roller coaster, but it’s all very worth it. And those friendships go forever.

Scott Cowan [00:30:40]:
Alright. That’s that’s very cool. Let’s, well, let’s talk about your Endorian. Sure. First off, how’d you come up with the name?

Matt Ackerman [00:30:53]:
So, yeah, people have asked me if it’s a if it’s a Star Wars copy, and, obviously, I’m gonna answer no. Well, we moved out to this house in ’20 I you can’t you know, no one in the podcast can see the house. But I moved out with my wife and children to this property in early twenty eighteen. And the first thing that we said is that, oh my god. It looks like we just moved to Endor. We are just in the trees. And it kinda became our joke. K.

Matt Ackerman [00:31:30]:
And, but, officially, I will say it’s a nod to the Dorian mode of the major scale.

Scott Cowan [00:31:37]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:31:38]:
Yeah. We don’t you know, there there’s nothing there’s nothing Star Wars about the brand other than it it sounds like we might live on indoor. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:31:47]:
Alright. What what was your motivation to start offering guitar repair services?

Matt Ackerman [00:31:59]:
That was absolutely a result of kinda losing my mind in the,

Scott Cowan [00:32:06]:
I shouldn’t laugh on

Matt Ackerman [00:32:06]:
the ice. No. No. It’s okay. It it’s like it’s such a common story at this time, and, like, don’t get me wrong. Like, I was I was way more guarded about my my, mental health, I think, when I was, you know, officially working for people that could, you know, make recommendations. You know? Like, if you’re working for the government and someone gets the idea that they think that you’re not okay, then they start going to your boss, and they start going to the employee resource center and start saying, I’m not worried about this guy. You know? But everyone was everyone was struggling.

Matt Ackerman [00:32:37]:
Well, not everyone. I mean, I was always kind of envious of those introverts without children who had long commutes because for them, it was a it was a paradise. You know, they didn’t have to see people. They didn’t have to try to homeschool their children while they were also working. And they didn’t put gas in their car anymore. So for them, it was a vacation and they got, you know, paid for it. And I was a naturally extroverted creative with three kids at home with a bad Internet connection, trying to wear too many hats. And I was really self destructive, you know.

Matt Ackerman [00:33:11]:
And, and trying to trying to figure out was it still worth, like, I was really struggling just being here and watching me, you know, snapping at my kids who just, you know, think it’s so cool to have dad working at the table, and I’m more focused on whether I’m gonna get a press release written in time, than I am in, you know, caring about my children’s mental health and, you know, all at the same time, I’m not doing anything that’s relevant to me in the soul. And so July of twenty twenty one and, you know, sort of tangentially, but directly I guess, directly related, I had not realized that for so many people, by July of twenty twenty one, this whole concept of isolation had, like, had gone away. Like, so many people had gone back to the office, had their lives had really gone back to normal. They just had to wear a mask occasionally. But if you work for the Scott of Washington, we were still locked down. There was still an expectation that, you know, you work from home. Daycares were sending your kids home if somebody had a sniffle three blocks away. It was we were sort of living in a pseudo a pseudo lockdown.

Matt Ackerman [00:34:30]:
Mhmm. So it was weird because I have friends that didn’t understand why it was so hard until they would, like, talk with me and realize I had no idea that you were still in your basement all the time. Like, yeah. I don’t have a choice. And so that’s a long walk to get to. Around July, I just had to find a way to stay relevant and and and find something that, kept me kept me whole on the inside. And I said, well, if I’m not performing music and there’s nowhere to perform music Cowan there’s all these Instagram guitar players out there, There’s still people playing instruments. And I’ve always been a person who wanted to take things apart and work on things.

Matt Ackerman [00:35:09]:
And I’ve always worked on my own guitars. So why don’t I just go out there and plant my flag and say, this is what I do. And so that’s what I started doing. I made the shirts. I made the web page. I stood firm in my belief that I can do this just as well as the next guy. And, if I build it, they will come, you know, as the great Field of Dreams quote goes. And they they, they came slowly, but they did.

Matt Ackerman [00:35:40]:
And fast forward to about March of twenty twenty two, I recognized that I had all these ideas. By this point, we had already launched the podcast in addition to me repairing guitars. And I said that I’m I’ve got this idea that I’m I’m still trying to be super dad. I’m still trying to work in a remote environment, And I’ve got this business on the side that I’m only feeding with crumbs, like, with what’s left over. Like, I was complaining about not having enough energy before. Now I’m, like, finding more energy to give this. What what in the hell could possibly happen if I just gave it everything? So I I took the leap and gave gave notice and decided well, I mean, there were some long conversations with my spouse to make sure, can we do this? What’s the budget gonna look like? But we found a way. So, yeah, now I’m doing this full

Scott Cowan [00:36:35]:
time. How’s that feel?

