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Backstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio ALTer Ego presented by Capital One, Mt. Joy found themselves reflecting on just how far they’ve come — and how little they ever planned for it. Chatting with iHeartRadio’s Nicole Alvarez, frontman Matt Quinn looked back on the band’s journey from intimate club shows to massive festival stages, all with the same grounded sense of joy that's defined Mt. Joy from the beginning.
Nicole kicked things off with a personal throwback: a yellowed ticket stub from Mt. Joy’s 2019 show at The Wiltern. It sparked a wave of nostalgia as she traced the band’s rise through legendary venues like the Troubadour, The Wiltern, and the Greek Theatre, all the way to headlining massive rooms like the Forum — not to mention iconic festival stops at Red Rocks and Lollapalooza. When asked if he ever imagined Mt. Joy reaching this level, Matt didn’t hesitate. “No,” he said honestly. “I don’t take offense to that at all... I’m just being serious.”
In fact, Matt explained that when the band first started, big dreams of arena shows and festival domination weren’t even part of the picture. “I thought that we were like — the dream had died,” he admitted. “It was just friends making music because they love to do it for fun.” While they never put a ceiling on what Mt. Joy could become, they also weren’t chasing any specific milestone. Instead, they focused on the simple joy of playing together.
That organic approach, Matt believes, might be the band’s “secret sauce.” In an era where bands can feel fleeting, he pointed out how rare it is for a group of people to truly play together for years and develop a shared musical language. “Music has a special language,” he said. “And that band has their own special language and their own special vibe and sauce. And I think people come to the table for that, because it’s special.”
When asked to sum up Mt. Joy’s outlook for 2026 in just one word, Matt didn’t overthink it. “Huge,” he said with a smile — a fitting answer for a band whose rise has been anything but accidental, even if it was never the plan.