Ryan Matteson of Muzzle Of Bees
How the Milwaukee blogger explains how he made music his career
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What music fan hasn’t fantasized about working at his favorite concert venue and rubbing shoulders with the artists he once shelled out good money to stare at from a distance? For Ryan Matteson, founder of the popular music blog Muzzle Of Bees, fantasy became reality in August when he was hired to be the public relations director for the Pabst, the Riverside, and Turner Hall. With no prior experience working for a music venue, Matteson’s calling card was his blog, which he founded in 2005 and still runs as a hobby, sharing MP3s from his favorite new releases and announcing local concert news. Decider talked with Matteson about the transition from fan to insider.
Decider: Pabst Theater Foundation executive director Gary Witt likened your hiring to the Brewers acquiring C.C. Sabathia in a press release last summer. What did you think when you saw that?
Ryan Matteson: It kind of put me at ease, in that I knew I was coming to the right place. I was coming to a place where you could make a press release sports-oriented. It’s not a normal press release. I got a good laugh out of it.
D: The implication seemed to be that you were going to help raise the national profile of the Pabst.
RM: I’m not sure if that’s the intention or not. I think the best way for the Pabst to be a national landmark is just to be the best piece of the Milwaukee community. If we do the best that we can do, hopefully artists will always want to make Milwaukee a stop on their tours. I’m not sure if there’s anything that I can do; it’s more the hard work that everyone at the Pabst does.
D: How did you get your start as a blogger?
RM: I was going on a trip to Europe with my best friend Jake, and I had never really ventured on a trip of that length or magnitude. I was thinking about putting up a website, a kind of travel journal. I put up some stuff on the website just announcing some concerts that were coming to Madison, just trying to figure out what to do with it before I left. I was already sending my friends a lot of e-mails, like, “Go check out this band” or, “Listen to this song” or, “Buy this album.” I figured, instead of doing that, if they want to read it they can just go here. I never really meant it to be anything more than a site for my circle of friends. But I think those people sent it to a couple of their friends, and somehow strangers started reading it.
D: How many readers do you have?
RM: I haven’t checked recently, but a couple thousand at least, I think. It’s not something I pay too close attention to. When people start thinking about traffic, you might do things that make it seem less genuine. Basically, I wake up or go to bed thinking about something I want to tell people about. It’s the same kind of mentality I had when I was writing to that initial group of friends. I’m definitely fortunate to have readers, but it’s not really a motivating factor.
D: You’ve said that Muzzle Of Bees will no longer write about shows happening at the venues you work at. Does it ever get awkward reconciling being both a music blogger and a music PR guy?
RM: It’s just a matter of making sure that there’s definitely a line drawn between what I do on the website and what I do at the Pabst. I think that’s the best way to position it. As much as I’d love to talk about some of the great experiences I have at these shows, hopefully other people are in those crowds and can write about their feelings.
D: How has your perspective on the music industry changed now that you’re on the inside?
RM: I’m still relatively fresh to working on the venue side of things, but if anything, it’s re-affirmed my musical role. It’s great to be part of such a vibrant music community. Milwaukee is just doing so many great things with all the venues in town. You can see great shows in small clubs, you can see shows in theaters, and in ballrooms. It hasn’t changed my perspective; it’s let me know the music industry is something I really like, and I’m just fortunate to be working in it.
D: Have there been any surprises to the job so far?
RM: Everybody thinks the backstage is just this super cool, “What can I do to get back there?” kind of place. It’s really not as glamorous as everyone imagines. It certainly hasn’t been for me. Unfortunately, there’s no huge parties back at the hotel room or anything like that.
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