Matt Ackerman [00:36:39]:
It’s scary as hell. Excuse me. I don’t know. I’ll give you the g rated version too.

Scott Cowan [00:36:43]:
That’s the you know, that’s PG. We’re good. We’re good.

Matt Ackerman [00:36:46]:
It’s it’s, it’s absolutely terrifying, but the fact of the matter is it is it became more terrifying to sit with the idea of continuing to sit still than it was to take a risk that may or may not work out. And, you know, people have asked me, like, well, what’s your plan b? And, like, I don’t like there are people who say, don’t think about plan b because you’re gonna be unsuccessful if you think about plan b. I’m sort of a hybrid. I think I wrote I wrote plan b down on a piece of paper and locked it up, and I’m not gonna think about it.

Scott Cowan [00:37:21]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:37:22]:
You know? Yeah. I’m fully committed, and it’s just it it it feels terrifying, but it also, for the first time, I’m realizing that I am literally working for myself. And that’s a weird thing. There’s so many entrepreneurs out there that this is this is this is life. This is what you do if you wanna make a living. But, you know, for the first time, I’m not I’m not getting I don’t have a to do list that’s effectively governed by other pea by my customers. I have a to do list that’s governed by what I wanna achieve, by my direction. You know, I’ve got this giant whiteboard of I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, this to do that.

Matt Ackerman [00:38:01]:
And, yeah, I mean, I I told my friend, I said, I don’t want this to feel like a midlife crisis. And he said to me, he’s like, dude, it is a midlife crisis. There’s nothing wrong with a midlife crisis. It’s how you react react to a midlife crisis. You’re gonna go out and have an affair and buy a Corvette, or are you gonna do something that’s gonna push you forward and make you great? Like, okay. Fine. So it’s a midlife crisis. I’m just handling it well.

Scott Cowan [00:38:26]:
To me, the energy it takes to not know is more exhausting than the energy of knowing of a success or failure. And so I applaud you for jumping jumping in.

Matt Ackerman [00:38:40]:
I I don’t remember when I had become an individual that was satisfied with this idea of starting a thirty year career and just kind of staying put and then waiting for retirement, because you’re completely betting on the fact that, quite honestly, that you’re gonna get there. And I have seen and this is where it gets a little dark, you know, but I have seen more than my fair share of individuals not make it to the age of retirement. And what’s even more heartbreaking are those that make it to retirement and somehow end up leaving us a year or two after they’re retired. And this, the notion that you you should you should pay your dues and then have fun, It just doesn’t sit well with me. I think you should be having fun while you’re paying your dues, you know. It’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna be hard. But and, you know, I’m I’m really I’m encouraged to know that there’s a lot of people

Scott Cowan [00:39:41]:
that are

Matt Ackerman [00:39:41]:
out there that figured that out a lot sooner than I did. So but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to course correct along the way. So that’s what I did.

Scott Cowan [00:39:50]:
Did did you know of a guy in Ellensburg named Frank Johnson? He’s a local guy, bass player.

Matt Ackerman [00:40:02]:
I don’t think so. I know John Johnny.

Scott Cowan [00:40:08]:
Frank, Frank played in a band with a friend of mine, and he was a tile setter on this. You know, that that was his day job. He Scott tile. Well, he finally retired at, like, 70 years of age. K. Think about tile setting, getting up and . That’s hard on the body, knees, bad things, all this stuff. Right? He retired, and he went on a trip down to the Southwest Arizona, New Mexico and was killed in a car wreck.

Scott Cowan [00:40:42]:
Yeah. Right after retirement. You know, you know, you don’t know.

Matt Ackerman [00:40:47]:
No. You don’t know.

Scott Cowan [00:40:48]:
No. There is no there is no guarantee that your golden years will be golden, or that you’ll have them. So I think I think you’re once again, kudos to you for jumping in and doing this. What sort of services are you providing? And, yeah, I’ve got I’ve got some questions about that. I know nothing next to nothing about guitars. They have 17 strings. Right? So what what sort of services are you providing at this time?

