DadBod

When he’s not teaching music at South, you can find Matt Wall rocking out on stage.

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Courtesy of Matt Wall

Music teacher Matt Wall (far left) sings and plays along with his band, DadBod, at a recent gig.

Parkway South’s very own Matt Wall, our band director, also has a band of his own, DadBod

The band includes a bass player, a guitar player, a drummer, and a singer. Their band started up in February 2022 and they have been rehearsing and performing ever since. They play a variety of different cover songs. From their last set list, they played Wonderwall by Oasis to Stacy’s Mom by Fountain of Wayne. 

Wall is the lead singer and guitarist for the band. He explains how he and his band came together and what inspired it. 

“Our bass player, my childhood best friend who just also happens to be the band director at Northeast Middle, and I have played music together all our lives. We thought it’d be cool to put together a cover band playing all the music from our developmental years so dragged in another friend from high school who we knew was a pretty good guitar player,” said Wall.

Performing is a huge part of what a band is about. Wall talks about his experience while performing. 

“You spend so many hours practicing individually and rehearsing as a group and it all comes down to putting on a good show.  You get one shot at each song and if it goes right you can get a room full of people singing and dancing along with giant smiles on their faces,” he said.. 

Wall also shares one of his favorite performances. 

“Our last gig was awesome. The venue was packed with regular patrons and a few private parties. To top it off, a sizable group of PSouth teachers and staff showed up to support us and we just had a blast.  The audience has such a big effect on how I perceive how well a gig went,” said Wall.

FACS teacher Ashley Winslow was one of the South teachers who showed up to support Wall and his band. 

It’s a lot of fun! The atmosphere, the people, the venue, and the music. The energy was lively and inclusive! The band was so talented in the variety of instruments played, ranges in their voices, and liveliness of their personal presence on stage,” she said.

There are many exciting things when it comes to being in a band there can be a few challenges. Wall shares the difficult parts of being in a band. 

“It’s hard managing a job, family, and a hobby like a band. We’ve all carved out one night a week as our night. At this point, we’re polished enough to miss a week here or there and still be ok, and everyone takes their responsibility to the band seriously so even if we don’t rehearse as a group, we’ll practice individually,” Wall said.

Although some parts are difficult Wall shares his favorite part of being in a band.

My favorite part is getting to perform with lifelong friends. Everyone likes to say music is a language and I guess I agree with that in some regards, but I tend to think of performing as a type of language. Because of how long we’ve made music together in various groups we can read each other’s body language and facial expressions pretty easily and most of the time have similar inclinations about how something should be performed. There’s a lot of non-verbal communication happening that comes as a result of experience and when it all lines up it feels really good,” he said.