We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt Vettese. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt below.

Matt, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My podcast: OurSpace with Matt Vettese is the most meaningful project I’ve worked on.

As a kid, I grew up loving emo, pop punk, punk and hardcore. I spent every weekend downtown Toronto at different shows because I loved the scene and the music. By the way the music and going to shows made me feel I knew I wanted to be surrounded by it all day, every day.

When graduating high school I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew it needed to be something to do with music. I found a radio broadcasting course at a local college so I thought: RADIO! How great would it be to be DJing music all day, producing commercials, talking to bands etc.

Now if you’ve actually been in the radio industry you know it’s not exactly as glamourous as it’s made out to be. At least not anymore.

I grinded out a radio career for over a decade – and I was pretty damn good. But the thing no one tells you about radio: you don’t pick the songs, the format, or the artists you interview.

While I look back fondly at my time in radio, it wasn’t about the music, it was about entertaining an audience.

My podcast, OurSpace with Matt Vettese, is about both. I aim to be an entertainer but more importantly I want to help grow the music scene that I love. I get to have conversations with artists I wanted to talk to when I signed up for radio school 16 years ago.

OurSpace has also afforded me opportunities that radio didn’t/couldn’t, like covering major music festivals such as When We Were Young and All Your Friends Fest.

I’m also extra proud because it’s something I’ve built on my own.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Matt Vettese and I’m a former radio host, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

I spent 13 years honing in my craft, learning how to entertain and engage massive audiences. I’ve now taken my skills to Instagram and TikTok, along with two podcasts on the OurSpace Media network: OurSpace with Matt Vettese and The Top 8.

I create content and help artists promote their music. I also provide creative content consulting for artists and creators to help engage their audiences in a natural way. It’s not about going viral, it’s about building an audience that actually cares about you/your work. I don’t promote this side of my business too much, it’s very much referral based (if you’re seeing this and interested though, please reach out).

What sets me apart is my real world experience doing this for many high level broadcasting companies. There are so many little things that people don’t see or concepts other don’t truly understand. Even though radio may be dead, the skills learned to capture people’s attention in an audio format with no pause or rewind button is one of the most powerful skills you can have in content creation.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I started by making pretty generic videos, skits, just for fun. I was making content for my radio audience and for my friends. Sometimes even just to make myself laugh.

In 2023 I made a video making fun of myself and my emo side in the 2000’s and it got some attention. I thought oh, well if they liked this video I’ve got an untapped well of video ideas because this is genuinely who I am and what I love, my driving force for my entire life.

I made another video and it did well. And another, and another… I told myself I’m going to make one video a day every day for a year and see where that takes me.

It only took me 3 months until members of my favourite bands were sending me messages and I couldn’t believe this was real. 13 years in radio and my dreams came true in the span of 3 months posting online.

The best advice I can give people is to not worry if something feels “cringe” but just hit post you never know which one is going to change your life.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Knowing that the work you’re doing may touch someone in a way that actually helps them. Even if it’s just a silly little video that made them smile for 3 seconds after a long day at work.

The greatest part about what I do is when I’m at a concert or a festival and someone comes up to me and tells me they love my content.

I create content to build community, grow the music scene I love, and to help others. Getting that positive feedback in real time means everything to me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattvettese
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OurSpaceMedia