Matt Ackerman [00:41:21]:
You know, when I started off, it was, I I was I was dipping my toes in, you know, slowly. So I would say that most people come to me for, they’ve got a guitar and it’s just not playing quite right. It might need a setup. It might just maybe they want new pickups or new switches. Sometimes you’ve got old dirty guitars that are just dusty and need to be, you know, you know, spit polished and shined up. Right? Not really.

Scott Cowan [00:41:45]:
But,

Matt Ackerman [00:41:47]:
and and then there have been some more complex, more, repairs that are more deserving of a of a true luthier, which has caused me to sort of, like, go back to school. I did not think that the number of people that have come to me and say, hey. I need to I would I would like, to have my guitar re fretted. I didn’t think that there was gonna be that, that kind of demand. So that is currently what I’m one of the things that I’m working on getting better at right now because I wouldn’t feel good taking a customer’s guitar right now and re fretting a 30 year old Gibson Les Paul, until I’m 100% satisfied. I just didn’t see the demand. There is. But I think what you can get from that is that I I’m not gonna take a job if it’s not if I can’t give you a %.

Matt Ackerman [00:42:32]:
But, yeah, mainly, I mainly, I touch electric guitars and, and we, you know, do custom pickups. What kind of sound are you looking for? It’s a real consultative process as well. Like, some people have a guitar that they want. They’re really they they really love the look of this guitar. Actually, I had a customer call me the other day. He was super stoked about this guitar. He just ordered it from Texas. He is he bought it specifically for the aesthetic, and some certain other elements.

Matt Ackerman [00:42:57]:
And he’s like, but I hate the way it’s wired and I do not like the electronics. Can you do this for me? Absolutely. Bring it over. Let’s talk. And, so we’re gonna basically hot rod the entire thing and give it new guts and set it up and make it a heavy metal guitarist dream. Okay. And then I dove into starting to, build my own. So that’s that’s something that’s coming in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three is I’ve actually got building a line of electrics.

Matt Ackerman [00:43:29]:
One primarily with myself, one line with my daughter who has expressed interest in showing some artistic creativity and so she’s actually gonna be painting some of these. And then one line with a local artist who are gonna effectively do, the same type of thing. I don’t have a storefront So he is gonna lend his time and energy to basically do a line dedicated to his artistic brand. And now then I’m gonna build the guitars. He’s painting the guitars, and then we’ll be selling them out of his shop. Okay. So Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:44:05]:
What would be the so a customer calls you up. Mhmm. What would be the dream job? They’ve got a fill in the blank guitar, you know, whether it’s a, let’s say, a 50 seven Fender Telecaster or whatever. You you get to you you fill it in, and they want x done to it. What would that look like for you right now?

Matt Ackerman [00:44:36]:
I I don’t want it to avoid your question. But, honestly, I think it’s it’s less the job and more the repeated business. When when somebody Okay. Like, it it it the answer to that is more sort of, like, based in the question itself. And that’s it. If somebody has called me up with a 57 and said, I want you to be the one to work on it, it doesn’t matter if they just need a truss rod adjustment or, you know, a a a fret and dress or I need a I need a new pickup installed. It’s the fact that there’s that element of trust that’s already there, and it’s still an opportunity to show that you’re the best. Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:45:09]:
And but I guess if it was if there was really a dream job, I mean, if if if you were to say, what is the deal?

Scott Cowan [00:45:14]:
What’s the holy grail of a guitar?

Matt Ackerman [00:45:15]:
The holy the holy grail is if somebody says, hey. I’m going on a a ten week tour, and I need a tech to go with me. And I figure out a way to make it work, and I go on the road.

Scott Cowan [00:45:25]:
Okay. Alright. Alright.

Matt Ackerman [00:45:26]:
Yeah. If somebody comes to you and says, like, you know, I can go buy a a Fender Telecaster or I or I can buy this thin line. Like, right now, I’m building a thin line with my daughter. And that means that I’m doing something right, you know. I mean, it not not just what’s expected, but it’s it’s a really weird, like, intimate connection to be creating an instrument. Like, not every instrument’s the same. You go pick up three Les Pauls off the stand, they’re all going to feel different. And if somebody is if somebody is coming to you to have you do the right work like, so much so much setup work is honestly Cowan and someone’s gonna shoot me for saying this.

Matt Ackerman [00:46:06]:
But so much setup work is guesswork. Right? Like, I can set it up by the numbers, and I can set it up, like, perfectly. But I also wanna know how you play. I I wanna I every time a customer comes over and drops off a guitar, first thing I do not the first thing. But after they tell me what they want, we have our consult and we talk. I said, before you leave, I wanna watch you play for a few minutes. Because I wanna figure out their style. I wanna see how hard are you attacking the strings.

