A Coffee with Matt Laird from The Brasstactics!

Join us for a coffee and an energetic chat with Matt Laird from The Brasstactics, the dynamic brass band whose vibrant sounds you've undoubtedly heard if you've attended an Edmonton Oilers Hockey game!

Matt, an Edmonton native, started his musical journey early, playing the tuba and even serving as the spirited school mascot during his time at Harry Ainlay High School, bringing fun to all events. His passion for music truly took off playing the tuba in a drum corps, where he competed in various competitions across the US and was part of a team that achieved an impressive 5th place globally! He continued to tour the world with various bands and drum corps until life called for a shift, and music was temporarily put on the back burner as he started a family.

However, a transformative trip to New Orleans rekindled his love for playing. Picking up the sousaphone, a variation of the tuba, inspired him to assemble a New Orleans-style brass band right here in Edmonton. Teaming up with his friend, Blair Wilkie, they began gathering talented friends and friends of friends, and before they knew it, a full, vibrant brass band had come together.

The Brasstactics began building awareness through ingenious "Brass Blitzes" – energetic 15-minute pop-up shows at various events. This strategy quickly gained them recognition, leading to more and more bookings at bars and venues across the city. Their growing popularity caught the attention of the Edmonton Oilers, who reached out looking for a brass band to enliven their games. Now, members of The Brasstactics are a beloved staple at every Oilers home game, having built a passionate "cult following" among fans.

Get ready to hear Matt's incredible musical journey, from a tuba-playing high schooler to a world-touring drum corps member, and how he ultimately brought the vibrant energy of New Orleans brass to Edmonton, culminating in The Brasstactics' unique success and their iconic presence at Oilers games. 

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Transcript

0:10

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the ABA Coffee In The Park. My name is Cam Milliken, and I am here with my co-host extraordinaire, Jennifer Herrick. Good morning, Jennifer. Good morning, Cam. On this smoky days. I know. For those of us who live in Alberta, today is a little bit smoky out there. The forest fires are doing their thing. They are. And the air is a little, like you say. But you know what? Wind'll come, it'll blow over, who knows? But anyway, yeah. Well, this is what we live in now. It is. We live in Alberta. And how are you doing? Doing good? I'm good. So for those who live in Edmonton or in Alberta, today's not a great day for Edmontonians. Well, the Oilers lost. Yes. We had a bit of a trouncing last night. A bit of a trouncing. I still have faith in my team. They're going to do this. I mean, it's just a minor setback. No big deal. But it wasn't good last night. Wasn't pretty. Yeah. So, but the city is still buzzing. So it's kind of awesome. Jennifer, we are coming to you live, folks, from The Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson. That's right. So if you hear some noises in the background, coffee machines whirring, people talking, kids screaming. No kids today. No, no kids. Just businessmen being very loud. That's what's going on at the coffee shop today. Jennifer, tell us about some very important people. We would like to thank our gold corporate sponsors, which include the Myshak Group of Companies, Genics, Parkland County, and Bow Valley Credit Union. Yeah, without them, we would not be able to do what we do. So thank you very much. We appreciate it. Jennifer, I'm excited this week. Oh, there's so much going on this week. Are you excited? I am very excited. It's the golf tournament. It's the golf tournament this week. The ABA, Acheson Business Association, golf tournament. Yes. Which sells out, by the way, in 24 hours. Yes. 24 hours. This golf tournament sells out with a waiting list. With a huge waiting list. With people phoning saying, look, what can you do to get me it? Nothing. You know you blew it, you're not in. So next year, start early. Like, you know what's going to happen next year? People are going to be up all night at their computers. Remember the days when you had to get tickets for concerts? Like Ticketmaster. That's right. It's going to be so awesome. And people are going to phone us, I didn't get in, the computer crashed. I'm sorry. Or they'll start lining up outside the ABA door. Wouldn't that be something? No, that would be. Because I'll sell hot dogs and make cash. So I think that would be really great. And I'm excited about that. And that leads us in to our guest. I'm so excited today about our guest. This is awesome. Because this guest will be attending the ABA Golf Tournament on Friday. They're actually special guests. They are special guests. Yes. They're