Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim discuss what it's like to have parents as fans.

Matt & Kim is quite possibly the cutest band out of Brooklyn.  Starting in 2004, the band jettisoned themselves into popularity with catchy keyboards and snappy drums.  Not to mention a fantastic stage show and a great energy to accompany their strong musicianship.  From small venues to huge festivals, Matt & Kim never cease to entertain.  The band recently finished their stint on the F-Yeah tour and is starting their solo tour in late October.  HEAVE caught keyboardist and singer Matt Johnson between gigs to talk about vegetable oil, the band’s new album and Halloween costume ideas.

HEAVE: How are you doing today?

Matt:  I’m doing good, slept ‘til noon, that’s always likely when I come back here.  I feel I must’ve fallen asleep before midnight last night too; did I really sleep twelve hours?  Wow, now that’s incredible.

HEAVE: I was actually talking to my dad before I called you and I mentioned I was interviewing you guys and he said “Oh that’s really cool, I was listening to Matt & Kim just the other day.”

Matt: No way!

HEAVE: Yeah, my dad loves you guys.

Matt: Your dad knows what’s up.

HEAVE: Yeah, my dad didn’t go through a mid-life crisis; he just started listening to contemporary music.

Matt: I know people I went to high school with when grunge was big and they only listened to like Pearl Jam and then continued to only listen to grunge bands.  Like I know Kim’s mom likes 80s music and stuff like that but like I’ve always been really into like what is now.  Not that I’m old, I’m twenty-six, but I wonder if ever I will just get stuck and be like “Oh man, 2008, that’s when music was music.”

HEAVE: Something’s always coming out, you know.  What are you listening to now?

Matt: Kim and I both listen to mostly, as bizarre as this sounds, mostly like Top 40 hip-hop stuff.  I mean, we listen to whatever we think is fun.  We just went to this Diesel’s 30^th birthday, I guess.  Diesel, like the jean company, they had it on this pier in Brooklyn and it was like this crazy event but T.I. was a special guest and Kim just lost it.

HEAVE: Well there’s nothing wrong with Top 40 hip-hop.

Matt: When we started playing we were just playing all loft parties and warehouse parties in Brooklyn and stuff like that and it just comes from an atmosphere that we think is fun.  When people asked “So what are you in to?” they’d call it…what is it called…a guilty pleasure but we have no guilt for these pleasures, no guilt at all.  I’ll listen to Beyonce, I don’t even care.

One time someone was doing an article in the New York Times about Justin Timberlake and for some reason I was talking about Justin Timberlake on stage at one of our shows because I had this weird dream that Kim and I were opening for him at that show.  The reporter from the New York Times ended up calling me because she was doing a story on how it’s not uncool to like Justin Timberlake and wanted to quote me.

HEAVE: Is a big difference going from those small warehouses parties to a full-scale tour, or it the same small venues just a different city?

Matt: What I’ve realized is that it’s all very similar.  We’ll play a smaller stage and then we’ll play a festival like Lollapalooza or something and it’s like you have ten or twenty thousand people there.  There’s not really any adapting that we try to do, we just do the same goofy, dorky things that we do when we play on a small stage.

HEAVE: I think the energy that you guys have can work in a bigger venue too.  My brother saw you at Lollapalooza last year and said that your energy up there was so big that on a small stage it must be even more intense.

Matt: It depends because it’s all about the give and take of energy from the crowd and from us.  The more we can tell a crowd’s into it, the more we’re into it.  So sometimes when we play a small place, it’s really packed and people are dancing or whatever, you can get that energy.  But then also we play to the multi-thousand people crowd and you just have all these more people and it’s kind of different, especially if you see them smiling or dancing or bobbing, you know, whatever it takes.  You feel it on stage.  I’ve never believed in like we’re the band and you’re the audience and you’re observing us and we’re not paying attention to you kind of thing.  I see some bands that are kind of like that and I think it’s bullshit.  We’ll play a dark venue and ask them to turn the lights up brighter on the audience so I can see them and see people’s faces and make that connection.  The show is all of us, you know?

HEAVE: Well you guys just got back from the F-Yeah tour right?

Matt: Well we were but that ended a little while back.  Like, in our time it feels like it was done ages ago.

HEAVE: How was that by the way?  It sounds like an interesting concept.

Matt: Yeah, yeah.  Well they have all the bands sharing one school bus.  In a bunch of ways it’s a total logistical nightmare because everyone is just completely dependent on one form of transportation, you know.  You show up to a town and someone has to go to like a pharmacy to get Advil or something but you’re just stuck because the bus is going to drive you there and someone else is hungry and sometimes you’re not close to anywhere to eat you know it’s just…yeah.  It ain’t easy.

HEAVE: Definitely a different dynamic than when it’s just you guys on tour.

Matt: Yeah well we’re as small as a band can get, between us both and a couple other people but we’re pretty mobile as opposed to having thirty people on one bus powered by vegetable oil.