Matt Ackerman [00:46:31]:
I want you more of a finger style. Are you a hybrid picker? Are you like, what kind of pick are you using? Because the way I set a guitar up, I’m gonna first start with by the numbers. And then I’m gonna play it, and I’m gonna replicate your playing while I’m playing the instrument. And if it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do by the numbers, I’m gonna tweak it a little bit so when you pick it up, it plays exactly the way you wanna play it in the style that you are playing it. So that sort of intimate connection between I’m delivering something to you that you’re supposed to now dump your soul into in order to create art, That’s wild to me. And that is kind of the dream. Like, that almost makes every job the dream job because you get to send another person off to go make art and be inspired with whatever tool they have. You know? Whether yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:47:24]:
Very cool. You also teach classes. Right? You’re also teaching guitar lessons?

Matt Ackerman [00:47:29]:
I am open for guitar lessons. I actually don’t have many students right now. I have taught 10 to 15 students in the past, but right now, I think people are it’s a weird environment right now. A lot of people are doing a lot of home learning or or or independent learning. Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:47:43]:
And

Matt Ackerman [00:47:43]:
there’s folks that are, still only wanting, remote lessons and some people that are insisting on in person lessons, and it’s, like, trying to find that trying to find that fit. And it’s also not the I’m putting I’m putting more effort into the, into the physical side of the business right now than the lesson side. But I am absolutely enrolling students at this time.

Scott Cowan [00:48:12]:
Alright. You mentioned you’re gonna be creating, you know, what we’ll call three lines of guitars over the next twelve months or so until the rest of 2022 and ’23. What else does the future look like? Not trying to put you on the spot and say, you know, what’s the secret plan, but

Matt Ackerman [00:48:28]:
what No. It’s okay.

Scott Cowan [00:48:29]:
What I mean, do you want a storefront? You mentioned you don’t you don’t have a storefront. Do you do you does that inspire you, or is that a negative to you?

Matt Ackerman [00:48:37]:
Oh, no. The storefront is I I would love to have a storefront, and I I know exactly where I want it. It’s just simply a matter of that’s a lot of you know, right now, I’m still building the business up to just, you know, recover the revenue of quitting a day job. Mhmm. You’ve gotta be able to afford the afford the space. Right?

Scott Cowan [00:48:57]:
Right.

Matt Ackerman [00:48:59]:
So yeah. No. I I would love that if if in the next eighteen months, eighteen to twenty four months, I had a storefront up in our local area here, I I see that as a as a huge strategy. And that’s sort of a long story based on the geography of the area and where people are where people live around here and where they’re currently taking their guitars, which for a lot of the people that live on Highway 101 is is a is a long distance in one direction or another. And I and I think that I’m sort of in the pocket that could be, very successful with that. And more immediately, I’m really loving what we’re doing. And I say we here and this is really the we element. My the Instagram broadcast and right now, it’s on Instagram, but platforms could change.

Matt Ackerman [00:49:50]:
But we do Endorian Guitar Works backstage and that’s I mentioned that earlier, I think. But that’s the, the guided look at the life experiences and ways and means of Guitarist Journey. And I do that podcast with, my friend and former bandmate, Brian McCoy, who, could not be here today. But that is that is the collaborative baby, and that is oh, and it’s a lot like this, but we do it. It’s a live show and we live stream it over Instagram and we sometimes, it’s as simple as let’s do a tech show and we’re going to I’ll I’ll base a lot of the content on questions that have come to me. Like, how do I I want to wire my guitar. I’m having trouble. Can you show me how to do this? So we’ll do tech shows.

Matt Ackerman [00:50:35]:
We’re all actually, like, on the counter in front of me. I’ll I’ll dual cam. So one, you can see us. And two, you can see the guitar. And then I’ll actually go through and we like, rewire a guitar. And we’ve also have had live performances by bands, that we remote in and then push it out to Instagram or we just do interviews. And we’ve done some really great shows and we have more on the horizon over the next several months. And that is one of the things that I’m super excited about, seeing what we what we can do with this.

Matt Ackerman [00:51:02]:
That is, of course, has its own challenges. Like, what is the best what is the best format? What’s the way to best way to engage people? What’s the best time? Where is your audience? If your audience is in England, you know, going on at 07:30PM Pacific is problematic. But, yeah, Endorian Guitar Works stay backstage is is a is a blast. And it’s, resulted in us meeting a lot of great people too and forming a lot of a lot of good networking and a lot of good professional relationships around that too. So k.

