As students get more and more excited in the days leading up to Juice Jam on Sept. 13, the Pulp staff talked to Matt Johnson from Matt and Kim to get you the inside scoop. Johnson talks college audiences, the “New Glow” tour and his relationship with Kim Schifino.

The Daily Orange: What songs are you most excited to perform at Juice Jam and why?

Matt Johnson: Of course we like to play songs that people know and people can sing along to like “Daylight” and “Let’s Go” and stuff. But I also love the covers we bring to the show. There might be a little R. Kelly in there. We’ll see. We’ll try to bring some surprises.

The D.O.: You guys have been together 10 years — have any relationship wisdom to share with us?

M.J.: Let’s see… What works for us I don’t think would work for everybody. We spend every second of every day together. Every other relationship I’ve been in — if it was like this — we would’ve killed each other. I don’t know why the drama doesn’t come up with us; it doesn’t need to. Or every guy just needs to find a bad-ass chick like Kim.

The D.O.: The lyric video for “Get It” features lots of twerking and footage from your almost destructive Bonnaroo performance — what made you decide to include these things?

M.J.: Well first of all, Kim shaking dat ass definitely happens a lot on our stage, so that had to be part of the video. The Bonnaroo performance, by the end of it, I thought I didn’t know if we all were going to make it out alive. Kim said something about everyone outside the tent crowd surfing to the stage and that’s when civilization collapsed. So that needed to be included because it was one of the feats in our lives.

 

The D.O.: What were some of the greatest memories and highlights from your “New Glow” tour?

M.J.: Well there was a point in San Diego where a blow-up raft got into the audience and people just kept taking turns riding it around for almost the entire show — two get in one falls out etc. —that stuck out. Also, there was a show in Kansas City the day after I had broken my hand, and it was pouring rain and the show was outside. It seemed like it was going to all go to sh*t, but it just came together, it just worked, nothing broke, I was able to play with my hand wrapped up. I think sometimes when your expectations are low and it works out, things are just that much more satisfying.

The D.O.: What is the funniest reaction you’ve ever gotten from a fan?

M.J.: One year, we were playing Coachella and the audience starts cheering really loudly and I’m thinking, ‘Wow we’re killing it right now!’ and I turn around and see a guy got on stage naked doing tricks with his parts. It was amazing, I respected it wholeheartedly.

The D.O.: How do you like performing for college students as an audience?

M.J.: Well, in the end, I think that college is such a — I don’t know, basically that’s one of the times you have an open mind to all kinds of music and are excited about new music and new things in general. Sometimes when you’re younger, you get caught up in what everyone else likes and when you’re older you get more closed off and college is kind of the sweet spot.

The D.O.: Where did you get the inspiration for your most recent album, “New Glow?”

M.J.: I think partially we wanted to do something as diverse as our live show is. With our live show we put in all these sort of genres of music. I think this album was one of the first times we were able to capture those different influences into one album.

The D.O.: What are you guys working on next?

M.J.: I don’t know, our album only came out four months ago and we’ve been playing a bunch of shows, touring a lot. About to head to the UK and tour with Fall Out Boy. We have a lot of shows in our future, but I also hope to do collaborations and stir things up, see what happens.

Published on September 9, 2015 at 8:51 pm

Contact Alex: aerdekia@syr.edu