Singing through an LA blizzard

In a low-lit club somewhere in East Hollywood, hipster-artists and glam-popists brood over energy drink cocktails while sitting in near-darkness, listening to a singer on a small stage who is wearing a black suit and a white tie.

The name of the club is Tangiers, full of Persian rugs and red lamps and stylish young scenesters slouched in silence, staring at the man playing music. The name of the man is Matt Hopper.

Nine years ago Hopper had a epiphany of sorts; he decided he would make a living through music -- playing it, recording it, promoting it, selling it.

As he prepares for his first national tour with a sweep of Alaska this week, he is coming close, at last, to realizing his dream.

"I don't want to be a big rock star or anything," Hopper said. "It would be enough for me just to be able to play a couple shows a week, go on tour every year and pay the bills by playing music. That's the goal."

Hopper, a 1997 graduate of Colony High, broke onto the Anchorage music scene six years ago and took it by storm. Known by many monikers and many bands over the years, Hopper was most recently known by Alaskan fans as the front man of the Roman Candles.

But the Roman Candles experienced an untimely breakup after the band's 2003 release of "Bang! Bang! Bang!" an album that reached number 134 on the College Music Journal charts despite no label support and no tour.

Undaunted by his band's breakup, Hopper went ahead and recorded a follow-up LP in Seattle later that year. "Shut Your Mouth" was released just as Hopper took off on a West Coast tour with Anatomy of a Ghost -- a band, oddly enough, also originally from the Valley.

After the tour Hopper decided it was time to go solo. He moved to Los Angeles in April, found a couch to crash on and started gigging around town. Over the summer Hopper held down a full-time day job, "networked like a madman," and tried to play shows, prepare for a nationwide tour and record a five-song EP all at the same time.

"My life is a blizzard right now," Hopper said in a phone interview Tuesday as he prepared to board a flight to Anchorage. "I'm swimming in a blizzard of music, people, connections, ideas, opportunities. It's so much fun, but it's just getting crazier and crazier. My life has finally reached the point where I need a manager."

Depending on how the tour goes and how well the new EP is received, Hopper might have one soon.

Over a 48-hour period this summer he created "The Gold Rush," an EP recorded in Hopper's kitchen and professionally mastered by industry veteran Bruce MacFarlane. Hopper said he is happy with the final product and described it as "dreamy and catchy." It could be the beginning of a whole new musical era for Hopper.

Unfortunately, the EP won't be available for Alaska fans to purchase on this tour. Hopper just picked up a master copy of "The Gold Rush" two hours before getting on a plane to Anchorage, but said he will be taking orders from fans and will send copies of the EP to Mammoth Music and other music stores in Anchorage when it is pressed.

After his Alaska tour, Hopper will kick off his national tour, Death of a Dayjob, with fellow soloist Andrew Norsworthy. The duo has shows booked up down the West Coast through October, and will most likely head east in November.

But this week Hopper was back in familiar territory, playing a series of shows in Fairbanks before hitting Vagabond Blues in Palmer tonight. After that, he will play shows in Anchorage, Girdwood, Seward and Homer before heading back to Los Angeles on Sept. 12.

But Hopper won't stay long. He says Los Angeles was "just a pit stop," and after the tour he will be transient for a while -- maybe spending time in Seattle, maybe recording another album.

"I'm having a lot of fun right now," Hopper said. "Even though I feel a little jittery and I've been under a lot of stress lately, It'll be good to be back in Alaska. Like I said, it's just been a blizzard of activity this summer and it's just going to get busier. I don't know, I need a burrito or something."

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.