doing something very special at the golf tournament. I know. Never done it at our golf tournament. Not at ours. At others. I think he'll tell us they've done it at others, but never at ours. And if you are an Edmontonian, if you are an Oilers fan, if you've ever been to Roger's Place, you're going to know who these guys are. You sure are. Amazing. So Jennifer, take it away. Our guest today is Matt Laird with The Brasstactics. Matt, welcome. Good morning, everybody. How you guys doing? Man, this is incredible to have you here. The Brasstactics. Now, we better tell everybody what that... Matt, tell us, who are the Brasstactics? Brasstactics, we are a brass band located here in Edmonton. We are, I guess you could call us a New Orleans style brass band. Not your average, you know, classical brass. We play everything from ACDC to Dr. Dre. You guys are amazing. Tell us all the instruments in the band, so people get the idea. Yeah, the way I've structured the band is we have trumpets, saxophones, sousaphone, which is a tuba. We can go in depth about that. Yes, yes. And then we have trombone and we've got drums. So we've got percussion with toys and then we've got a snare drum and we've got a bass drummer. Right. And at the games, you're like a mini marching band. Yeah. You go around the concourse level before the game. Completely mobile. Yeah. And then when the game starts, you're up in your perch up there and you just go after it. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Yeah. If folks, if you've never heard... Are you guys... Well, you're online, right? Do you have clips online and stuff like that? Oh, yeah. Oh, they do. Yeah. People need to go see that because I looked at it this morning, but I didn't click on any of the clips. But man, unbelievable. It's amazing. It is. It's unbelievable. So let's start from square one. Let's start from square one. The question we always ask right out of the gate. Matt, where were you born and where did you grow up? I was born here in Edmonton. Well, I was born in Edmonton. On the West End, I was born at The Mis. The Misericordia Hospital. I mean, The Misericordia. Not The Misery. Jennifer, don't look at me like that. Lawyers are already, "oh, he called it The Misery were suing". Yeah. So anyway. No, and I grew up on the West End. I was a West End kid my whole life. What high school did you go to? I went to Harry Ainlay on the South Side. Yeah. I know. I know. So there's actually a story of that. I still lived on the West End. Yeah. Yeah. So when I was in junior high, I got to be friends with a friend of mine, and his dad was the music teacher for Harry Ainlay High School. Yeah. His name's Rob Spears, greatest music band teacher. Shout out to Rob. Yeah. Rob's amazing. He said, I'll give you a ride to see. He needed tuba players. Tuba players, they're- Okay. We're not gonna- I need to interrupt you for one second, because Jennifer's son is a tuba player. Okay. He is. He is. Yeah. Just had his big tuba concert. We did have the big concert. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Nice. Nice. So she knows of what you speak. Yeah. He's at St. Thomas. St. Thomas. Okay. Sweet. Yeah. All right. So you went to Ainlay to play tuba. Yeah. He said he would drive me to school every day, so I took that, and yeah, he needed tuba players. So I went to Ainlay for high school. Okay. What's the Harry Ainlay mascot? Okay. So I actually was the Harry Ainlay mascot as well. Okay Cam! This is blowing my mind. If we had video, you should see Cam's face right now. He is so excited. I ask this question of every person. What was your high school mascot? Some know, some don't, but nobody has ever said, I was the mascot. I was. This is unbelievable. What is the mascot? The Harry Ainlay Titan. So he was like a Titan, like a, yeah. Yeah. I had like a shield and a sword and I had the big. Come on. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Okay. I went to Ross Shep. Oh yeah. We were the Thunderbirds. That's right. Yeah. We had like a bird guy walking around, but I like the Titan. Titan's probably slay birds, but anyway. Cool. Yeah. We got, yeah. No, I like, we did, you know, like for the volleyball team, they had, they would do these, volleyball and basketball were huge at Ainlay. Oh yeah. Yeah. And they might still be, but, you know, they had these like entrance, grand entrances. Yes. Yeah. And so we always, I kind of wrote the entrances for the volleyball team when they would come in. Unbelievable. Everything from like, you know, they got locked up in a cage and then they had to spike the ball at the bad guys. Oh man. I came in to save the day. This is the best ever. This is just so awesome. We did have, we had a lot of fun with it. Yeah. I bet. Incredible. Man. Okay. Yeah. So you're West End kid going to the South Side for the music program. Going to the South Side. Going to the South Side. I love it. Was that your passion, Matt? Was that, hey, this is