August 17th 2026
At the Malakwa Music festival we could not get an interview with Matt Ryan of Hometown Famous. He was getting married after the festival! Not to be deterred from getting our interview, we enlisted the help of Trigger and stalked him. We noticed how Matt wasn’t the best dressed at his own wedding, in fact he was dressed quite casually for his special day. We also noticed Matt hired a man to dance with his wife for his first dance so he could serenade her. How romantic. Respectfully we decided to give Matt his space before we finally caught up with him at Sicamous Music in the Park.
Matts Youtube Channel Here
I: Hey Matt thanks for taking the time to speak with us, I know you have sound checks to do shortly so we will get right to the hard questions. We’re all familiar with Hometown Famous, we’ve heard the group talked about locally, but we’re not familiar with you, Matt Ryan. So, you must not be from our hometown, but maybe a neighboring town. When you’re playing areas that aren’t your hometown, do you think you should change your name to “Neighboring Town Famous” so people don’t get confused?
Matt: Oh, I guess, I never really thought about that, and you’re right, I’m from Armstrong. But it could work, we could have a chameleon name that changes everywhere we go. It might be fun.
I: Does everyone in your hometown know who you are?
Matt: Theres about 5000 people in Armstrong it’s a pretty small town, I’d would say for the most part everyone knows each other.
I: So you know them all back? It doesn’t make you uncomfortable to think there’s someone in Armstrong that you don’t know?
Matt: No, it’s a small community, I grew up on a dairy farm, and everyone really looks out for each other its a great place.
I: From what I understand you spent time down in Nashville working with and I quote “Industry Heavyweights”. Tell me about that?
Matt: Yeah It was a great experience. I got to work with Daryl Burgess at the SOCAN Song Writers House. Daryl had written for Colin James including songs such as “Just Came Back” and “Stay”, as well as writing with Aaron Pritchett for his album “Big Wheel”
I: Yeah but how Much did they weigh 2-3-400 pounds? How heavy?
Matt: Oh, I guess Daryl’s probably about 240lbs, Aarons maybe 200 pounds.
I: What about Colin?
Matt: Well I didn’t work with him but maybe 185
I: I think of all the artist that were at the Malakwa Music festival you had the nicest website for shameless self promotion. Do you think the other bands at the festival today are jealous of your web based presence?
Matt: Totally(laughing) definitely jealous, it can be so hard trying to keep your site up to date and staying on top of all your social medias, its a lot of work.
I: If they asked nicely would you give them some pointers?
Matt: (Laughing) oh yeah of course.(Matt proceeded to show us how to improve our website)
I: When we searched hometown famous on Facebook the top result was from a Moose Jaw Coop advertising fried chicken. What is your affiliation with them.
Matt: Oh, its family owned and operated… I’m just joking, but I do really love fried chicken. But sometimes the internet just sends you on those wild goose chases, I have a Qr code for people to scan so they can find me but they often refuse my card. I don’t think they know how many Matt Ryans there are out there.
I: I see, well aside from secretly dabbling in Prairie Fried chicken business, what is next for Matt Ryan and Hometown Famous?
Matt: I’m playing the Salmon Arm fair August 29th & 30Th then the Armstrong Fair the 2nd through to the 5th.
I: Thanks so much Matt
Matt: No problem that was fun.
All in all, we thought Matt was a great guy, and he really brought the crowd in for Music In The Park. We later noticed that on Matts Facebook page it says he single, what’s up with that? Or was it the Moose Jaw Coop Fried Chicken that was single?
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