Scott Cowan [00:51:38]:
So now we’re gonna ask you some these are by the way, any of your answers are perfectly okay, so there’s no right or wrong answer here. Sure. You get to play one guitar for the rest of your life. What would it be?

Matt Ackerman [00:51:51]:
One guitar for the rest of my life. I can’t even pick any of the guitars that I have in the house.

Scott Cowan [00:52:00]:
I know it’s an impossible question, but

Matt Ackerman [00:52:02]:
It is an impossible question. I’m going to yep. I’m gonna play along, and and Jimmy Vaughn is going to give me his brother’s, number one.

Scott Cowan [00:52:13]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:52:13]:
I would yeah. I would I would absolutely take Stevie’s number one. Okay. That actually I’d find a way to make it work.

Scott Cowan [00:52:21]:
That that that plays into question number two, which is, if you could meet any guitar player, dead or alive, who would you wanna meet and why?

Matt Ackerman [00:52:33]:
That’s actually gonna be a toss-up between Stevie Ray Vaughan and Kurt Cobain.

Scott Cowan [00:52:38]:
So why?

Matt Ackerman [00:52:40]:
Why? Well, Stevie Ray Vaughan because, obviously, I consider him, as do many, one of the one of the best guitar players that ever graced the planet and held the instrument. More than his music, I also you know, he went he went through certain, personal struggles Mhmm. That, that he somehow was able to go into the go into the darkness and and come out again and not just come out better for himself, but was able to channel that, like, not in not just into the notes on the guitar, but, the message, you know, that he was singing about and even in the concerts about, like, when he would just make remarks and speaking to the audience. Everything he did was about evangelizing for hope

Scott Cowan [00:53:26]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:53:27]:
And for and for taking care of people. And and Kurt Cobain you know, like, having spent so much time in in Washington I struggle with living in Western Washington, and that’s not a dish you know, people that love it here, that’s great. I struggle with the gray. But one of the things that always gives me if I if I’m really, really, really deep down in my funk and saying, why am I here? Like, why can’t I be somewhere sunny? Somewhere that brings me like, I wake up joyous. I remember things like one of Kurt Cobain’s first one of Nirvana’s first gigs as with the band as we know it was in Rignall Hall, which is less than two miles from my house on the road that I live on. You know, I can I can literally walk out into the road in front of my mailbox and I can say, I’m sharing space here with somebody who also did it? And, yeah. I don’t know. There’s there’s there’s a certain connection there.

Matt Ackerman [00:54:31]:
And I think, you know, obviously, millions people would say they have that connection too. So I don’t know what it is. But I I just feel like if I could sit down and and and have a have a coffee with with Kurt, I might see a little clearly a little more clearly.

Scott Cowan [00:54:48]:
Alright. Well, thank you for, helping with an easy transition for me. You said coffee with Kurt, so I always ask everybody about coffee. Yeah. Where where do you like to go for coffee in the Greater Olympia area?

Matt Ackerman [00:55:05]:
Lately, I’ve been, I I like to go to my kitchen. Yeah. No. Olympia Coffee Roasters is is pretty awesome. They’re they’re downtown on what road is that? Fourth

Scott Cowan [00:55:17]:
Yep.

Matt Ackerman [00:55:17]:
Right across from City Hall. And, they have a roast called, Big Truck Uh-huh. Which is pretty bold and Yep. I appreciate I I appreciate that roast.

Scott Cowan [00:55:28]:
K. When you’re making coffee at home, what are you what are you doing with it?

Matt Ackerman [00:55:35]:
I’m I’m a big fan of of the Death Wish coffee. It’s bold, and it does the job.

Scott Cowan [00:55:43]:
Death Wish coffee. Okay. I love asking, you know and one of the things is, I used to work in the Olympia area, so I I know Olympia reasonably well. It’s been five, seven years since I’ve been there, but, you know, it is a worker. Yeah. Where’s a great place to go get lunch in that area?

Matt Ackerman [00:56:07]:
There is there’s an Indian restaurant that’s down by my favorite bar, The Brotherhood. I believe it’s called Great Cuisine of India, and they have a really awesome lunch buffet.

Scott Cowan [00:56:18]:
Okay.

Matt Ackerman [00:56:21]:
One of the things that most the Scott I’ll start that over. Anyone who’s living in Olympia will let you know that there are many places to eat, which is good. But the downside of this is many of these businesses are frequently turning over. So I would almost wager that, like, most of the restaurants or a great number of the restaurants that you were familiar with seven years ago might not be there. Right.