what I want to do after I graduate is music. No. No. Okay. Yeah. I mean, like I got into music. None of my family, like a lot of people when they're like, oh, you're musical, your family must be musical, right? And a lot of the times that is the case. Right. But I wasn't, like my family is not musical whatsoever. I started in a drum corps. So a drum corps is like a marching band. Yeah. Yeah. It's all, there's no woodwinds. And what you played the tuba? I played the, yeah. Yeah. I started out on the baritone, but I ended up going to... Baritone is a littler tuba. It's a mini tuba. Yeah. And so they're all marching tubas. We were marching. And so we would go down to the States and tour the States. Come on. And be in competitions. And they have, it's very, the drum corps is very competitive. Yeah. So if you've ever got a chance to, like, it's like an underground world. It's really cool. My business partner and I, Blair, he's a drummer. He's my drummer. Yeah. We both did high-end drum corps. Okay. So I marched with the Madison Scouts. I was just saying to Jennifer earlier today that on the weekend, I was watching, flipping through the channels, and they had the US. International Marching Band competition. Yeah. In Houston, at like the Astrodome, whatever they call that, the Astrodome or whatever it is. And it was amazing. It's crazy. It's not that big in Canada. Or is it? No, it's not. That's the thing. It's not that big. Everyone I know goes down to the States to try out for whatever marching. I got friends that went to school on a marching band scholarship. Yeah, down there you can. But you guys had it going on here. I had to pay. Like tons of money. But you had it going on here. A flight down to Madison, Wisconsin every month. Wow. That's pretty cool. Yeah. The drum corps is like the university marching band. Yeah. Then there's drum corps, which is the next level up. It's like the NHL of the marching band. Yeah. Wow. If you make that, you're like... Yeah. You can only play till you're 21. So I'm going to age myself here. That's all right. But I aged out in 2005. Yeah, yeah. And so we got fifth in the world. The Madison scouts. Really? Fifth in the whole world. That's incredible. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. And so its extremely competitive But then you had to quit because you were aging out. Yeah. I didn't want to do music. I wasn't into music. But this is the thing I was getting at is, when I first started with the Strutters Drum and Bugle Corps, which was here in Edmonton, now known as Northern Empire, they were going to Florida. And so it wasn't, hey, do you want to play music? It was, hey, do you want to go to Disney World? Okay, yeah. And I'm like, absolutely. So music... And even in high school with Rob Spears, we went to Italy, we went to Germany, we toured. Really? This is incredible. I'm a traveller. I love to travel. And so music was my vessel. To travel. Yeah, exactly. I just knew there was a story here. I knew it was more than just a bunch of guys getting together playing at the Oilers games. This is pretty incredible. Yeah. This is fascinating. The music is, I mean, the music is secondary. Yeah. I don't want to, I hate to admit that, but like the connections that we build with people. Right. The places we're able to go to, the things that we were able to do and see, it's all, that's what it brings on. Yeah. I mean, so. Wow. Okay. So you did that. Yeah. Then you got booted out because you were too old. That's right. Yeah. And among other things. Yeah. We don't need to go into those if you don't want. No comment. Yeah. No comment. Yeah. Okay. And then after that, I actually went down to the company I worked for. They brought me down to Red Deer. Oh, okay. And so I did, I kind of quit music. Yeah. For, you know, I had a family. I had two girls. Yeah. Yeah. I raised my kids and we had a house in Sylvan Lake. Okay. We lived down there and music wasn't. Yeah. On the forefront. Right. Yeah. So probably about six or seven years that, you know, I wasn't really into, I wasn't doing anything. Wow. And then as well as your heart, like deep down, your heart was still there. And there's, it's weird. Yeah. I didn't start. Yeah. Like it was a vessel to travel. Yeah. But then once you play, you have this bug. Right. You have this musician bug. Yeah. It's, it's there. Yeah. And so I would peruse the internet and I found a sousaphone. So that's what I play. It's a type of tuba. Okay. And so up until then, I was playing regular tubas. In drum corps, it's called a contra or it's a marching tuba that sits on your shoulder. