Bio

For over two decades, Matt Bergman aka Matt Groopie has been entertaining audiences and music fans with his high energy stage performances and his original musical proficiency and style. Whether you've gotten to know him through his original projects, his various acoustic performances, bands, open jams or his six year stint as the booker at Cherry Colas in Toronto, one thing is for sure: THE GUY LOVES TO ROCK. He's graced the stages of some of the largest venues in Canada including Budweiser Gardens, the Opera House, The Danforth Music Hall, Lee's Palace, the Horseshoe Tavern and The Velvet Underground to name just a few. The world changes, but Matt stays the same. He is dedicated to his craft and his playing, and always tries to keep what he does authentic, entertaining and quality. He is a true soldier of rock. 

Matt started out in Thornhill/Richmond Hill Ontario with various short lived punk acts such as Suburbia and Vintage, but in 2003 produced his first notable band The Groopies with a couple of friends from high school named Ira Cohen and Ari Greenberg. The band was a fixture on the Toronto and Ontario punk scene and played with many big bands such as SNFU, The Real Mckenzies, The Vibrators, The Flatliners, The Mahones, the Burning Brides, the 3tards and many more. Calling Queen west home, these guys even managed to play around Ontario a lot, a lot of times having to leave shows right away after their set because of their age. The main venues they regularly played were Bovine Sex Club and the Kathedral in Toronto, Johnnys in Richmond Hill and Tomboos in Newmarket. They managed to produce a couple albums and were even featured on 102.1 The Edge. In addition, they spearheaded a yearly event called PUNK AID where they raised money for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto and the event ran for several years until the bands breakup in 2008. 

King Beez were started in 2007 and overlapped with The Groopies. Matt's influence of sci fi soundtracks, punk rock, 80s metal and Link Wray influenced the sound of the band heavily. With the lineup secured featuring friends David Hartman, Jesse Schank and Bobby Borzellino, King Beez managed to accomplish a lot in their first year; recording their debut album and playing tons of shows around Ontario. The album and shows all received great response.

In 2008, Matt suffered from a seriously bad case of exhaustion from the constant touring and took a year off of music but reformed King Beez with a new lineup in 2010 featuring Mike Crombez, Adam Tobe and John Irwin. The band continued to tour and release records, working with the legendary Ian Blurton on two eps, "Deathproof 1" in 2012 and "Deathproof 2" in 2015 as well as producing 2 singles "Shark Fin Soup" in 2016 and "Tsunami" in 2017. In addition, the band released the "Rumble Bee" ep in 2017 with Robby Sedran and Gavin Parkes replacing John and Adam in the lineup. Through their long career, the band has made a huge impact on the Canadian surf and alternative music scenes alike. While other bands of the surf genre tend to lean towards the classic surf sound, King Beez have never hidden their influences of punk and metal and incorporated that into their sound. The band has played thousands of shows in Canada, and shared the stage with many notable bands including Econoline Crush, The Forgotten Rebels and many more. 

From 2014-2020 Matt was the Booker at Cherry Colas in Toronto, working with thousands of bands and producing thousands of shows. Matt worked with many big bands, and found himself rubbing elbows with some of he top entertainers in the world. He also holds the record for playing the club the most times out of any band. He was even nominated for PROMOTOR OF THE YEAR at Indie Week in 2018. 

From 2014 - 2019 Matt played bass with the grammy nominated band Green Jelly, touring with bands such as Insane Clown Posse, Suicidal Tendencies and The Dead Boys. He was featured in the documentary "Green Jelly Suxx Live" as well as on a live vinyl box set with the band. 

From 2016 on, Matt has played in Blackdog Ballroom which was started by his good friend from England Michael Stanfield. The band has played hundreds of shows and is the premiere mod band in Canada.

From 2017-2019 Matt ran the world famous WARD 5 JAM in Richmond Hill with his partner Steffi Goodfield which resulted in a massive 2.45 million dollar lawsuit against Matt by Richmond Hill city councilor Karen Cilevitz which spanned until 2023. The councilor alleged Matt was lying when he came forward to expose her bullying and threats both toward himself as well as Steffi, as well as releasing a voicemail of her threats and profanities. She was found guilty by the integrity commissioner of bullying, which resulted in her losing 90 days of her pay. The lawsuit was decided in the courts and Cilevitz was ordered to pay all of Matt's legal fees. Since the lawsuit, councillor Cilevitz was convicted of "Fraud Under $5000". 

Even though the Covid19 pandemic shuttered all live music everywhere, Matt has spent his time determined to continue with his passion and love for music. 

"People know me as a player mostly. I spent the last 20 plus years playing a lot. This time has made me focus on another angle of my music: Songwriting. Some would say I've been a prolific player, but my goal now is to be a prolific writer and multi instrumentalist."

2021-2022 saw the release of the debut ep "Crash and Burn" from The Phoenix Complex (in which Matt plays every instrument, sings and records it in his studio), as well as THREE releases from King Beez including "Surfony 19", "Need For Speed" and "Games".

In 2022, Matt was the cowfounder of Indigenous Action Committee with his sister Ashley and father Jay. The non for profit was created to invent events and workshops for the Indigenous community in York Region Ontario. 

In 2022, Matt founded the band GFU along with friends Jayboe, Thomas Millband and released their debut EP in 2023 to critical and fan acclaim. The band played over 150 shows between 2022-2025 with drummer Dan Felushko joining them. The band has shared the stage with such influential acts as The Forgotten Rebels, Chris Murray, Random Killing and Ripcordz to name a few. 

In 2023 Matt founded the band Golden Soul Tribe with his cousin Zoe Rodney, which plays lots of gigs around Ontario. When they play as a duo they're simply known as The Kosher Feathers.

In 2025, Matt recieved the King Charles III Medal for his outstanding public service achievments related to his non for profit Indigenous Action Committee as well as many food drives and charity shows he continues to perform at. 

2026 will see the release of many new albums and a book, with a lot more surprises to come,