So that will be out around the time your next album comes out?
Well… No, we’re gonna have it done by the beginning of April so it will probably be out by Warped Tour. We’re actually talking about putting the next album out at the end of Warped Tour.
Really? Do you already have the songs written?
We already have like, three-fourths of it recorded, so yeah.
Isn’t that kind of an oversaturation of the market?
[Laughs] Yes.
Since you do both art and music, do you feel like one is a more complete means of expression for you than the other?
I feel like neither of them are a complete means of expression without the other.
What if I held you at gunpoint and made you choose one?
I guess film, because you need both. You need a score to go with it. I’d probably cut myself in half thinking that half of myself could do one and half of myself could do the other. That would be poetic, wouldn’t it?
Have you ever heard any good rumors about yourself?
There was a thread on our message with a question about how big is my penis and in order to quell the curiosity I was like, ‘I should just take a picture of my actual penis and post it on the message board.’ But my mom told me that would be a bad thing to do and I shouldn’t do it. Instead I drew a picture of my penis, in two different states. One it was coiled around myself like a garden hose and the second picture was just a grenade hole, like something bad happened and there was a crater left.
What was the response to those?
I don’t know what the proper adjective for that response was. The thread stopped. I really wanted to put a picture of my real one though.
Do you want to finally quell the curiosity now and tell everyone how big your penis is?
No, I don’t want to quell curiosity.
Do you think your image and the image of your band is a good representation of who you are?
I don’t know. It’s funny when we go to do photographs because we’re clearly dressing up and posing for the camera. I always like post-show photographs, when we’re all sweaty and gross, but then our record label says that’s a bad idea. ‘You’re not going to sell records looking disgusting.’ They might be right. I wanted to take promo photos of all of us naked, not retouched or anything. We were definitely really bummed about how we were portrayed after our first record came out. Our first record on Epitaph was kind of our first foray into the real music world, so it was surprising to think out everything you’re putting into the media and your art and how you look and your videos, what your Wikipedia says about you.
What does your Wikipedia say about you?
It might still say we’re a pop punk band, which annoys the hell out of us. Other than that, it’s getting better.
What are you if you’re not pop punk?
I think where we’re heading is into a post-genre area. I’m really not into a style of music, at least right now. I feel like that’s how I started too, before I learned ‘Oh you gotta have this haircut and show up at this show.’ The accessibility of music on the Internet, and bands are coming straight to the fans now so everything’s kind of going post-genre now. I’d rather be classified by the songs we write, whether they’re good or bad. You’re either good or you’re bad.
So which are you?
Oh, we’re good.
The Matches will be performing at the School Of Rock in South Hackensack on Monday, Feb. 19, and at the Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday, Feb. 20. For more information, visit thematches.com
