It seems as if the history of Seattle’s Chopping Block is broken up into two parts with their first show in January of 2020 being the un-official start of this band and the end of 2022 being the end of that first phase. September of 2024 saw the release of their “Seattle’s Hardcore” EP that had many like myself saying or thinking “Wow, these guys have really taken this band to another level…” That EP came in at only 7 minutes in length though… kind of like having a half a piece of pizza when you are starving! Chopping Block seemed more motivated than ever though and hit the studio once again in early 2025 to create their brand new album “Nowhere To Run” which is out now on Indecision Records. The new album comes in at 17 minutes in length and shows how far this band has come as “Nowhere To Run” rips like a pulverizing Nick Emmanwori blast to your sternum that you just were not ready for. We caught up with their bassist Matt Weltner in early February to get the lowdown on the new album, their recent California run and touring plans moving forward. The rest of Chopping Block is rounded out by Antonio on vocals, Brent on guitar and Alex on drums. Lead photo by: Alison Braun with graphic work by Jeff “Snapshot” Marsala.
IE: Hey Matt. Where exactly are you right now and what would you usually be doing at this time of the day if you weren’t answering these questions?
Matt: It’s Monday morning and we’re wrapping up our weekend in Southern California with Berthold City. We’re in LAX on the hunt for decent coffee and food that doesn’t cost $25. Everyone in this band has a traditional 9-5 job, so if we weren’t on the road today we’d all be at work. I work from home so I’d probably been on a Teams call promoting synergy or something.
IE: You guys just did what seemed like a really cool 3 day weekend of shows in California with Ignite and Berthold City. Can you give us a little background or tour diary of sorts on how everything went down?
Matt: I’m bleary eyed from too much hanging out with old and new friends, but this weekend was pretty great. Our first show was in Indio, right next to Palm Springs. We landed at LAX at one in the afternoon, piled into our rental car, and headed straight to the show. It’s like 100 miles, so we figured we’d get to the area early and have some time to kick around in Joshua Tree or something but we completely underestimated LA traffic on a holiday weekend! How long could it possibly take to travel 100 miles? Two hours? Three? No! How about eight hours! We completely missed the first opening band (which we HATE doing), the second band was playing their last song (a Madball cover) as we walked into the venue. We didn’t even put our gear down… we just walked in the back door and straight onto the stage to set up. It was stressful but our set was real fun. The stage would come apart at the seams for a couple inches when we jumped and stomped around so our friends would push it back together mid-song and then we’d do the same for Berthold City during their set.
We stayed with Mandel from Indecision that night. We’ve kept in good touch because he’s putting out our new record, but it was awesome to just hang and bullshit and trade war stories. The second show of the trip was an awesome one day fest in San Luis Obispo. The show kicked off with Heavy Boots doing a Terror cover set with my old friend Chris Williams singing… so it started off right! There were a ton of great bands that played. Eliminators, Step By Step, Bad World, BDR. Berthold City’s set was off the charts. It’s awesome to see kids singing along to those songs. Step By Step was the set of the day for me though. I’ve been listening to their new EP non-stop and it was freaking great to see that band. The other funny thing that happened is that our Seahawks played a playoff game. Our set started right at kickoff so it was very stressful for a little while, but then the Seahawks totally dominated the Niners and it was fine. There were a lot of San Francisco fans at the show, and I had to restrain myself from talking too much shit.
The last show of the weekend was a sold out show at Programme in Fullerton. An awesome band called Strut kicked off the show… I’d never heard them before and they were sick! Major Pain played as well. It was cool as hell to see them on their home turf. That show was great and it was an awesome way to wrap up our trip. There was lots of windshield time for a flyout, but it was a real good time.
CHOPPING BLOCK 2026: L-R: ANTONIO, MATT, BRENT, ALEX. PHOTO BY: DAN SAMHOLD
IE: For people reading this who may have never heard the name Chopping Block can you give us a quick breakdown as to what you guys bring to the table in regards to being a hardcore band?