HEAVE: Yeah that sounds chaotic.  I’ve read past interviews with you guys talking about your Astro van which sounds terrifying.

Matt: Well the Astro van is dead.  It has kicked the bucket.  The plates were pulled off in Connecticut.  We just purchased and are proud owners of a new GM Savannah van but yeah, people say “Oh yeah, that must be convenient that you converted to vegetable oil and then you don’t have to pay for gas” and they make it sound so easy to themselves.  In actuality the people who did it would basically go scout right behind restaurants during the evenings while the bands were sound checking and find drums full of vegetable grease.  They would then after the show at like three in the morning go and pump it out.  And it’s like the most disgusting substance that smells bad and gets everywhere and, oh my gosh, I would never want to do that.

HEAVE: Yeah that sounds borderline sketchy.  But you’re saving the planet?

Matt: I’ve heard rumors that vegetable grease isn’t that much better to burn than oil.  You’re just kind of saving money.  But I don’t know, I could totally be lying.  It could be way better for the environment.  But I’ve heard rumors that it’s not.

HEAVE: Well I’m not an environmentalist so I’m not very sure either.  So when it’s just like you and Kim on the road since it’s such a small group do you find that you have more free time to connect with your fans or savor the local events or stuff like that?

Matt: Somehow we always expect there to be free time to go explore or something but somehow you’re just busy all the time.  We’ll go to these towns and be somewhere that I’ve never seen before and we’ll just go right to the venue and deal with the crap that you have to deal with and then when we’re done leave.  Sometimes you’re just so tired usually you just want to go to the hotel and sleep.  All I see of the town is the inside of the venue and the inside of our hotel.

HEAVE: So most of your actual free time is spent more in Brooklyn?

Matt: Theoretically, we have shows here as well.  It’s like I almost feel like a visitor in this town.  It might be where my residence is and where my mail gets sent to but we’re on the road so much, you know.  We’re playing in Miami in December and we just took a show just to take a vacation.  We’re down there for four days and we only play for one of the days.  It’s kind of nice.  But you have to kind of really make it be that destination just to have a vacation of some sort.

HEAVE: What’s been your oddest show in recent years, or have they all been kind of the same?

Matt: No for us they’re definitely not the same at all.  I don’t know…the thing is we’ve played a number of odd shows so that’s why it’s tough to say.  We played one that was particularly memorable which was a summer art camp for eight to fifteen year olds.  My friend was a teacher there and she got us to come in and at noon they had visiting artists come in and we came and we were just up on stage setting our stuff up and there was like a pounding on these doors of the empty auditorium and they open the doors and like, 300 screaming little, tiny kids come running in and I don’t know, we were playing and they were all dancing, there was a conga line and with all those prepubescent voices, you kind of know what Hanson must’ve felt like or someone like that.  It was definitely memorable.

HEAVE: I just downloaded your new song “Good Ol’ Fashioned Nightmare” off of your MySpace from your upcoming album Grand.  Is it completed already?

Matt: Yeah it is.  Funny enough when you called I was listening to what should be the final mastered version of it.

HEAVE: Did you guys record mostly on the road or did you take a break?

Matt: Well yeah we took a break.  We actually started recording it last November so close to a year ago, that’s crazy.  The thing was it was taking much longer than we expected so we kept having to leave and every free minute that we had when we would get home we would just work on it until we had to leave again.  We spent some serious time on it.  It’s exactly what we wanted to make.  We finally kind of had the time and the means to be able to do that.

HEAVE: When are you planning on releasing it?

Matt: Early next year.  Not exactly sure of the date yet, but that’s the plan.  Even though I really want to put out a release out in the summer because I feel that’s more like our style of music, it’s kind of more summer.  I don’t know, somehow our release schedule never works out like that.  Hopefully it’ll cheer people up in the depths of February or whenever it is when it comes out.

HEAVE: How is Grand different than your self-titled release?  I mean obviously you guys have grown since then because it’s been two years?

Matt: It’s been two years, yeah.  It’s definitely more involved.  While it’s the same sort of vibe I’d say the instrumentation is a lot more diverse.  We wanted to do that on that first album but we only had seven days to record it and as I was telling you we’ve been working on this one for the past year.  While live Kim plays the drums and I play the keyboard and sing but I think what really works is that we’re not just drum and keys, we’re just whatever instruments we play.  Our self-titled album, while I still believe in it all the songs are quite similar.  All the songs were written for the song not with really the whole album totally in mind so I think the difference of that makes the new album feel more complete in the end.

HEAVE: I get what you’re saying.  Are you going to do another fun and awesome music video for Grand?  Because I love “Yea Yeah” and “5K,” they’re both really creative.  A lot of bands seem to rely on the big and fancy model for their own music videos but you guys don’t have to use all those special effects and stuff like that to make a really great music video.

