URB: I wanted to say congratulations on having “Daylight” placed in the new Bacardi ad campaign, that’s awesome.
Kim: That’s so funny, because we think a lot about what we do, and we’re cautious about everything and we actually thought a lot of people were gonna be pissed about it—
Matt: That there was gonna be some backlash.
Kim. But there really hasn’t been, like a lot of people have just been like Congratulations! And the other great thing is that there are so many people are like I didn’t know about your band, but now I do because of the Bacardi commercial.
URB: I don’t know why anyone would give backlash. It’s so important to get this type of music integrated into a mainstream culture. What other better way is there to do that?
Kim: Lots of people watch TV!
Matt: I’m really glad that you see it that way. This is what I understand as I try to dissect. We’ve done a couple things that have been related to commercials and TV shows and things like that, and the Bacardi one has been the biggest campaign, and I think it was done very tastefully—it didn’t chop and screw our song up, it just kinda kept it basically as it was. And people seem to have really responded to it, as far as people who have heard 30 seconds of it and now send an e-mail that says, “I just heard this commercial and now I’ve been on YouTube for three hours trying to figure out everything about you guys.”
Kim: And the crazy thing is that our album came out in January and you go into the iTunes charts when your albums come out, but six months later the album is back in the iTunes charts and it’s just kinda crazy.
Matt: And we went into the Billboard charts for our first time, but let me finish that thought. Understand that music is something that’s special. Especially when you’re a smaller band, as Kim and I have been and as we’ve toured and whatever, people hold that close, like That’s not your band, that’s my band. And the second you start giving it away from everybody, they feel like you’re taking it away from them. I feel that’s how some people see it. When I was a teenager, I would probably be angry, I don’t know. It’s one of those things you start looking at more when you’re older. The thing is we make music that I want everyone to hear, not like I wanna be famous, I wanna be rich. I just like making music and I want everyone to hear it.
URB: I think you guys have one of the more loyal fan bases in music that, for the most part, appreciate and understand your mission statement.
Matt: That’s true. They are very accepting. The amount of people who have come up to us at shows and give us cash and say, “I downloaded your album illegally and I loved it, and I feel like I should just get you money”—
Kim: Like, who the fuck does that?
Matt: And we’ll give them like a t-shirt or something just to be like Man, that’s rad that you feel like that, you don’t have to do that. But every band is like Aw, my fans are the best! or whatever and I don’t even like to use the word “fans.” But people who like Matt & Kim or like what we do tend to generally fucking rule.
URB: Definitely. Are you guys excited to see anyone today?
Kim: Ponytail. I really wanted to see The Mae Shi and they were supposed to play today but then it got switched to tomorrow so we’ll be on the plane while they’re playing. The one thing is we mainly listen to top 40 hip-hop, so there are a lot of bands that we don’t recognize but we’ll check out.
Matt: Yeah like a lot of names we’ll recognize but I don’t quite know their music.
Kim: Like, I have no idea what Wavves sounds like, but I’ve seen their name.
Matt: We just went to see Beyoncé at Madison Square Garden.
Kim: Oh my god, it was so awesome! Jay-Z came out, the crowd went fucking nuts!
Matt: We listen to a lot of top 40 hip-hop, Kim listens to it almost exclusively, but I think we have a pretty wide range of music taste. We’re in sort of the poppy, punk-rock category and I think that’s where our style comes out of, like listening to simpler beats and also faster kind of music.
URB: Following that, not a lot sounds like Matt and Kim, and I think that’s because you guys don’t try to listen to things that “sound” like Matt and Kim.
Matt: We were never derivative of sounding like one band. We like different aspects of different things, we like a big beat and a fast melody. Just kind of throw all those things together.
URB: What bands are there that you guys really like and respect right now that are new to the world of music?
Matt: There’s a band we’ve met on numerous occasions and played with, Tokyo Police Club. I guess their album came out a while ago but I hadn’t listened to it much. I’ve been having a really tough time with albums because my attention span is completely fucking shot. But I can listen to that album top to bottom, that gets me stoked. Ninjasonik are friends of ours from Brooklyn and they are just having a good fucking party time. We tried to play with them at our record release show but-
Kim: One of them got arrested that day.
Matt: Under false pretenses.
Kim: I mean there’s Team Robespierre, there’s Japanthar, Hollywood Holt, Kid Sister—I’m waiting for her album to come out.
URB: Her new single [“Right Hand Hi”] is amazing!
Kim: I know! I feel like I’m constantly on ITunes putting in her name and just like Damnnit, it’s not out yet!
Matt: And our end of summer/fall tour we’ll be with Amanda Blank.
Kim: I’m really psyched she’s coming out, I actually geek out about her.
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