Matt & Kim’s Matt Johnson talks New Album, New Tour, and Timeless Bangers

I remember the first time I saw Matt & Kim live. I was in middle school, I had a face full of acne, and I counted down the days until I could see them open for Passion Pit. By the end of their set I was trickled with sweat, sore from the face down, and knew I was having the time of my life. Fast-forward a few years and the Brooklyn-based duo still holds a special place in my heart. Matt & Kim fans everywhere collectively rejoiced when the band’s upcoming tour was announced — it was only just a year ago that Matt & Kim had to cancel their tour as Kim suffered an onstage injury that tore her ACL (in the most badass fashion possible, of course).

We sat down with Matt Johnson to get the inside scoop on the new album ALMOST EVERYDAY (2018), set to release on May 5th, and the upcoming tour that’s making a stop at The Warfield on Tuesday, April 3rd.

Could you tell us a little bit about ALMOST EVERYDAY? This is the sixth album you’re putting out — what makes it different from the rest?

It’s the SIXTH album, right? Like how the hell did we get here? There are bands that never made it this far and never made it to album number six; I can’t believe we’re already here. It just is different.

How so?

It’s different because we had a really weird year last year. Kim tore her ACL and meniscus on stage and we had to cancel all of our shows that year … all the bad headlines were happening. Generally, I feel like people — especially those who are familiar with our music — know that we play to a very upbeat kind of vibe. Musically this album is still upbeat, but I think that lyrically we weren’t ready to write about lighthearted things.

We didn’t think there was a theme until I listened to the whole thing and I was like, “Oh my god, we’re talking a lot about mortality and appreciating what you’ve got or where you’ve gone, and life speeding up.” I didn’t expect [the album] to come out that way, but it just did.

I’ve never seen artists so genuine with their fans …  like with the vlogs and the What Happened To Kim videos. I mean, I’ve never seen a musician puking in a plastic folder and just acting so real on camera. How would you describe your relationship with your fans? What has led you to be this real?

I always say that if not a coincidence, our band name is Matt & Kim — it makes sense for us to be on a first name basis with our fans. For the first couple of years as Matt & Kim, we never even played any venues.  We played in people’s living rooms, we played in art spaces, we slept on people’s floors… that’s sort of what we thought we would always do.

I think there’s a certain connection between us [and our fans] when we’re on stage — it’s probably the most important part about our band. When we play our songs on stage, having it more personal and face to face is something special in addition to the music.

So when we were off the road for a while we thought we could start making videos on YouTube and just put ourselves out there and have that connection. Even just reading the comments — I love reading all the comments that people write on our YouTube videos or Instagram stuff — we just wanted more of a personal connection.

It was exactly a year (and one day) ago since Kim had her accident on stage. How does it feel to be going back on tour?

It does feel great, yes, but it’s also definitely nerve-wracking. We don’t want to take our show down even 1% from what it used to be. Even just now with the few shows we’ve done so far on the tour — seeing Kim jump up and down on her kick drum — I get nervous!l I’m realizing that we’re not invincible. Maybe I thought we were invincible before, but either way it hasn’t seemed to change anything so far.

It’s also just great to see Kim dancing. I’ve watched her tear up a couple of times, especially during this song we play called “Now” — she gets to play really hard and really fast, which is her favorite thing to do on the drums — there’s a little something different. Maybe it’s even us having a greater appreciation for what we get to do.

So how would you describe your live performance to someone who’s never been to one of your shows?

I feel like saying “It’s a party!” is cliche, but what it really is is a celebration! I think It feels a little more like a DJ set than you would assume an indie band’s set to be. We do all these covers of pop songs, we have enough confetti and balloons to make a real good mess, and Kim is dancing for a good percentage of the show… it really is a celebration.

Going off of the ways in which you’re changing the genre of indie music and pushing outside of the mold — the new album has a LOT of features on it, which you usually don’t see in this kind of music. This album has  features all over the musical spectrum from Clairo to King Tuff to Mark Hoppus… what led to that?

Coming back to the live energy aspect … I think there’s something special about the energy of the songs when they’re on stage, and I think part of that is an audience thing, to sing along to them. We thought it would be cool to get more voices singing, just in group, in unison — like what happens in a show — not in harmonies. Not features in a traditional sense, we wanted to just have voices, singing together.

Then we thought it would be cool if they were people we know, people we’re impressed with, or our other peers in music, so those are the people we hollered at. And yeah, I’m really glad we do have a musically diverse group to be a part of.

If you weren’t playing music with Kim, where do you think you’d be now? Like, what if you two had never met?

Oh my god… I don’t know! It’s almost unfathomable. We met when I was quite young and we’ve spent every day together; we moved in together three months after we met!

I mean, I’m like scared of grocery stores! I can’t even go back on this whole story of why that is, but what I’m trying to say is I never had a time to fend for myself. We always did everything together. I always say that I’m the “dreamer” and she’s the “do-er,” but I don’t know that I would have ever written songs that anyone outside of my bedroom would’ve heard without her. She sort of made everything happen. So I honestly don’t know.

I do think that our music videos have always come along from me. I went to film school, and I think I would probably be somewhere in that sort of visual world, but I don’t know. We talk about it sometimes, what we would do if we didn’t do this band, and it’s a scary thought.

“Like I Used To Be” is a song about how you used to be, and I’m sure you’ve come a long way from living in a small apartment and playing house shows for your friends. I mean you’ve developed so much musically and artistically since then, and now you’re playing playing these huge festivals and headlining shows. What do you think you miss the most about not being this “big,” if anything?

Not having expectations — that was a beautiful, blissful thing. When we started out, there was no expectation, there were never any expectations that you had to sell X number of tickets or have X number of streams or views on something. Everything was just icing on the cake because we had no expectations. Then after a while you have different partners, labels, agents and stuff like that… and now it’s all about doing things to a specific extent.

With all that said, we came back around with this most recent album. We know they say that the album is dead and that it’s all about singles and that people just listen to their music on shuffle or put it in a playlist or whatever, but we decided not to focus on singles and to make an album.  We made an album that’s meant to be listened to as an album, with no expectations that we’re even going to make a big single or something like that, and it was actually really freeing, it felt like something we would have done earlier on.

Even the song we just put out a couple of days ago [“Happy If You’re Happy”] — it’s a minute and a half long and has no real chorus; it’s just finger snaps and Kim’s and my vocals! It was cool to do a song that didn’t feel like a single; it was just a song that we liked. I don’t know, it’s freeing to try to not give yourself any expectations.

Just one more: Let’s say you’re at a really shitty party and you need to bring it back to life and someone hands you the aux cord. What song do you play?

Hmm … I mean it always depends on what kind of party it is! I’m going to go with Kim’s favorite song, a classic suggestion, and STILL her favorite song: T.I.’s “Bring Em Out.” It’s produced by Swizz Beatz and it’s got this hype chorus. That song is just always hype.

Maybe also Outkast’s “Bombs over Baghdad” — that thing GOES!

Right now though, I’m feeling Princess Nokia’s “Tomboy” — that gets me hyped!

All great songs!

Or let’s go full other angle, let’s go to a very different party but another song that gets me hype, which is, shit, “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Hall & Oates. Who can’t be psyched when that song comes on!?

Don’t miss you chance to see Matt & Kim live! The band is making a stop at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 3rd! Tickets available here.  

Written by Rosie Davidowitz