HAPPY HOLIDAZE
WITH
MATT ROGERS

Read on below as Rogers and Rodgers discuss the ever-golden intersection of comedy and music, as well as the highlights of making his catchy and hilarious new record.

Matt Rogers performs at Town Hall in New York City on Saturday December 23, 2023. Tickets available here. 

JASON RODGERS: I've been mainlining your music all morning and oh my god, bitch — I really love it! I'm sure you feel separate from Las Culturistas — like this is your desire to sort of brand Matt Rogers — but it's a great culmination, I would have to say, of someone who's been deep-diving in culture for a solid decade.

MATT ROGERS: It's funny because not like I had this plan from the beginning or anything…

JR: It feels very planned, babe.

MR: You know what's funny? It's like the podcast was never the way that I thought we were gonna pop off. That was literally just me and Bowen [Yang] talking with no actual credibility. But we did get this reputation as pop culture commentators and stuff, like these authority voices on pop culture… Which to be clear, we did nothing to earn outside of just having a podcast that ended up catching on with people. And I actually don't even think that people love the podcast because of our pop culture analysis.

JR: This is not a researched experience…

MR: I think they like the podcast because they enjoy me and Bowen's rapport, so it's funny because yes, I have been watching the culture, but I've also low-key been an actor, comedian and, I put this word in quotes for whatever reason, artist, this whole time — you know what I mean? 

So yeah, I guess one of the reasons why the album works is because I'm such a fan of all the styles the artists that I'm parodying. But ultimately, I think that the way that I watch the culture and then enjoy the culture and absorb the culture comes out in my own work. So it's like half homage and half my own real thing. You know what I mean? Like my own genuine personality in there and sensibility.

JR: My desire to sit down and talk to you was to not bring up Las Culturistas — I just wanted to really respect the shift a little bit. 

MR: Thanks.

JR: I think my admiration for you  comes from knowing you through the pod. I've been saying this since I became a fan — I feel like our generation of gay millennials have really owned like backstage red carpet. Who is she wearing? What is the model? What is the brand? We are the curators of BTS culture. Like that is our mantle. And I feel like you guys represent that as the pod. 

But also this album — it furthers that, right? It’s like you're saying, the pod is just two queens queening, but with this you're like, girl I did the research. And also like to the credit of Henry [Koperski, composer], too — another relationship in your life.

MR: Yeah. It's so funny that it's been this lasting thing. Yesterday I was rehearsing with Henry and we obviously have been through so much together and now we have such a great relationship; we’re such great collaborators. But, like, I have three exes, and two of them I have really valuable, great relationships with now to this day. And we were just talking about how he's one of them and we're such different people than when we started this. But yet, this piece of work that we've built together and done together is still something that we love returning to every year. 

We still love working with each other. So it's this interesting thing where ultimately that relationship ended up being valuable for so many more reasons other than what I just thought when I met him — which was like a hot guy I was making out with at Barracuda — which has a lot of value. I love relationships, but you just never know, you know what I mean? You never know what's gonna pay off in such a lasting way. And this is such a thing I can point to and be like, that's me and Henry right there, for sure.

JR: Amazing. I mean, a reason, a season, or a lifetime. I work with my partner regularly, so I totally, totally get the vibe. 

I want to talk a little bit more about the parody energy because it's not really a parody. Like, you're not making fun. It's not Weird Al making fun of Mariah Carey…

MR: It’s inspired by. It’s more referential than it is satirical, you know what I mean?

JR: Yes. Almost like the body of it is a parody. The fact that you change genres so effectively in each one… To me, it sort of gave the familiarity of Kiki and Herb at Carnegie Hall. But also this musical knowledge of Lemonade. It just feels like those two. 

MR:  Oh, wow, I love that. That's major. It's the first time Lemonade has been mentioned in the same sentence as Have You Heard of Christmas? And I thank you!

You know, I think that’s something you get away with doing a comedy album…  I would like to think I have a musical identity but there doesn't have to be with something like this. Whereas if I were to actually step out and be like, “This is who I am as a musical artist,” you'd probably want the album to have more of a sonic identity. But because this album is first and foremost a comedy album, you can find the genre to elevate the specific comedic idea, you know what I mean?

So in my head, I've always heard Hottest Female up in Whoville, like a mid-tempo RnB Mariah jam from the early aughts… I had amazing producers, Leland and Gabe Lopez who were really able to realize this. They actually created that full sound. You can hear the influence really directly now — not just in my vocal or the way that I present it comedically, but also in the actual sound. So that was really exciting when we were making the album like, “How do we take every comedic idea and all of these songs to a ten using the music production?”

