Celebrating Three Decades of Stomp Records

The inside history of the friendships, fiascos, and kick ass bands that made the ska/punk imprint a Canadian institution.

By Glenn Alderson

Pictured: Matt Collyer & Mike Magee

Published on November 27, 2025

Thirty years ago, Stomp Records started as a scrappy Montreal indie built on ska riffs, cheap beer, and an unshakable belief that great music doesn’t come from boardrooms — it comes from bands, friends, and the scenes that raise them. Today, that ethos hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s only become clearer through the people who’ve grown with the label.

Ask anyone on Stomp what defines the label and the first thing that comes up isn’t a release, a tour, or even a genre — it’s founder Matt Collyer and longtime partner Mike Magee, the two individuals whose fingerprints are all over the label’s history. As Brad Cooper-Graham of the Fake Friends puts it, walking into Stomp HQ on St-Laurent doesn’t feel like entering an office so much as “walking into someone’s cool apartment where they share a common goal and vision: putting out quality records and putting the artist first. No big wig label business, more like going to chat with your uncle about how to fix your busted up VW.”

That sense of approachability, warmth, and complete lack of pretension is the foundation Stomp was built on — but the stories that follow reveal just how deep that culture runs.

For Mario Nieva of the Real McKenzies, Stomp isn’t just a label — it’s a lifeline. “Matt is our manager, and the president of our record label, but he is a friend first,” he says. Over the years, both Mario and Matt have “gone through personal ups and downs,” and time and again, Collyer has shown up. “He’s been there for me when things seemed impossible. The impact of this label starts with friendship and a concern for its artists.”

That friendship has been tested in the most punk rock ways imaginable. “The Real McKenzies have tested Stomp’s patience repeatedly over the years (and continue to do so),” Nieva admits, laughing. But they’ve always found a way through — patience, communication, and shared stubbornness keeping the partnership intact. “Their success is directly tied to the love of what they do and their enthusiasm for people they work with.”

For younger bands like Doghouse Rose, the introduction to Stomp felt like an initiation into a family that was rowdy, chaotic, and instantly welcoming. Jordan Zagerman remembers their first Stomp tour in 2021 — Vancouver and back with The Anti-Queens, anchored around the label’s anniversary shows. “It was the first time meeting some of the bands and people from the label and they accepted us with open arms. It felt like an initiation into the label.”

That blend of camaraderie, chaos, and unwavering support is what Jordan says defines Stomp’s identity. “It’s first and foremost a family affair… Everyone looks out for one another, feeds off each other and pushes one another to be the best they can. It’s ever evolving and moving forward, and just a big party with no signs of stopping.”

The Anti-Queens’ Valerie Knox echoes that sentiment with her own Stomp memory — one so perfectly unhinged it could only have happened on a Stomp tour. During the final night of the label’s 25th anniversary run with The Planet Smashers, things escalated in the most Stomp way possible. “During ‘Super Orgy Porno Party,’ everyone from all the bands piled onto the stage dancing, yelling, having an absolutely ridiculous amount of fun. It was chaotic in the best way.” It wasn’t just a moment of tour delirium — it was a moment when “the whole Stomp family felt connected.”

What gives these memories weight isn’t just nostalgia — it’s how consistent they’ve been over decades. No one reflects that longevity better than Collyer himself, who has lived every absurd, beautiful, and near-catastrophic moment of the label’s journey. His personal highlight reel reads like the lost diaries of Canadian punk:

“Opening the All-Skanadian Volume 1 comp for the first time… moving into the Stomp store in 1998 filled with ska, reggae, Fred Perry and Ben Sherman… Mike Magee showing up for his first day after busting his face skateboarding — and then a full-on brawl breaking out in the office later that afternoon.”

There were near-breakups and near-bankruptcies, “nearly going broke in 2004,” followed by a triumphant rebound with The Flatliners, Belvedere, Bedouin Soundclash and The Planet Smashers in 2005. There were Japanese “work trips,” a decade-long rollercoaster with the Real McKenzies, and a moment when “someone in Saint Alvia… peed their pants on our brand-new couch, tried to dry them in our microwave, and ended up setting both their pants and the microwave on fire.”

There are fireworks still stuck in the ceiling from their 20th anniversary. There’s joy and community woven into every disaster.

If Stomp has a mythology, this is it — the stories that couldn’t happen anywhere else, created by a label that refuses to separate the music from the people making it.

That connection is what resonates for artists like Emmett O’Reilly of Pkew Pkew Pkew, who grew up with the label long before he worked with them. “Stomp feels like it has always been there,” he says, remembering hours spent spinning The Flatliners’ Destroy to Create or The Planet Smashers’ Mighty. When he moved to Toronto, Smashers shows became “a reliable source of fun,” a kind of cultural constant. Just as impactful were the smaller bands Stomp championed — Penske File, Brutal Youth, Dig It Up. “It gives me such a rush to know that Stomp was also paying attention to them… they are looking for great music at the source: local shows.”

And maybe that’s the real secret to 30 years of Stomp Records. They’re not just releasing albums — they’re investing in artists as humans, in scenes as communities, and in music as something meant to be lived, sweated through, and occasionally set on fire (intentionally or otherwise).

Or, as Matt Collyer puts it plainly: Stomp has survived because of “an unwavering love of music — and never taking ourselves too seriously.”

Don’t miss the Stomp Records 30-Year Anniversary shows coming soon to a bar near you | MORE INFO