Mt. Joy's Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper Talk Band's Rise, New Music — and Their Friendship with Dave Matthews (Exclusive)

Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper will be the first to say that their road to fame has been more of a "gradual" climb rather than a “rocket ship” to the top. 

The two Pennsylvania natives, who make up two of the five-piece band Mt. Joy, have known each other since they were kids — though it wasn't until they were both young adults that they decided to give music a real go.

“I remember at that point Matt called me and was like, ‘The song is doing things. Should we try it? Do you want to be a part of this? Should we actually do this?,’ Cooper, 35, recalled to PEOPLE of the success of one of the band's first songs, “Astrovan.” “And I was like, ‘Yes, let's do it.’”

The band, which is named as a "tribute" to the area where the two grew up, is now five people strong and is made up of Quinn, 33, (guitar and vocals), Cooper (guitar), Michael Byrnes (bass), Sotiris Eliopoulos (drums) and Jackie Miclau (keyboard).

Cooper describes the band’s sound as “eclectic.” 

“We all come from different backgrounds,” Cooper told PEOPLE of the collection of musicians. “Jackie is a classically trained piano player. Soti is more of this punk rock drummer from Long Beach. Michael's just a straight rock bassist. And Matt and I come from more, I guess, classic rock jam bands, '60s, '70s, '80s music background, but also singer-songwriter stuff.”

“When you put it all together, it just sounds different than other things because of that, because we're all just coming from such different backgrounds and inputting what we can into the music,” he continued.  “And it ends up sounding like nothing else in my opinion.”

Since “Astrovan,” the band has toured the country — and the world — alongside bands like The Head and the Heart and Whitney and are currently on tour, playing shows at Austin City Limits, Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado and Central Park in New York City and will soon be heading overseas.

On this tour, the band has partnered with Fender to give fans a behind the scenes look through the On the Road series, which was shared exclusively with PEOPLE. The clip showcases the guitar maker’s new line of acoustic-electric guitar called the Highway Series, which the band has been using backstage during this tour ahead of their official release on Oct. 10. 

Over the last many years as the band has continued to build an ever growing fan base, one of the things that has been most unexpected are “the people you meet along the way and that you never would've expected to meet,” Quinn said. 

One of those people is Dave Matthews, whom Quinn says some band members have “gotten close [to] in a meaningful way.”

Cooper said some interactions with the Grammy winner still leave him thinking: “This is f---ing Dave Matthews.”

And by the sound of it — the admiration goes both ways. 

“[Matthews] did say ... I have to say this,” Cooper said. “"He wished that one day he could write a song as good as ‘Bathroom Light.'" (“Bathroom Light” is a song off of the band’s 2022 album Orange Blood.)

“I would say that relationship and similar relationships are the ones where I'm like, ‘How did we get here?'" Quinn added. 

Another surreal moment for the band has been playing venues like Red Rocks — something Cooper said was a bucket list item. 

“We spent a few years in a van, and then you're in a really crappy tour bus, and then you slowly get to a slightly nicer tour bus and then things kind of just get better over time,” Cooper recalled looking back on how far the band has come. “And then eventually you kind of look out and you're like, ‘Holy s--- we're at Red Rocks.’”

Through all the trials and tribulations they've gone through as a band trying to make it in the music industry, Quinn says they are at a point now where they can stop for a moment and take it all in.

"Now there is a bit of like, whoa, this has really become a thing," he said. "And it's definitely really exciting. It just feels good because I think everyone in this, not just Sam and I, put so much time and effort and traveling around in a van for years and girlfriends breaking up with you and all the sort of sacrifices and whatever else. To then see it all kind of work out, at least for now, is a really good feeling."

Next summer, the band has two shows scheduled opening for Noah Kahan at Fenway Stadium in Boston and while they play coy when asked about a new album, Quinn says there are things in the works. 

“We're obviously working on new music,” he said before adding,  “we're chomping at the bit to get off the road and into the studio and work on what's next for Mt. Joy. So I think we'll leave it at that, but we've got some stuff cooking.”