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. But the sousaphone, so when I went down, when I went to New Orleans, they had the New Orleans brass bands, right? And shout out to our like... love it. Rebirth brass band. Oh yeah. All the old school. There's a... I love it in New Orleans. I love walking down the street when the music's playing. The bands are marching. It's amazing. Oh, totally. When I die, I want I want. I was in New Orleans once and there was a funeral. You know how they do the funeral. I said to myself right then and there, I want that. Me too. I want that at my funeral. We do those. So do you? Yeah. If you guys will sign the contract now. Yeah. And then I'll let, I'll put it in my will. I should do that. I should, I should. No, seriously. Get people while they're living, not after they're gone. 100%. This, oh, okay. We should talk about this after, because I think there's a market here. And so I want you at mine and we'll get it into the will and get it signed. And anyway, so yeah. But email us if you're looking forward, like if you're out there. It will make funerals so much better. Yeah. No, it would. Because they're kind of, anyway, I've done quite a few of them in my day. We've done wakes. We've done, yeah, yeah, yeah. A good buddy of mine, his family reached out and said, this is what I want you guys. Yeah. And so, yeah. This is incredible. I'm so excited now because I changed my will about the food at my funeral. Because I don't like sandwiches at funerals. That's dumb. So in my will, it says pizza and chicken wings and ice cream sundaes. And now to have a band like this? It's a celebration of life! Okay, I'm over the top right now. Anyway, we're digressing to something else. Sorry, it's okay. So you're in Sylvan Lake. Yeah. So I moved there and I didn't play or anything like that. And I always had that and I found a sousaphone for sale, which is something I'd never played. Like it's the round one that wraps around me. Right, right. So it's something I never played and I bought it. I just was like, I don't play in a band anymore. Honey, I bought a sousaphone. Yeah. Little did she know. Little did she know. I have three sousaphone. Oh my goodness. And two tubas. Two tubas. Trombones, trumpets, saxophones. Our music room is very full. Yeah. Okay, so you got a sousaphone. I got a sousaphone, but I never used it. I didn't have a purpose. Yeah. I just, you know, and I would bring it out and play it and jam on it. But I never really had a, I didn't have a band. Yeah. Right. So it just sat with me. Right. And I had the, okay, we need a brass band. We need to have a New Orleans style brass band. Edmonton doesn't have one. Right. Nobody has one up here. Like it's very seldom. There's some bands in Winnipeg, the heavyweights, they're an amazing brass band. Yeah. But nothing here. Do they play at the Jets game? No, sorry. Dirty Catfish Brass Band. Okay. They're the ones. They do play at the Jets game. Yeah. They do play at the Jets game. So, yeah. So I got the sousaphone and I just, yeah. And I just always like, let's bring the band. Like, let's do the band. Yeah. And my drummer, Blair, a great friend of mine, he marched in a drum corps as well, the Santa Clara Vanguard. We grew up together. He moved to China and he was living in China for X amount of years. Sure. And just coincidentally, I moved back to Edmonton. He moved back to Edmonton from being in China. And we both love golf. Yeah. So we're excited about the golf tournament this week. Ah, awesome. We're huge golfers, so we're going to try and sneak on after some way, somehow. Yeah, we'll figure it out. I know there's some very... Yeah, we'll figure it out. If the ranch is listening, we won't figure it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, and we kind of were like, let's get... It's funny we say this, because we never really had a brass band to begin with. Let's get the band back together. Yeah. It was kind of like, hey, let's get the band back together. Let's get the band back together. And we put together a brass band, and that's the essential start of it, was influenced by New Orleans, but everything that we had done up until then, the marching, the drum corps, the marching bands, I could even get into the photobooth business and my own work with project management and whatnot, because it's essentially the same. Like, if you're managing musicians, you can pretty much manage anything. It's probably like herding cats a little bit, right? Yeah, it's like, yeah. It is. It's harder. I have cats. Yeah, cats. And you have musicians. And I have musicians. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Okay. So, to put the band together, what did you take? Did you take out an ad? How did you find the rest of your band? Wanted? Yeah. No, I mean, a lot of the guys we had played with here and there. And once you know somebody that's plugged in to the music community really well, you kind of, and that's kind of essentially in anything, right? When you're looking for contacts, you're like, who's plugged in and who do they know? And so it was basically like, so I put a rehearsal together and some guys came out and then it was like, you know who would be really good for this gig? This guy, Johnny Mac. Johnny Mac's your guy. And that's our saxophone player anyway. Johnny Mac, I love that. This is just getting better all the time. Johnny Mac, this is awesome. Shout out to Johnny Mac. He's our sax player. He's incredible. He's probably the biggest Oiler fan out there. Okay. Johnny Mac. