Awesome interview with The Matches from Rebel Rawk Zine.
___The Matches - Interview: 5/7/04
Alex : In a lot of your songs, such as "Sick Little Suicide" and "Eryn Smith" you use actual names. Are these people you know or names you came up with to go with the songs
Shawn : They're people that I know.
Alex : From your own personal experiences and your past?
Shawn : Yeah, Eryn Smith is a good friend of all of ours. I used to sort of date her, sort of at the time of writing it. It was actually kind of weird when we played her the song because we were at a different point in our relationship than we were when I wrote the song. She was like "You wrote that song for me dude? That's kind of creepy", and then Mark in "Sick Little Suicide" was my roomate in college, he actually ended up at a looney bin somewhere. I found him in the bathtub, covered in paint, he had OD on something or almost OD'd.
Alex : Have you had any overly-enthusiastic fans? How have you re-acted to them?
Shawn : We really appreciate anyone who comes out to our shows and buys our CD and everything. It's sort of like a weird dynamic that creates that. They listen to your music and they feel like they know you but of course you don't know anything about them. It's a kind of odd dynamic.
Alex : Does it freak you out?
Matt : Yeah it can.
Shawn : Well bottomline is those people care about our band a lot. We just really appreciate it because they are fans for our band and our music.
Alex : Do you know what fanfiction is?
Matt & Shawn : UhhÖno.
Alex : Haha okay, this is kind of amusing to explain. It's when really popular band's fans start writing stories, slashing the members of the band and putting them into some sort of romantic relationship.
Shawn : Like with themselves or with other bands?
Alex : With themselves.
Shawn : Okay. Hahah.
Alex : How would you feel if that started happening to you guys?
Matt : I'd feel really weird. Hahaha.
Shawn : I'd feel amused, hahah. I'd probably read them.
Matt : I'd be amused but feel very weird.
Shawn : I'd be creeped out.
Matt : Yeah, creeped out.
Alex : Is there a story behind your album's name?
Matt : Yes, definetly.
Alex : What's the story?
Matt : We used to be called The Locals, and there was another band in Chicago called The Locals and we knew about each other for a while. The leader of the locals in Chicago was Yvonne Doll, and one day we got a cease and desist letter from their attorney. We needed to change our name right away. We decided to change our name to The Matches and decided to name the record after the other Locals. Kind of a tribute, I guess.
Shawn : Yeah because they suck.
Matt : Hahah, yeah they're really really bads. And it turns out now they barely ever play anymore.
Alex : So you used a play on her name?
Matt : Yeah.
Shawn : They tried to kill our band, yes the Locals are dead. But The Matches were born!
Alex : Do you listen to your own music for fun?
Shawn : I think it's more than for work than for fun. Like we'll listen to it and then go "Oh that's how the song sounds?" We got to learn that again dude. We're proud of it, but it get's played enough. Like when we walk into stores people put it on. Or at mom's house, and she's like "Oh the boys are here! I'll play the record!"
Matt : Oh and we listen to it every night.
Shawn : We try to take influences from something that we didn't write.
Alex : Does touring ever bore you after a while?
Shawn : I think boring is the last thing. The last negative thing. I've been lonely...and depressedÖand wanted to be elsehwere.
Matt : Yeah, but not bored.
Alex : Yeah, so you're about to make a 3 day non-stop trip back to Oakland, what would you do to entertain yourself on the trip?
Shawn : Sleep.
Matt : Read, play music.
Shawn : Play guitar.
Alex : So random stuff.
Shawn : Pretty much.
Alex : So does touring kind of become a home to you?
Shawn : Yes, definetly, our home on wheels. Sloppy as hell.
Alex : What do you do when you're not touring?
Shawn : Me? I don't know. We've toured for more than a year now. Whenever we get a chance to have a few days at home, we sleep, say hi to our friends, try to be normal for a few day. It doesn't work. We're not normal. Hahaha.
Alex : When you do tour, where are some of your favourite places to tour?
Matt : Chicago.
Shawn : My favourite town is Vancouver.
Matt : Vancouver's awesome.
Shawn : British Columbia, I like Seattle too.
Alex : What's your ultimate goal with the band? Where do you want to take it?
Shawn : To the top!
Alex : Haha, like TRL one day?
Shawn : I think TRL is stupid, but I mean it doesn't mean it never has good bands on it.
Matt : I want to sell out Madison Square Garden.