Like Lube For the Slay, I've always heard it in my head as a disco song inspired by Enough is Enough by Barbara and Donna Summer. But now it really is that. It's just so much fun. You get to take it to the next level in this really fun way. I've always felt like comedy music is best when the tracks go off. Like the Lonely Island; their music is legitimately really good. It's really well produced. The hooks are hooking and if I ever did anything like that, I would feel so excited and proud. And so now I have this album which is my ode to that thing that inspired me as a comedian in the beginning when I started doing this.

JR: Yes to all of that. I didn't even know it was a comedy album at first. Because the catchiness is kind of what we love as gays. It's Cher, it's Believe. Like that bitch was dead serious when she came out with Believe. She's not calling Believe a comedy song. It's just fun to jam to and we know all the words because they're memorable. A joke is a very memorable thing. You know what I mean?

MR: Well, I think that’s one of the reasons I love doing this is because I legitimately love pop music. Like, it's my favorite thing. Spotify Wrapped just came out today and I'm like a pop girly. Like I only listen to my fucking gay ass music.

JR: He's not gay, she's f-a-g, girl.

MR: One hundred percent. I think that one of the cool things is how seamlessly sketch comedy and pop music songwriting can go together. I discovered that when I was pretty young developing as a comedian.  I was in a musical sketch comedy group called Pop Roulette with Bowen, my dear friend Sudi Green, Dave Mazzoni, and so many other talented people who I still work with… 

JR: …who’s in the video — He's Jesus.

MR: He is absolutely tossing it back as Jesus. And that's where I really learned how powerful it was to pair a hook in a song with a joke. Then you have people singing your jokes, you know what I mean? Like, oh, there's something really to that. 

I am very, very inspired by what I'm inspired by. Like, I am a fan of these things. I think that's why the podcast rings true. You can believe when we say we love something and you also believe when we say, I don't think so, honey… When I love something, I love it all the way.

So when I became obsessed with this idea of fusing sketch comedy and pop music, that was all I ever wanted to do to the point where like now if I want to be inspired comedically, I listen to music; I don't consume a lot of comedy. I don't watch any stand-up, to be honest with you. I rarely even watch comedic television. I don't really watch sitcoms. I'm not moved by it. But I am comedically and musically inspired in the music sector in a way that I'm just not by comedy. When I'm watching comedy and I'm not really laughing as much as I'm like, “That was a good construction of that joke.” It just doesn't do it for me the way that music does. And there's nothing funnier than the way some of these people sing.

JR: The album gives me a lot of Jeff Richmond energy — which all of us have in our DNA as comedy millennials. But also it could be a RuPaul challenge. You know what I mean? You could be the director of the next RuPaul music challenge.

If Hottest Girl in Whoville is Mariah Carey energy and Also, It's Christmas gives me Cher Believe. Rockefeller gives me a little bit of Jonas Brothers in Vogue…

Is there a Matt Rogers persona in there?

MR: Oh, I think so. I think the closest thing to my actual sound and my actual voice is probably Everything You Want, which is my track with Muna. That might be one of my proudest moments in terms of things I've created just because it was very personal to me. 

I had gone through just a horrible breakup. What was so difficult about it was the brevity of the relationship because it burned very fast and very bright and it was over before I knew it. Too fast, now that I look back. I was rock and roller coaster, zero to sixty, passing any red flags because I was so in love. And when it ended, it threw me and I spent the first six or seven months of this year just in total despair because I didn't understand. And I legitimately thought that was the love of my life. And it was over, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. 

And so I tried so many ways to take my broken heart and make it into art, as it were. That's never really been who I am as a creator. I really create from my joy. Usually, if I'm creating something or if something is good, it probably came from me being in a good place. But I was in an incredibly bad place and a very unhealthy place. We love marijuana in this house, but it was getting completely out of control. I was like a walking carcass and I was having a hard time expressing what I was feeling and putting it down on paper — it just was not working for me. And I'm also incredibly hard on myself. So the fact that I couldn't create art about this was very hard.

And one day I was like, “You know what, I'm gonna stop trying to make this like a comedy song that cracks me up.” I'm just gonna take it easy on myself. And what is it that I really want to say? And I realized if I can't give this person what he needs, I hope that he gets all those things.

And I started to write a Christmas song about wishing he gets all the things he wants for Christmas. Just trying to be sweet and not even trying to be funny. And I realized I couldn't remember anything about him! The relationship was so short and we were so drunk and high throughout it. And I was like, wait, hold on a second… Maybe in all of this horrible depression, I've actually found the funny thing which is that this shit is actually not that deep and I am being such a Pisces about this and I'm so in my feelings — let me just drag myself for the fact that I literally can't even remember shit about this guy anymore. 

Because that was like a personal song to me and I wasn't playing a character.

I was singing with what I would consider to be my real voice. So I reached out and got my favorite band on it, Muna. While I'm so proud of the whole album; that's really me. We made it a single I wrote and co-directed the music video. Just really felt very proud at the end about how I expressed myself. If I were to be a “pop artist” it would be more of that. I’m super proud of that song.