Matt: No, that’s something I was actually thinking about because while years ago bands would spend a fortune to make music videos, now they’re just not a fortune in the music industry to make those music videos.  So what people would do is that they would have no real idea and just try to make it as flashy as possible because they don’t have an idea.  But now people, I hope, are trying a little harder to think of ideas.  Kim and I actually just shot a new video a couple of weeks ago.  The gist of it is that Kim and I are playing in really uncomfortable places, like we’re in a refrigerator or a dumpster.  We’re playing in the dumpster as we’re getting trash thrown on us and the dumpster was not clean and Kim was just like gagging.  She thought she was going to vomit in the thing the whole time.  And then there’s a little surprise ending on it.  It’s debuting on MTV this weekend.

I wish I had cable so I could see it, but I don’t.  But I’m glad I don’t because I think I’d get so sucked into it.  People say “Oh you don’t have cable because you’re too good for it?”  No, I love TV!  That’s the problem!  If I had all these channels I would just get sucked into it so I just depend on Netflix to at least keep me on pace with TV watching.

HEAVE: So it’s more like a controlled substance not like, a full-blown addiction to television?

Matt: Yeah exactly!  It’s sort of like having a methadone clinic only with it’d be the doses that you’re suppose to take, that’s like waiting by the mailbox for the next Netflix to come rather if I just had unlimited access, it would be all over.

HEAVE: Are you and Kim still dating?

Matt: Yep, six years going strong.

HEAVE: Whoa, that is a long time.  Bravo for keeping the love alive.  Does it ever get weird because you’re dating her, you live with her and you work with her?

Matt: Yeah we are never, ever, not together.  That rhymes so it must be true.  We are always together all the time, so much so that we have one cell phone that we share between the two of us.  We never have to call each other because we’re always close to each other.  In other relationships that I’ve been in in the past that just would have been a complete disaster and we would’ve hated each other and ripped each other apart by now but with Kim and I it’s just some sort of miracle that lets us be able to do this and not totally want to kill each other.

HEAVE: That’s good, considering I think murder’s illegal.

Matt: No, the last time I heard it was.

HEAVE: Getting along well probably also makes your band dynamic that much better and stronger.  I mean there are bands out there that are together and they hate each other.

Matt: Yeah, it’s incredible.  There are even some bands that we’ve played with where different members take different backstage rooms because they don’t want to interact with each other.  How are you going to have any sort of chemistry on stage if you can’t even be in the same room or talk someone?

HEAVE: I saw that you’re playing a show on Halloween.  Are you guys going to dress up?

Matt: Yeah well, we cannot think of any ideas!  I mean we can think of ideas but it has to be good, right? Have you got any?  We’re trying to think of a good duo, you know like some sort of classic duo like a Wayne and Garth kind of thing only not that.  We just can’t come up of the right one.

HEAVE: Yeah it’s kind of hard to pick out because at the same time you still have to play so it can’t be anything like…Bonnie and Clyde you know.

Matt: And I feel it we were Sonny and Cher I’d have to be Cher because I’m taller and I don’t think I’m ready for drag yet.  Or maybe I’m pass being ready for it, maybe I missed my window.

HEAVE: Yeah, I think there’s a window for drag.  But I don’t know, I mean they always have those really corny couples things if you go to a costume store but those are always stupid things like Milk and Honey or Salt and Pepper.  They’re always super lame.

Matt: Well maybe we should push the lame factor.  Maybe we should just get the lamest one.

HEAVE: Maybe like an apple and an orange?  That would be hard I think.

Matt: Yeah except for like you said we have to have some sort of ability to move around.  I guess all I got to do is move my fingers, Kim’s got to be the one moving all over the place.

The thing is I’ve wussed out on Halloween on dressing up for the last few years.  Both Kim and I went to Pratt, which is an art school here in Brooklyn, and people were picking out what they were going to dress up as in the middle of the summer time.  Getting ready was a big thing.  But I’ve bailed out on Halloween the last couple of years and not dressed up but now that we’re actually playing on Halloween…I guess I got to think of something.

HEAVE: I’ve heard that Pratt’s a really interesting atmosphere.  Did you guys like it there?

Matt: Oh we loved it, totally.  For Kim it was the third college she went to so she had some things to compare it to.  I loved it.  First of all, my motivation was mostly just I wanted to go to school for film and I grew up in Vermont in a really little town and I wanted to go to New York City so those are really like why I ended up choosing it to begin with but no, I loved it in the end.  It’s unlikely for a New York school to have a campus which Pratt actually does which kind of gives a sense of community there while NYU or Columbia and places like that are the entire island of Manhattan just spread out.  You have to take the subway for like forty-five minutes to get to your class just for one class.  So it’s cool. Maybe we need to take a poll.  Maybe we need to get suggestions.

HEAVE: Oh!  We can do that. bsp; We can put a little poll on the website -- “What should Matt & Kim be for Halloween?”

Matt: Yeah, we need help!

Can you help Matt & Kim think of a Halloween costume?  Leave a comment with your ideas!