Scott Cowan [00:56:45]:
No. That’s that was not surprising. As a musician and now this is gonna I’m gonna you know, this is a two part question. As a performer, as a musician, where’s the coolest place that you’ve played?

Matt Ackerman [00:57:04]:
Showbox at the Market in Seattle. Yeah. That that stage is like thunder. And there’s so much there’s so much magic on that stage too, like, knowing who sort of like that that comment I made about just standing in in hallowed ground. Right? Right. When you’re when you’re on stage, at a place like the Showbox or the Central Saloon in Pioneer Square. Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:57:29]:
Okay. So

Matt Ackerman [00:57:29]:
The sort of the mystery, of of who’s been there before you. Okay. You know? Actually, it’s funny. I ended up I was working with a gentleman probably fifteen no. Like, yeah. Yeah. Let’s say fifteen. Fifteen years ago and was telling him that I was playing a show at the at at the Central Saloon in Pioneer Square.

Matt Ackerman [00:57:54]:
And turns out he had played that he played that, venue with a jazz group, thirty years back. Cowan so imagining that he was on that same stage playing a clarinet Yeah. While I was out there trying to burn the building down, you know, with with the heavy rock group. It’s Right. It’s kinda weird.

Scott Cowan [00:58:17]:
Part two of that question is Mhmm. Where would you like to play that you haven’t played?

Matt Ackerman [00:58:25]:
I would like to play I would like to go back to El Corazon and and and play at El Corazon. I I guess that’s all that was also called The Graceland. I think it was called the off Ramp too. I could be wrong there. That’s like for Seattle venues, it’s kind of the perfect blend between big venue and intimate. It it’s it’s sort of like the whiskey a go go. Mhmm. Yeah.

Matt Ackerman [00:58:54]:
And aside from that one stupid pole that blocks the view on the on the stage, To me, it’s it’s the perfect venue in Seattle. If it were still around, I would say The Rock Candy. Oh. The first the first rock show that I ever went to it was seeing Sleater Kenny at the Rock Candy in the mid nineties. And, and then, of course, it was soon demolished and condos replaced it. But, yeah, I would love to resurrect that place.

Scott Cowan [00:59:29]:
Okay. Where’s the best place to see music being performed?

Matt Ackerman [00:59:37]:
In Olympia, I would say the I like the fourth AVTAV when they were doing a lot of music. They’ve got a good good separate they’ve got a a dedicated performance space behind behind the the bar and the pool tables and whatnot.

Scott Cowan [00:59:55]:
K.

Matt Ackerman [00:59:55]:
Played there a couple times. Yeah. Three or four times I’ve played at the Fourth Ave. And and, of course, like most smaller venues, it all depends on the sound guy who’s the sound person who’s running that night. But if you if you Scott the right combination, it can be a a great venue. Okay.

Scott Cowan [01:00:14]:
I love I love asking musicians, like, where your answers, there’s a couple overlaps. Sure. For the most part, past guests, the number one venue to play at or to see music at is the Triple Door in Seattle. Yeah. Everybody everybody gushes about the Triple Door. The Showbox at the market I’m glad you said the market, not Showbox So to because Showbox So to is a not a great place. Sorry. It’s it’s

Matt Ackerman [01:00:49]:
Yeah. No. I mean, it’s it’s It’s just a box. It fills a need, but it is not the market.

Scott Cowan [01:00:53]:
But the market the market’s a a great, a great venue. The last show I saw there, I think I saw was a was a weird pairing. We went and saw x and Squeeze. K. So I’m not quite sure how those two ended up on tour together, but, it was an interesting evening.

Matt Ackerman [01:01:15]:
You know, I’m trying to remember. I think I’ve only seen one show at the triple door. I mean, it’s it’s a great I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that answer. I think that it really depends on what type of show are you playing. Right? You know? If I am if I’m sitting down with a jazz group, if I’m or or playing blues or something like that, you know, yeah. So that I I would love to I would love to play it no matter what. But Right. If I want to see people get sweaty and run into people and really just throw out that that rock and roll vibe, then I’m gonna want something that offers a little more free space, you know.

Matt Ackerman [01:01:54]:
And,

Scott Cowan [01:01:55]:
the other thing that

Matt Ackerman [01:01:56]:
Triple door is a good a good answer.