Matt: Chopping Block loves the intersection between punk and hardcore… that era back in the 80’s when punk and hardcore and skinhead music were all kind of the same thing… Agnostic Front, Negative Approach, bands like that but played with a modern flair. Fast, aggressive, in your face hardcore.
IE: You got a new album out with an old Cadillac on the cover called “Nowhere To Run”. What can you tell us about the new record and how it feels to sort of raise the curtain and unveil it to the hardcore scene?
Matt: Dude, it feels so good to get this record out. We tracked most of it back in February 2025 and I’ve been dying for people to hear it. “Nowhere To Run” is 14 songs in 18 minutes and I’m so freaking proud of it. Doing the record on Indecision Records has been a fantastic experience… they’ve been my favorite label for a long long time and it’s awesome to work with them. The feedback and response we’ve gotten so far is overwhelming. I’m so glad that people are checking it out and liking what they hear.
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IE: Where did the photo of the old Cadillac come from and is there any significance with the album title?
Matt: Art for hardcore records is so freaking hard man. How do you find something that is classic but not worn out that also captures your sound or lyrics in a visual medium while still looking like a hardcore record? It’s so hard! That photo was hanging on our friend Nate Alexander’s wall when we passed through Sacramento on tour a few years ago. He’d found the original at a thrift store and then took some liberty photographing it, distressing his photo, and manipulating it. Over the course of the evening every single member of the band commented on how interesting it was and how it told a story. To me it immediately told a story of the American dream that never really existed and certainly doesn’t exist anymore. To others it looked like someone needed to leave town in a hurry or was in the witness protection program. Like I said, art for hardcore bands is so hard… and this picture just told a million stories all at once. We knew it needed to be on our record somewhere, and it works great on the cover!
IE: Leading up to this interview we texted about a few things including the backstory to the track “Phony” which you had a pretty good explanation on. Can you tell us about that songs meaning?
Matt: “Phony” is one of my favorite songs on the new record. The lyrics are about people who take the energy of collective spaces and twist them for personal gain. We’ve seen it happen in the hardcore scene, at other DIY organizations, or even non-profits and political parties. Some people are grifters and snakes. Take hardcore for example… this whole thing works because everybody chips in. Touring bands, local bands, promoters, the person who makes the flyer, the venue, kids who love the bands who are playing, others who just show up to support and find community. Almost everyone involved gives time, energy, money, and everything else to this thing… that’s how it sustains itself and grows. “Phony” is about the people that take our energy and ethos and twist it to make a personal profit while giving nothing back. Not just in the hardcore scene, but in other communities we are in too.
CHOPPING BLOCK @PROGRAMME, FULLERTON, CA JANUARY 18, 2026. PHOTO BY: DAN RAWE
IE: Are there any other meanings to the newer songs that you would like to get out there?
Matt: I think Antonio took his lyrics to another level on this record. He takes shots at masculinity and all the toxicity that stems from it in “Big Man”. He gets vulnerable talking about his relationship with his partner in “Push You Away”. Across all the songs on this record I can see him pushing himself away from the classic hardcore tropes and away from the things he’s written about in the past. I love the way he thinks about things and the way he writes.
IE: This bands first show was in January of 2020 and you put out a couple of releases with a self-titled cassette coming out in 2022 as sort of the bookend to the initial phase of Chopping Block. The band had a reboot of sorts in early 2024 and then the release of “Seattle’s Hardcore” later that year where it seems like things really started taking shape to what it is today. What would you say were some of the more important factors leading up to that 2024 reboot?
Matt: Yeah, that’s exactly right. We played a couple shows in 2023 and had been getting together to practice and write pretty regularly. We all liked the tapes we put out, but it was clear to us that the we loooved the new songs. After we recorded “Seattle’s Hardcore” we talked about it… on the one hand, we loved these songs and wanted them to come out on vinyl but on the other hand how could we ask someone to invest in our band if we were just going to be phoning it in? We loved playing together, writing together, recording together so it was the logical next step to push the band a little harder. We’re still going to do far more weekends than full tours, but I hope that we can get to every corner of the country.
IE: What are the origins of the name Chopping Block? Who thought of it, how did it come about and were there any other names being used or considered early on?