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay. So we bring that and then Johnny Mac knows Zach. Yeah. And Zach knows, and it's not for everybody, especially with what we do. You have to be talented on two fronts. You have to be outgoing, and you have to be personable, and you have to have exude confidence. Not really Edmonton Symphony Orchestra type stuff. There are. Although you could, but not really. You guys are like. It's a different level. Yeah, you're out there. It's an energy level. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. It's an energy level. There's musical performance, and then there's musical playing. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that's what a lot of things that we learned in drum corps was it's not just a... We're not sitting in chairs and just playing. No. We are marching around. We are moving. We are in sync doing everything. We are doing all the stuff. Throwing flags. No. Yeah. Yeah. So it's called general effect. There is a production there. There is a performance. And so that's what we really gear towards is the movement, the interaction with the crowd. You know what I mean? It's all encompassing. Wow. Okay. Yeah. You got the band together. Got the band together and we started playing and... And so what? Do you put an ad out in the paper? Available. So what we did... New Orleans style brass band. Yeah. Essentially, that's exactly what we did. We had a... I had a Facebook post and Instagram, you know. Yeah. We went out on social media and said, this is who we are. This is what we do. And we're doing a brass blitz, basically. And so for $100, you guys could hire a brass band to march in and play whatever you had birthday, you had a barbecue, you had blah, blah, blah. Like, yeah, we would come in and we would play for 15 minutes. And we set this one day up like it was like, okay, May 24th or June 7th or whatever it was is, you book us on that day and we're just going to hit every... We booked 14 that day, the very first day. 14, in one day. One day, yeah. You must have just been running. Oh, we were. Like, just like... It was ridiculous. Neighborhood to neighborhood. And everything seemed to work out. They were like, okay, I have, you know, okay, St. Albert, there's a store called Confections. Yeah. And they're amazing. But they booked us for the store open. So it was one of the owner's buddies. He's like, I want you guys to play outside and he has to get to the work in the early in the morning. I want you to play for him outside. You know what I mean? I love that. When someone hires us to like, hey, I'm quitting my job. Yeah. Yeah. I want a brass band to march me out. Yeah. No, seriously. You listen folks, when I quit the ABA, I'm calling Matt to march me out. There's another market, the HR department. You should go to after HR department. Anyway, okay. Yeah. So we booked 14. Yeah. Now, we only charged $100, which was the biggest mistake ever. Right. Well, yeah. I mean, you got eight guys and you made $1400. Yeah. Shared between eight guys. For us, essentially, it was a 7 o'clock in the morning to midnight. That's like barely a subway sand for each person. Like that's barely a foot long. Yeah. My lips were bleeding. We were tired. We were exhausted. I can imagine. But all of that work that day paid off. Because then it was like, oh, you know. Get these guys. Book, these guys. I saw these guys there. Here they are. Bam, bam, bam. Yeah. OK. And that brass blitz turned into, you know, we were we were playing tons of tons of shows. And it was a lot of like 15 minutes. You know, I just need you guys at my birthday party, whatever. And and then COVID hit. Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. And we had we couldn't play anymore. So we started to book some gigs at bars and and sure we we actually had it was March 14th. We had a show booked at the rec room on the west end of West End Mall. And we we were like, yeah, no. So we did actually play that show really because it wasn't completely shut down. Yeah, right, right. And we play that show to... Is it hard to play on a sousaphone with a mask on? Yeah, like I can imagine. Yeah, anyway, we had we had. So and after that, the controls came in. Right. Where you had to mask up. Yeah. And then they said you can play live music outside. As a yeah, like the brass musicians, the horn musicians have to cover their own bells. So we had, OK, we had. That's another podcast right there. I'm not getting into that right now. But anyway, that's just anyway. OK, we had to basically we had to do brass masks. Unbelievable. OK, yeah. Whole other podcast. Yeah. Well, yeah. Anyway, so yeah, so we we played outside. We were able to play outside. And we had I guess we had a advantage over other people because we didn't have power. We didn't need power. We could play anywhere. We could play outside. Right. We could be socially distanced. