The Matches drop another interview while on the road with +44!
This interview was done with the entire band, though they weren't ever all in the same room. They would enter and exit randomly. That's why not every question wasn't answered by everyone.
Amber: So go ahead, tell me who you are and what you do and all that
Jon: My name is Jon, I play guitar and sing a little bit, and I have rhinestones on my shoes
Justin: My name is Justin, I play bass guitar, and those aren't rhinestones, they're metal studs.
Jon: Shut up!
Amber: Alright... so, describe your new album to someone who hasn't heard it yet
Jon: It's produced by 9 different people, so yea, it's a blend of a lot of styles going on...
*Shawn enters the room*
Oh, this is Shawn, he can be part of the interview too. Hey Shawn. Justin, how would you describe our new record?
Justin: Awesome.
Shawn: Justin likes our record
Justin: Yea I do, I listen to it all the time.
Jon: Our influences are Queen, Nirvana... I don't know... Shawn, describe our first record.
Shawn: It sounds to me like... our travels on our first tour, while we were supporting E. Von Dahl. I guess we kind of wrote it in a million different places around the world, which was a stark comparison to writing and recording our first record in our garage and basement. The reason we put together the songs that we did was because we knew they all worked together, because they all were filtered in our brains. Of course it's going to sound like the Matches, but it's not going to sound like anything we've done before. And hopefully it will be sounding completely unlike anything any other band has ever done before, otherwise why would we produce a record? Why would people even continue to come to our shows unless we were giving them something new to listen to? I mean we've never sounded like a scene band, I mean a pre-existing scene, so we kind of created our own... well I wouldn't say we created our own... We're very open to having our travels and our lives shape us and shape our music, so in fact, I wouldn't even say that we're that responsible for how the songs sound, I would say that the direction we were steered through life kind of created the sounds on our record. We only reinforce that by picking, or choosing to record the CD with 9 producers. In fact, we had 0 support for doing that. Epitaph Records was really hesitant to fund the record to the point to where we actually didn't have a record deal. We had 9 different guys, that the majority of them are actually in bands themselves and are sympathetic to the plight of art versus music, which is... very seldom do they hold hands and stroll down the street. There's always a tug of war between the two, and we're definitely experiencing that. Luckily all of our producers are amazing artists as well, and they've all faced the business versus art problem, so they were really supportive. That's kind of what brought us through and inspired us to go on with the record and record it. We very much wanted to be on Epitaph since the beginning of recording the record, it's just a matter of would they stay behind it. They were worried about the financial aspects of it and the record sounding like a disarrayed gathering of demos or something like that, which to be fair, it very much had the risk of sounding like that. Let me wrap that up... The record sounds like a mix of everything I just said. Something that no one else has done before, I wouldn't be comfortable referencing other bands. I could tell you a list of 50 bands that we listen to that each are responsible for inspiring us and a certain aspect of the music. But if you love David Bowie or Blink-182, I can't promise you that you'll love our record. But if you have an open mind and you're tired of hearing music that all sounds very similar, then I think our record definitely would be something of interest.
Amber: Favorite song on the new album?
Jon: It probably changes on a weekly basis
Shawn: I like the hidden track, it comes in at 72 minutes. My favorite right now is Sunburn Vs the Rhinovirus. It's my favorite because we've been playing it a lot because we're on tour with Mark who produced it. He threatened to throw us off tour if we don't play the song.
*everyone laughs*
He threatened also that if I don't say that's my favorite song off the record we would get dropped off the tour.
Amber: *looking at Jon* you too?
Jon: Yea
Amber: *laughing* Yea, don't want to get dropped off the tour
Shawn: *laughing* Exactly
Jon: *laughing* Yea
Amber: Favorite shade of pink?
Jon: Whatever Jennifer Lopez wears. I really like what she wears.
Shawn: My favorite is that one when you keep hitting yourself in the eye... right before it turns purple... that one.
Jon: I'm going to stick with Jennifer Lopez pink. Shawn: *looking at Jon* Did you tell her about your side project?
Jon: No, that's going to be the next question, actually.
Amber: Oh, it is?
*The guys laugh*
Oh, okay, fine. Tell me about that.