Shawn : Yeah man, I mean I guess the reason you would do TRL is to get your band out there and to get more promotion. But yeah, that's what I want to do. Go out there and play in front of all those people.
Alex : What icons did you guys model yourselves after musically?
Shawn : Carson Daly.
Alex : Hahahah
Matt : Yeah, his full length album is not released yet, but it's awesome.
Shawn : Just kidding just kidding!
Shawn : I think to start with would be a lot of punk bands, like playing in the garage. Well actually maybe that's not true. I think more like a lot of alternative radio. Weezer, Nirvana, Savage Garden, Green Day, Rancid. Then we began to go into different genres of music.
Alex : Any models personally? Just for yourselves in general?
Shawn : I reallyÖI don't know, I respect a lot of people. One of my heros now is Eminem, a songwriting hero.
Matt : I don't know.
Shawn : Well whose your drumming hero? Like if you broke both your arms and we had to have someone fill in for you who would it be?
Matt : Okay okay I hear you, I'd say Carter Bufford, but if I broke both my armsÖ
Shawn : Haha, Carter ain't fucking being in our band dude.
Matt : Hahha, I know too expensive. His drums take up too much room.
Alex : How do you feel about giving autographs and having people compete for your attention?
Shawn : People don't really compete. I've always thought it was really cool, I enjoy meeting people in band. I've always been obbsessed with music.
Matt : I love to get autographs and talk to them, and I like how they do that with us.
Shawn : It's not annoying, it's not annoying at all.
Matt : I've got a bunch of autographs back in my room, and I remember meeting the guys from Green Day.
Shawn : It just makes me like the music more. Even if they're just like "Oh thanks for coming!" It's like "Oh, I know a little bit more about them".
Alex : How do you re-act when you get bad reviews?
Shawn : Ooo, we just a got bad review in Alternative Press.
Alex : I heard.
Shawn : We just publicise it, see we got a bunch of good reviews and we're like "Yeah! We got good reviews" and then we get a bad review and we're like "Fuck reviewÖthey're all stupid." Ahah.
Alex : But in Alternative Press didn't they recently give you a pretty good saying in some article?
Shawn : They did a profile things on us, and they were nice. You have to remember that there are numerous people that work there and one person's opinion isn't the same as someone elses. So the first thing was like "Fuck AP!" but then it was like, "Wait they're running stuff about us, someone likes us because they keep putting us in there." So it's like, you know one dude doesn't like us. People who review CD's don't actually buy CD's, writing about music, it's like dancing about architecture. I just quoted 2 people there, the second was Elvis Costello the first one was Happy Walters.
Alex : There's been a lot of debate over "Track 11"'s actual name. Some call it "Track 11" some call it "Scratched Out" some call it "Track 12". What do you guys call it?
Matt : I call it "Track 11" personally.
Shawn : I think it's kind of fun to have a song where people are like "This is what it's called, no THIS is what it's called!" If you look closely at the CD you can kind of see "Track 11" under the part where it's scratched out. But on the CD it's Track 12 so that turns some people off. We just wanted to do something fun like that.
Alex : What's the strangest thing that's ever happened at your show?
Matt : The guy dancing in his boxers with all his junk falling out. Hahaha
Shawn : We knew the guy though, but if we didn't it would be even stranger.
Matt : Justin freaks out a lot.
Shawn : Justin freaked out in Indianapolis.
Matt : Didn't he freak out recently though?
Shawn : Yeah, he freaks out once in a while. Shh! Here he comes, here he comes.
Justin sneaks over and starts petting Shawn on the back
Shawn : Hahah, he's petting me. Oh another one was, the last night of our tour with Reel Big Fish, Aaron came out with a really small towel on and just stood in front of the stage in front of thousands of people. It was our first night.
Matt : Yeah and one by one we noticed him, and I just stopped and dropped my sticks I was laughing so hard. I was kind of terrified.
Shawn : It was our first big tour.
Alex : If you could customize your own concert with bands that were alive or dead, what would it be?
Shawn : Alive or dead? Wow. So a dream festival? Can I do five?
Alex : Yeah five.
Matt : I can't do it, haha.
Shawn : Aw, Matt doesn't want to do it. Okay: The Beatles, Nirvana, The Used, Jo Jackson, System of a Down.
Alex : Allright, that's it, nice to meet you. Thanks for doing the interview! Awesome concert.
Shawn & Matt : Thanks, nice to meet you too.
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href='http://www.thematches.com' target='_blank'>thematches.com
Alex Sedler
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