MATT DRENIK VS. BATTLEME

My name is Matt. I’ve gone by Battleme since 2010, deciding on that after my rock band Lions split up. I came up with the name after seeing the band Battles and wondering what it would be like to have a songwriter with that type of name (though my music sounds nothing like Battles). Some people think it has a much deeper rooted meaning. It doesn’t. I’ve been written up by Rolling Stone, Billboard, Esquire, Classic Rock Magazine, Magnet and others. They generally said the same thing, mostly positive reviews of records, with the occasional swipe at my genre bending attitude and lazy singing style. I’ve toured with Metric (which I wrote a short unpublished novella about), The Toadies, The Supersuckers (who nicknamed me Skittles), Veruca Salt, Louise Post (of Veruca Salt), Monster Magnet + more.

Sons of Anarchy

In 2009, I was given the pilot episode of a new FX show called “Sons of Anarchy.” How I got that pilot episode on a DVD to watch at the dive bar I ran in Austin is another story. My band Lions ended up replacing a few songs on that episode. It started a relationship between Bob Thiele and I that lasted 7 seasons, countless collaborations with myself and the house band, The Forest Rangers, live performances (Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park was the highlight). I recorded a cover of Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My” for the Season 3 finale while recovering from cataract surgery at my mom’s place in Austin. I had a Shure 57 microphone, a piano, computer, duet, and thing called Logic. That version has over 60+ million views on YouTube (which is insane). In total, SOA was a big part of my life for those years and helped bring my music to a whole new world of people. I’m forever indebted to Bob, Kurt Sutter, and Ward Hake for their belief that I had the goods and could help be a voice for the show.

Battleme

In 2012, I made a record with Thomas Turner (Ghostland Observatory) out of some demos I recorded in Portland. It was my first “official” Battleme release put out on Turner’s label, Trashy Moped Recordings. That was a pretty magical time for me as an artist. When I flew to LA to have a meeting with Lenny Waronker about the record, I knew I had done something alright. We (Thomas and I) inevitably decided to go it alone. I signed a booking agency deal with High Road Touring. While I liked my agent Zach Cepin quite a bit, I never felt like I quite fit in. I remember playing a show opening for the band Neon Trees and thinking, “my god, what have i done?” Thomas and I flew to LA to make the video for lead single, “Touch.” I remember waking up early one morning after the release and seeing all of these notes on my Twitter feed from random people talking about Jonah Hill. Apparently, he posted the video. He must’ve really been high or had a weird gurney fetish.

On my next release, Future Runs Magnetic, I signed to LA based label, El Camino Media. Doug Boehm made the record. We were both from Cincinnati and bonded over Skyline Chili and the Bengals. He was a big basketball player, always watching the Lakers games at Jackpot while we were tracking. Half way through the session, he was editing tracks in my living room and I challenged him to a one on one game. My neighbor had a hoop in the street. “What, now?” And I whooped him pretty good. I was fucking Lebron that day. He claims I kept fouling him. Afterwards, I made more videos, did more touring, ran the gauntlet.

El Camino put out my next three records; Habitual Love Songs (my best record IMO and least critically acclaimed), Live from Cactus Cafe, and Cult Psychotica. I attempted to write a book called, “First of Three,” about my touring life during this period, specifically the Future Runs Magnetic tour with The Toadies and Supersuckers. I did finish the 400 page behemoth, but it’s stuck on a hard drive somewhere.

In 2017, Cult Psychotica came out featuring a band of my three of my closest friends; JJ, Randal, and Scotty. It was tracked live at my studio in Portland over a two-week run of sessions. After the release, we went all over Europe spreading the word. Some shows were packed, some were dead. I remember the Greek shows were great, but that show in Macedonia? EEK. There was a fight backstage in Sofia, Bulgaria between our sound engineer (and good friend) Kostas and some guys from Macedonia. Beer bottles flung across the room, shoving, lots of yelling — all to find out it was over where Alexander the Great was actually from. All Music gave it an 8 out of 10 stars, with reviewer Matt Collar noting, "...the album is a red-eyed collection of fuzzy rock anthems, all centered on Drenik's throaty, nasal-pitched sneer. What he lacks in outright vocal resonance, he makes up for with strutting rock attitude and literate, philosophical lyrics that are equal parts Lou Reed and Elliott Smith." A compliment, but also a bit of a swipe at my vocal smear (which is what I was saying above.) Classic Rock Magazine picked lead single, Testament, as one of its best tracks of 2017. Then it sort of disappeared.

Production

Around 2016, I built a studio in Portland to record my own records. Eventually, I ran out of songs to record and started helping, and inevitably producing, my friend Charlie Hilton’s unreleased songs. We build a band filled with friends and started recording — for me it was magical, spirited time — a glimpse of what fearlessness looks like through someone else’s POV. And while those sessions remain unreleased, they provided a glimmer of hope and opened my eyes to the magic of production. This was it! I started recording friends’ bands around the Pacific Northwest and beyond — Acid Tongue, Far Lands, Grizzled Mighty, Danny Dodge, Roselit Bone, Aaron Behrens (Ghostland Observatory), White Lightning Company, Bad Shadows, and more.

My best friend Andy and I started a record label called Get Loud. We put out records by Danny Dodge, Roselit Bone, Kinky Fingers, Howard Ivans, Merciful Heavens, and others. Most of the bands either flamed out or broke up. We’ve made $0.

In 2018, my wife and I moved to Los Angeles, CA. Matt Messer (El Camino Media) called me about a potential project with Veruca Salt singer, Louise Post. I knew Louise because in 2014 Battleme had toured with Veruca Salt across the US. Amazing people, amazing band. She had started a band with some friends called Veyls and was iin need of a producer. We connected and started recording several months later in Highland Park. That encounter eventually led to Louise and I working on her debut solo album, Sleepwalker, together. It was the first record I made out of my new home in Hollywood, South Music, where I’m the creative director. Upon the release of Sleepwalker, I toured in her band and continue to tour and collaborate with Louise (uh, hello April 2024 Cruise circuit). And at the end of 2023, I wrapped up the debut LP of singer-songwriter Miller Campbell due out sometime in late 2024. Amazing, amazing stuff. And this, everyone, brings us to present day 2024.