Jon: Well, it's experimental... It's sort of progressive
Shawn: Jon's put the mental back in experimental
*everyone laughs*
Amber: Favorite cities?
Jon: Actually, Chicago is like the first place that we played on tour. We came here with Plain White T's.
Shawn: I like America Town in Japan. In Tokyo there's an America Town like we have Japan Town. It's like Cartoonville. They think America is so much more different than we do. It's like this askewed, Tim Burton, everybody's hair is like 10 feet tall, they all walk around in leather jackets and with cigarettes like James Dean. But they have power gloves on and it's awesome.
Amber: Wow... that's different.
Jon: Speaking of James Dean, I have a picture of him on the bottom of my shoes.
Amber: Yes, yes you do
Jon: I got them in London which could be my favorite place.
Amber: Okay, songwriting process...
Shawn: I think we've been programmed to write songs, because once the song has been created, we don't remember how it came about. Our ideology is basically to write way too much music, then when it's time for a CD to come out we look up our list of songs and see if any of them work on a record together. That's what we did with Decomposer. We actually recorded our next album already. We'll put it out when people stop buying Decomposer, so that would be for our fans, sort of an incentive to stop buying the record. If any of you are thinking of buying the Matches record, well do you really want to delay the release of our next record? Do you really want to do that to the fans that have had Decompser, that were actually on the ball and knew about the Matches? I mean, think about that before you go to purchase our record.
*Everyone laughs*
Shawn: I would like to send out a message to everyone, read George Saunders. He wrote a story that we wrote a song about. You asked me about songwriting... The Barber's Unhappiness is actually a direct reference to a short story by George Saunders. We decided that we're on a campaign to stop quoting like Arrested Development and Borat and to start quoting books. And we've got one line from a book thus far. Before you read this interview, please read the book.
Amber: If you could be an inanimate object for a day, what would you be and why?
Shawn: I'd be um... Jon's pants...
*everyone laughs*
I'd be a huge wooden cooking spoon so I could gag myself right now.
*everyone laughs*
Jon: I would be salsa.
Amber: Self-taught or lessons?
Matt: Okay, I am self-taught. Justin is taught by a well-known guy... Shawn was taught by gnomes. He lives around a bunch of gnomes, so they taught him guitar. And Jon learned from listening to AC/DC records.
Amber: So say you're watching TV one day, and you accidentally put it on MTV, because let's face it, no one does that on purpose, and you're on TRL. How would you feel about that?
Matt: I would do a little dance. I would personally be excited.
Jon: I would be changing channels to Fuse. I would be like are we on a major label now, what's going on? That would be my reaction.
Justin: But we'd also be excited, because then it'd be like wow, maybe I'll make enough money to finally move out of my mom and dad's house.
Jon: Or, buy lunch!
Matt: Or buy lunch for my mom and dad!
*Everyone is impressed by Matt's thinking skills*
Jon: Yea, at my new house!
Amber: Favorite word?
Matt: Favorite word? God, that's a hard one.
Jon: What was the question?
Amber: Favorite word?
Jon: Mine is either analogis or um... debris.
Matt: Debris, really?
Jon: I love that word, it's a good word. The movie Twister... "WE'VE GOT DEBRIS!!!!!" I love that movie, now you know why
Matt: My favorite word would be Perrier
Amber: (to Justin) Okay, favorite word?
Justin: Um... my favorite word is definitely.
Amber: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Matt: 10 years older
Amber: Well, obviously
Jon: I'll be depressed because I'll be 31.
Justin: Burned out, carpal tunnel syndrome, living at my mom and dad's house, turning it on MTV, hoping to see our video on TRL.
Amber: So you can buy lunch
All the guys: Yea!
Jon: Touring, but hopefully on a bus.
Amber: Random or unknown facts about yourselves?
Jon: I used to tap dance
Matt: He still does...
Justin: I have a driving restriction on my license that says I have to wear glasses or corrective lenses.
Jon: Wow, really? You never told me!
Amber: Okay, any final thoughts?
Jon: Old Man Tucker was a fine old man...
Matt: People need to start bringing us red wine and Perrier to shows. No more cookies, no more cupcakes, just red wine and Perrier.