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So we could do all that where sad enough, a lot of our friends who are musicians were like, yeah, it really killed us. Couldn't play, yeah. Because your bars, clubs, whatever shut down. Yeah. And here we're sitting going, we're kind of thriving a little bit. It's it's tough to say that, but we played a ton. But we know and all I think that's fantastic. I think that's really great. It was good because we lifted people when we played. People were like, you guys have no idea. For sure. You have no idea how much this meant to us. Right. So we really felt like we were doing something important. Good for you guys. Good that you didn't just shut her down. Yeah. Good for you guys. And we found ways to make it work. Starlight Room in Edmonton. Right. One of our biggest supporters. They are awesome. Tyson and Andrea over there and all the guys. Shout out to them. They supported us through the whole thing. They actually had us come up on the, we couldn't play inside. Okay. So we actually went up on the roof. Yeah. We're like, hey, we can't play inside. Rooftop. Yeah. That's great. So we did the first rooftop series. And so they actually did more bands after that. But we were the first. I built a stage up there on the roof. Like that's fantastic. That's fantastic. Is that stage still there? The stage is still there. We should do a street concert or something out there. Yeah. No, another one. Yeah. Let's book it. For the middle of summer, it will just go after it. That would be crazy. You know, it wasn't, because to get on the roof, it was like two feet by two feet. The Starlight Room is old. Yeah. No, no. It's an old building. For sure. So the way up on the roof is this ladder that you've got to climb up. And getting a sousaphone. I have to take my sousaphone. I can only imagine. I have to take my sousaphone apart. Maybe we can get one of our crane companies to, like. Put the instruments up. Put them in a big case and just lift them up. I wonder if they would just... Sure. If they could just... We could play hung from the cranes. You know what I mean? I was just saying this the other day that we should do an event. I was. We should do that. Okay. Well, we got so much to talk about after. This is unbelievable. We do. All right. Time's running out. But I have to know, when did the Edmonton Oilers group come knocking? How did that start? Okay. So Brasstactics and the Oilers group aren't the same. Some of us play in the Oilers band, and some of us... So it's not the same band. We just have same members and whatnot. But I am fortunate enough to play in both bands. But yeah. So then they came knocking and looking for a brass band, and we were able to get that in. It's incredible. Yeah. And so I play with the Oilers drum and brass crew, and I love it. It's amazing. You guys are so... It adds so much. Before the game, like I said, you guys march around the concourse. People... Everybody who has a phone is taking... Everybody who is taking pictures, everybody... I have a friend who actually, they have a Down syndrome child, and they go to a lot of games, and whenever he sees you guys coming... I know who he is. Yeah. He goes crazy. We just danced with him last night. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, that's right. He's so awesome! He was there last night. He was there last night. Yeah. He just loves you guys. He loves you guys. Oh, yeah. And then you go up with your little perch. What's his name? Do you know his name? Oh, sorry. I'm throwing you on the spot. No, it's okay. It's okay. I'll get you... Yeah. Send me his name, because if you can... Russ. Russ Matichuk. Okay. Yeah. Hook me up with his name. Brian. Brian Matichuk. Okay. I'd love to reach out to him. Sure. Yeah. We'll talk later. He actually has his own Instagram page, Dancing With Brian. It's phenomenal. Oh my God. Yeah. We'll get to it after. He's amazing. Anyway, so when you guys get up on your perch and then go and play stops or whatever, personally, I don't think you play enough up there, but I know there's a lot going on. Oh, they've got a ton of sponsors they need to get to. But if it were me, if I was in charge, Tim Shipton, do you know Tim? Tim's the VP, so we've had Tim on the show. And Tim, they should play more. Yeah, just saying, Tim. Anyways, yeah. We love it. I mean, whether we win or lose, a lot of people come up and say, you guys were the best part of the show, or the best part of the game, or whatnot. That means a lot. I know it's not true. I mean, like, these are the Oilers, right? Yeah. But you know, for a lot of people, like the diehard hockey people who are dialed into the game, and then there's the people that come for the whole experience. Absolutely. And you guys just bring that