Scott Cowan [01:01:58]:
But the other thing that I always expected, like, when I throw out, like, where do you wanna play question Yeah. I really expected more people to say the gorge. I just you you know, I mean, like, I’ve always because it’s a it’s a cool venue. It’s it’s really large.

Matt Ackerman [01:02:19]:
And I think I think for me, I’ve always just been more of a small to medium sized venue type person. I want to don’t get me wrong. I would go play

Scott Cowan [01:02:34]:
Of course. But

Matt Ackerman [01:02:35]:
a giant a giant stadium, or or field like that. But there is something incredibly powerful about being able to connect. I mean, how do you feel about the show when you’re when you’re so far back that you can be like, well, I can hear them, but I can’t see them. You know? And and I want I want the people at that show to all have this amazing intimate experience. And I feel like once you get to a certain size, that that’s just not offered anymore other than, like, bragging rights to say, well, I I went there and I saw them. Well, you did.

Scott Cowan [01:03:08]:
Well, but did you? Because I wanted to go see the stones.

Matt Ackerman [01:03:11]:
Right.

Scott Cowan [01:03:12]:
And my goal, if I was gonna go see the Stones, was that I wanted to see them. I didn’t wanna watch them on the jumbotron.

Matt Ackerman [01:03:18]:
Right. Exactly.

Scott Cowan [01:03:19]:
And I and it’s like so I needed to be close enough that the jumbotrons wouldn’t catch my eye because I would be easily distracted and go, oh, look. Mick’s seventeen feet tall now. Yeah. And and then you know? But I think I think the tickets were $3 a pop at that point to get, you know, close enough that it was not gonna be, you know, Jumbotron. Right. And, we didn’t make that happen. And now that Charlie’s no longer with us, I I don’t wanna see yeah. Seeing the stones would be it wouldn’t be the same.

Scott Cowan [01:03:50]:
So, I like

Matt Ackerman [01:03:52]:
the small

Scott Cowan [01:03:53]:
companies too.

Matt Ackerman [01:03:54]:
Have you had anyone, now that you’ve got me thinking about this, now I have, like, five other things that I wanna that I that I would like to play, but I would love to play this the Skychurch.

Scott Cowan [01:04:04]:
Yeah.

Matt Ackerman [01:04:04]:
Or I I will never not call it the EMP. Oh, it’s EMP.

Scott Cowan [01:04:08]:
Come on. You’re you’re you’re

Matt Ackerman [01:04:09]:
a good company.

Scott Cowan [01:04:09]:
It’s EMP. No. That’d be a cool venue.

Matt Ackerman [01:04:12]:
I it’s it’s such a trip, you know, and it’s an unsuspecting space.

Scott Cowan [01:04:16]:
Yeah. No. That’d be a great venue.

Matt Ackerman [01:04:17]:
I’ve I’ve seen a couple I I saw Alien Ant Farm for the first time at at EMP and I’m gonna be one of those guys that I % love Alien Ant Farm and it’s not for that Michael Jackson cover but they’re just a damn good performing band.

Scott Cowan [01:04:30]:
K.

Matt Ackerman [01:04:32]:
And yeah, I I saw them in 02/2001 when they were their opening for Life House and no one knew who Alienate Farm was. Right. But it was I think that counts as one of those smaller venues, but there’s so much technology behind it. You’re gonna get a hell of a show there.

Scott Cowan [01:04:46]:
Alright. That works. That works. No. I mean, there’s some grip. I I, you know, when I lived in the Greater Seattle area, we used to go to Tractor all the time.

Matt Ackerman [01:04:54]:
Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [01:04:55]:
And it’s not laid out very well. It’s not. But I loved going to shows at the Tractor. Mhmm. I just it’s that was just kind of a fun place to go. Or going way back in the day, like, in the eighties, the the the Ballard Firehouse or the, the underground were

Matt Ackerman [01:05:15]:
I played the Ballard Firehouse once. I loved it. I wasn’t 20 I wasn’t 21 yet, so they made me stay in a very certain very specific place. Right.

Scott Cowan [01:05:24]:
Right. Yeah.

Matt Ackerman [01:05:26]:
There was some guy on stage before we played that meowed like a cat. He got up on stage with an acoustic guitar and just kind of meowed and played guitar. And I’m like, he’s gonna make everyone leave before we even get on stage.

Scott Cowan [01:05:39]:
That’s wild. See, you’re too young. You missed maybe the coolest venue of all, though, was was was in Ellensburg, the ranch tavern. The Ranch Tavern was

Matt Ackerman [01:05:50]:
Where where was that?

