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Interview
Usually we hate doing interviews at venues
because nothing goes right! Last time we were at Irvine: Verizon
Wireless, everything went wrong. Our tickets took forever to get and
getting cameras in were a pain...but yesterday everything went perfect.
All the tickets were at Will Call (Thanks Jeff and Scott)..and Relient K
was really fun to interview. The place was pretty crowded so we went
behind a building where no one was. The guys lined up in front of a
chain/barbwire type fence (thats what I call a nice background) and we
started the interview.
Dave was holding a big stick that had a few branches on them. At the end
of the branches were cups....they said it was a fire.....so of course
Matt T. had to put out the fire. How? With a package of skittles.
Basically this set the mood for our interview....funny, funny, and oh..
kinda funny. Be sure to check out their site at www.relientk.com and
listen to some of their music. Also be sure to buy their latest album
available on their site and at your local music store.
Why don't you introduce yourselves?
Matt H: I'm Matt.
Brian: I'm Brian.
Matt T: I'm also Matt.
Dave: I am not Matt but Dave.
How did you guys get together and who came up with your name?
Matt T: Well, the three of us(Matt T., Matt H. and Brian) kind of
grew up together and we went to church together and stuff and we played
guitars together and then we started a band. Dave's been with us for
about a year and a half. He was a friend of a friend type of thing but
now he is just a friend cause we like him. We came up with the name
because Matt H. used to drive a Relient K car, a Plymouth, made those in
the 80's, and we used to make fun of them because they are not very good
cars, so that's that.
How would you guys describe your music?
Matt T: Well, it's kind of like rock and roll, a lot of pop and
punk influences, lots of harmonies, kind of like Beach Boys meets Blink
meets...lots of stuff.
Growing up, did you always want to be in a band?
Matt T: We wanted to be in a band so we started it except for
Dave.
Dave: Yeah.
Who influences you musically?
Matt T: Personally, I think all of us, our parents are musical,
like my mom is like in an octet and they tour Brazil. My dad was in it
to, and that was funny. They made records and they all made their own
clothes and stuff, like curtains, it was really funny and weird.
Dave: We were mostly influenced by that.
Matt T: Yeah, and then as far as other bands, like I grew up
listening to Simon and Garfunkel and the Beach Boys and stuff like that,
that's some of that. Then, we started getting into punk rock like MxPx
and stuff like that.
Dave: We listen to a lot of music now.
Matt T: A lot of music.
Dave: Lots of influence.
What would we find in your CD players right now?
Dave: My last outing I bought the Finch CD.
Yeah, we just interviewed Finch.
Dave: You did? Yeah, I was just listening to them. I like them.
Matt T: What a coincidence.
Brian: For me, I like The Starting Line lately...
Hey, we just interviewed them too.
Brian: I like them a lot, and then I like Creed, I'm not kidding
either, it's good music to listen too.
Matt T: Let's see, in my CD player right now, I'll listen to
another drive thru band, the new Midtown alot, and the last Benfold solo
thing alot, and I like the Beach Boys.
Matt H: I listen to Death Cap for Cutie and uh the new Pedro one
and uh...
Matt T: What a weirdo. (All laugh)
Matt H: Yeah, I'm a dork.
Matt T: Matt was hesitant because he didn't want to be pegged as
the Emo kid.
Dave: Yeah cause he's not, cause he listens to a lot of heavy
metal.
Brian: I like Thrice.
Matt T: Yeah, Thrice is good, did you interview them?
No, we haven't.
Matt T: Oh, well their from Cali.
Are you guys from California?
Matt T: No, we're from Ohio. That's why we're so white.
How do you guys deal with being away from home, do you guys miss
your family?
Matt T: Cell phones help a lot. Actually, my brother lives out
here, and he's coming to see me today, so I get to see him. I dont'
know. It's kind of like going away to college, your gone a lot but your
still home on the holidays, and for us even more than that. It's not
that rough.
Dave: We get a few days here and there.
Describe a day in your guys' life.
Brian: I go running normally, and then I eat breakfast, and then
I get in the van and play video games for 4 to 8 hours normally. I
listen to some music and I scream things at people...
Matt T: Yeah, we yell out of our windows a lot.
Brian: Just yelling various things.
Matt T: Did you ever see Vanilla Sky?
No, I haven't.
Matt T: Well in the movie, he's up on the roof, and he starts
screaming for Tech support, so we always scream out of our window,
"Tech support", because we need it.
Brian: Yeah, they don't know what it means though, so we yell at
people. Then we go to the show and we set up, and normally really nice
people get us food that we don't deserve so we get to eat the food, and
we get to play a show with fans that we don't deserve, and then we get
in our van which we do deserve.
I heard you guys did a cover song of Veggie Tales, how was that are
you guys big fans of them?
Matt T: Not particularly. They're cool but they're little for
kids and stuff....cause Matt's mom does children's stuff for church, so
she's all about it, she has T-shirts and stuff with them on it. It's a
really cool opportunity, we're like, "Wow, how did they even know
we were around?"
I heard they did one of your guys' songs as well.
Matt T: Yeah, the cucumber guy did a polka version of our song
Breakdown. We haven't heard it yet.
Any embarrassing moments on stage?
Matt T: Have you ever seen movies where the stunt guys are on
fire, well Brian's got one of those fire suits and we've lit him on fire
right before we go on stage. One time he forgot to put the suit on, and
we didn't realize it, so we doused him with lighter fluid.
Brian: They wouldn't listen, they thought I was being my crazy
self.
Matt T: Yeah, we just thought he was playing a joke.
Brian: I was saying, "Don't light it on fire", but they
were just like, "Oh, you say that everyday."
Matt T: We just thought he was playing a joke. That was
definitely embarrasing if anything.
So did it hurt?(laughs)
Matt T: Yeah it hurt...hurt the pride.
Brian: Well at first everyone felt sorry for me, then they were
all like, "Why did you do that?" They made me look like a
fool.
What is your favorite song out of all of the albums you made?
Matt T: See we are doing new ones right now, so we like all those
songs better than any of the ones before. I guess my other favorite
would be "Sadie Hawkins Dance", because it is dumb and fun.
Dave: Mines would be "Down in Flames", its a fun one
for me.
(Matt T. hits Brian on the nose)
Brian: He hit me on the nose.
Matt T: You told a bad joke.
Brian: We don't hit during interviews.
Matt T: What is your favorite?
Brian: I don't know because you hit me...now I don't like the
band.
Matt H: I like all of them.
Where do you see yourselves in five years?
Matt T: Wow I will be 26.
Dave: Living in a box.
Matt T: That would be cool if we could still be a band. Just
kinda trying to do the same thing.
Brian: We will still be trying to still grow facial hair, we are
going to draw it on with sharpies.
Matt T: We want to get to the point that we have so albums out we
will have a hard time picking what song to play live.
What message do you want to give all your fans out there?
Matt T: This is my graduation advice to the class of 2003. If you
are going to have a pizza party make sure you have enough soda and chips
for everybody cause that just gets ugly..alright??..cool.
Dave: What could you say after that?
Matt T: Yeah we had a band meeting before this, and that was
basically our platform.
Brian: But if you don't stay in school, then there would be no
one to go to the pizza party...so stay in school.
Matt H: So what you should have said first is stay in school then
that second.
Matt T: Yeah and don't do non-pharmaceuticals
Well that ends are interview so thank you very much.
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