experience to the whole experience. The Edmonton experience is incredible. Yes. Like, I will comment on the Edmonton Oilers experience, and it is so fun to be there. Right. And the excitement that is in that building night after night after night after night. Even watching the game last night in Florida, one of the announcers, mind you, a Canadian announcer, Yeah. He said, this is nothing like Edmonton. This is nothing. It isn't. We are unique. They say we are the best in the league. Yeah. That's what they say in terms of experience. So that's incredible. And I've had other teams in the league reach out to find out how we do it. How we do what we do. Because you guys are amazing. Amazing. You're on here. It's almost 30 minutes. Almost 30 minutes. Really? Yeah. This has gone by so fast. Not kidding. Not kidding. OK, final question. Finally, we ask all of our guests. Every one of our guests. What is the best piece of advice you've been given that either personally or professionally that you carry with you to this day? I think it's confidence and believing in yourself. And just, yeah, not exuding confidence, but just believing in yourself and go with your gut. Go with your gut and put yourself on the line, but do it with confidence and it will work out. And if it doesn't, you still did it with confidence. And go in, you know, I wouldn't say go in full, but I think in a musician style of way, is be confident with what you're doing. And how do you be confident with what you're doing is all of the preparation and all of the practicing that leads up to that. So it's not like... It doesn't just happen. And that's what I'm trying to get at. You want to be confident, you can't just pull confidence out of the air. So work at the things that will get you to that. How many hours a week do you guys practice? I don't... We play more than we practice. Do you? Okay, but you're constantly playing. So that's... It's like practice right there, yeah. We're gigging all the time. All the time. I mean, we've got... Man, I'm so excited about Friday. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be awesome. It's just gonna be awesome for the golfers, for everybody there. It's... Yeah, we'll bring out... What a pleasure to meet you. What a great story, Matt. What a great story. Thank you for having me. You need to... Everybody needs to hear this story. And if people want to book Brasstactics, how do they find you? Come on to our website, www.thebrasstactics.com. I know a lot of times we hear... Brasstactics. Yeah, a lot of times we hear Brasstastics. Yeah. And that might lead to like, hey, I tried to reach out to you. Yeah, yeah. No, your tactics. The tactics of the brass. Let's get down to Brasstacts. Yes. All that, yeah. So brasstactics.com. And then alternatively, you can reach out to us on Instagram or Facebook. Right. You can just message us there and we'll get back to you. And yeah, hopefully we can do something. We've got weddings, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, corporate events. Everything. Golf tournaments. We do funerals. We'll do funerals. We'll do... barbecues. I don't want mine to be one of the first you do, but yeah, you know, but no, but you know. If you want us to wake your kids up... If your kids aren't getting out of bed. Here's an idea. On the first day of summer vacation, when your kids think they get to sleep in, hire these guys to come and stand outside their window. That would be the best. Yeah. At like 4 a.m. At 4 a.m. Yeah, that'd be just the best. Listen, if I have to host another baseball weekend, guess who I'm hiring? You're hiring them. Beautiful. Matt, thanks so much, man. Thank you so much. You're great. You're awesome. You guys do an amazing thing. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Oh, man. Seriously, Jennifer, if I come back in the next life, I want to be in a brass band. That is unbelievable. Matt is such an awesome guy. What a great guy. I can hardly wait till Friday. It's going to be great. It's going to be unbelievable. I can hardly wait. And those guys are amazing. If you've never seen them, you need to go on their website and check them out. They're pretty incredible. They sure are. And book them. Yeah, book them. Yeah. You know what? They're not that expensive. They're not. We know that because we've booked them for the golf tournament and they'll come do anything. It's fantastic. This would be great. I'm booking them for my funeral. I'm just saying that right now. They're going to do that. It's going to be incredible. So anyway, what a great show. Thanks everybody. Hey, make sure you tell your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers and your enemies. And if you don't have any friends, make one, cause you won't want to miss this episode. Tell them about that. It's going to be just phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal. And yeah, thanks. Thanks everyone. Go Oilers. We'll see you next week. Yep.