Matt: Chopping Block is named after a song by Civilized, a Youth Attack band from the mid-00’s. Antonio has a funny theory that every good band name is two words, three syllables, and lots of consonants so it’s easy to say and easy to understand. I’m not sure about the theory, but I love the name of our band!
CHOPPING BLOCK @ EL CORAZON, SEATTLE, WA. JANUARY 25, 2026. PHOTO BY: ALISON BRAUN 
IE: How many shows has Chopping Block played to date and what are some of the more memorable ones so far?
Matt: I don’t even know how to guess how many shows we’ve played. Dozens, but less than a hundred? The most memorable ones to me are mostly the out of town shows. We played a great show at Dumb Records in Springfield Illinois… it was a few days after “Seattle’s Hardcore” had come out and one kid already knew ALL the words. I loved a show we played in Yakima Washington, a small town about 120 miles east of Seattle. To me I love the shows in small towns that really surprise you, whether it’s Springfield or Victoria BC… places like that that might not jump out as an obvious place to play. But we love playing shows and it seems like kids out there love going to them, so it’s a win win.
IE: We know the band has flown out to the Midwest for shows on two separate occasions. Outside of those two trips where has the band played and with the new record out can you see Chopping Block going harder touring wise or are long weekend type of trips kind of like the limit at this time?
Matt: Yeah, we’ve been to the Midwest twice and loved both times. The first trip was with our friends Public Opinion… we played the first weekend of a longer tour they were starting. So we played Springfield Illinois and Bloomington Indiana, both really fun rowdy shows. The second time out there we did a weekend with No Guard, a really cool Oi band from the Springfield area that we’d met on our first trip out. That trip was Kansas City, Des Moines, and then Minneapolis. All those shows were great and really blew away my expectations. I think we’d all like to go on longer tours, but I’ve got a four year old son and to be honest I just can’t stand to be away from him for more than a few days. He’s my little buddy and I want to hear about whatever art projects or science experiments he’s got going on in pre-school every day. That’s not very punk, but it is what it is. For now at least we’re probably going to get after it with three and four show weekends. Holler at us if we should do a weekend trip in your neck of the woods!
IE: On road trips who would you say is best at manning the music played in the car and are there bands outside of hardcore that you can all agree on?
Matt: Man, I think the only rule is that I’m not allowed to pick the music! Everybody else picks good classic shit and then I’m out here throwing on Chappelle Roan or Dua Lipa and bumming the boys out. Most of the time we’re listening to Rancid, Cocksparrer, or early Dischord bands. If it’s up to me I give our guitar player Brent the aux cable, he always picks a perfect blend of stuff I love but haven’t listened to in years and things I’ve never heard before that blows my mind.
CHOPPING BLOCK @ LUCKY LIQUOR, SEATTLE WA. FEBRUARY 8, 2026. PHOTO BY: KEVIN O
IE: Who are the other members of Chopping Block and can you give us an interesting fact about each of them?
Matt: Brent plays guitar. He’s such a badass dude. I think I’d hate Brent if I didn’t know him. He’s handsome, blue collar, incredibly musical, and super fit. It’s bullshit that he’s all of those things and also the single nicest guy you’ve ever met. Alex is the best drummer in NWHC (I said it and stand by it). He’s Canadian but married an American, so he lives here now. He probably hates it but I constantly make him compare Canadian things to American things, like who has the best bagels or whatever nonsense we’re in the middle of. Canada usually does it better. Antonio sings for our band. He’s cool as fuck man. I love the way he thinks about things. Fun fact about Antonio: he has special “show shoes” that he only wears on stage so they stay nice and crispy white. That’s a crazy person move and I love it.
IE: Anything else to add? Shout outs? Thank you for your time!
Matt: Shout out NWHC, shout out Indecision Records. Shout out the new Step By Step EP and the Dry Socket Violencia split. Shout out Tim Hortons. Shout out Antonio’s show shoes. Shout out dogs we meet on tour. Shout out the best Mexican food I’ve ever had at an all vegan spot called El Cocinero in Van Nuys. Shout out In Effect Hardcore. Shout out everybody who’s checked out the new record, thank you all!