Scott Cowan [01:05:51]:
It was east of Cowan. As you drove through town, you went up past the water the water tank

Matt Ackerman [01:05:59]:
Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [01:05:59]:
Up there. And it was just this old Quonset hut, but it had, like, don’t quote me on this, but something like the largest spring loaded hardwood dance floor on the West Coast.

Matt Ackerman [01:06:12]:
So I bet that was popular during the rodeo.

Scott Cowan [01:06:14]:
It it was. Yeah. Because during the rodeo, they bring country bands in. Exactly. But the rest of the time, it was it was, rock and roll bands coming through, and, I lots of famous names will play there at one time or another. Right? And, and it burned down in, like, ’86. But it wasn’t a nice place, and it wasn’t comfortable. But it was when you packed 700 people in there of college age in a in a in a in a in a town that was starved for music at that time.

Scott Cowan [01:06:50]:
Yeah. It was a fun it was a fun place. It

Matt Ackerman [01:06:52]:
was a

Scott Cowan [01:06:52]:
really good

Matt Ackerman [01:06:53]:
Yeah. That sounds that sounds like a blast.

Scott Cowan [01:06:55]:
Yeah. It really was. So my last question for you is my get out of jail free question.

Matt Ackerman [01:07:05]:
Sure.

Scott Cowan [01:07:05]:
What didn’t we talk about that we should have talked about?

Matt Ackerman [01:07:10]:
That’s the interview question. When you go in for a job, what are your questions of us? I didn’t expect to get that today. What should we have talked about that we didn’t talk about? Once again, I’m glad this isn’t live.

Scott Cowan [01:07:23]:
Well, it’s we’re not gonna edit out a whole lot of it here, folks. So it’s yeah. We’re gonna listen to you. We’re gonna listen let let you just no. The the point here is simply is that did did we not cover something that you would like to have made sure we brought up?

Matt Ackerman [01:07:36]:
Yeah. Actually, so I’ve had one of one of the things when you’re launching a business is you’ve Scott that that you don’t necessarily see coming at you when you’re thinking about how I wanna build guitars, how I wanna repair guitars, and how I wanna network with musicians. One of the things that I never saw coming was that there would have to be this apparel component. I didn’t think I was ever I was ever what’s that? I oh, okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. You know, I I wanted a way to be able to at first, I thought, well, it’d be cool to have some shirts. And so I may have, a few shirts that said Endorian Guitar Works on it.

Matt Ackerman [01:08:13]:
And that was cool. Except, are you really gonna wear a guitar short a guitar store shirt if you like, this is this is for somebody who’s gotten the work done, and they might want a t shirt to go along with it. And that’s cool. But one of the things that I really wanted to do with this business was really evangelize the mindset of, I don’t care if you’re a guitar player or whether you, you know, hiking is your passion or whether you like working on cars. I said, I want my business to echo a mindset that can relate with anybody. And so I came I sat down with my tablet and started coming up with different ideas. And that’s how I came up with this.

Scott Cowan [01:08:57]:
Mhmm.

Matt Ackerman [01:08:57]:
Fret less, rock more. So it’s music punny, but it’s really the idea of just, like, stop worrying and start doing. And, so yeah. I mean, you know, a little plug. I’ve got I’ve got hats and shirts and all that stuff with it. But what’s cool for me is that I’ve watched people order these things that have never met me. They will never spend a dime in my shop. You know, maybe they’ll order a maybe they’ll order a guitar someday.

Matt Ackerman [01:09:22]:
But they’re not coming to me from Fort Wayne, Indiana to to put in a new pickup in their telly. But they love they love the hat. They love the logo. They love what it says about life. K. So it’s in the trademarking process right now, which I probably should have done before I started selling the stuff. But, you know, that’s if you ever see a social media post of mine, that’s how I sign it off. Fret less, rock more.

Matt Ackerman [01:09:47]:
Because quite honestly, that’s to me, that’s what life takes.

Scott Cowan [01:09:52]:
I think we can close on that because I don’t think we can do any better.

Matt Ackerman [01:09:57]:
That’s Scott, it’s been an absolute pleasure. I’m I’m really sorry about my unstable Internet connection out here.

Scott Cowan [01:10:02]:
We’ll we’ll have if somebody’s made it this far, they’ll know that we patched it altogether, and it’s all good. It’s all good. So, Matt, thanks for taking the time to be here

Matt Ackerman [01:10:11]:
today. Absolutely. Thank you, Scott.