TagWorld Exclusive Interview with The Matches at Bamboozle Left 06’

Pomona, CA – TagWorld.com’s Ryan met up with The Matches at Bamboozle Left 06’ at the Cal Poly Pomona Athletic Field to talk about the band’s tour and the latest on what they’ve been up to.

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Ryan: Hi this is Ryan at Bamboozlefest and I’m here with John from Matches

John: Hello, how are you?

Ryan: I’m great. It’s early and this is gonna kick-off the day right now. So why don’t you talk about your album, September 12th, Decomposure…

John: It’s actually Decomposer

Ryan: Decomposer

John: That’s okay. It came out about a month ago. September 12, out on Epitaph records. We’re going on tour soon with a band called Plus 44, who’s Mark Coppus, Travis Barker, and a couple other dudes, that starts like November through December, and then uh yeah.

Ryan: Cool, so you guys are from Oakland, CA

John: That’s right. We’re from Oakland. We’ve been here for about a week. We played with Rancid a few days ago, which was awesome. And huh just hanging out around here waiting for Bamboozle.

Ryan: Nice, are there any bands you are looking forward to seeing yourself while you’re here?

John: Yes, um Dashboard…Don’t tell anyone that, cause I’m not supposed to like Dashboard. But I love em, Dashboard um brand new Cobra Starship. I can’t wait to see those guys, huh Valencia, Melee. I don’t know, there’s a whole lot of bands that I’m excited to see.

Ryan: Are you gonna be able to stick around til tomorrow?

John: Yeah, yeah. We’re gonna be here hanging out all day. All day today and tomorrow.

Ryan: Where are you guys off to next?

John: We go home for a few weeks. And then we have CMJ shows in a few weeks. And then we hit the road with Plus 44.

Ryan: Nice. So on your new album. I was looking at some of the people who actually produced the album. And huh, why don’t you talk about some of the people that actually worked on the album with you.

John: Mark Coppus, Nick Hexum from 311, Tim Armstrong. John Feldman, who produced the Used, Story of the Year, Goldfinger. Brett, from Bad Religion, Epitaph. We got a whole bunch of dudes who are in bands and producers to work on our record. Kind of like a hiphop record, like JayZ gets a whole bunch of producers and what not. But huh for a rock band. It’s kind of scary,…we weren’t really positive it was gonna come out great but I think it flows well and what not.

Ryan: So now you’re gonna be on tour with Plus 44 too…

John: Yes. That’s how we got that tour. Cause we know Mark now. We’re like hey, you produced our band. You should take us on tour now. Ya know, so he did-which is pretty cool.

Ryan: Nice man. So whenever I’m in Northern California, I hear this song on the radio called Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock. Why don’t you tell about that song.

John: A good friend, MC Lars came over to us about a year ago. He’s like, yo, I wanna do a collaboration song. And he brought out all the lyrics for Hot Topic. And he’s like, yeah I wanna do a punk song. But like a pop-punk punk song. So we wrote the song with him. And he put it on his album and they’re playing it on the radio. And apparently Hot Topic apparently has it in their stores now and huh yeah.

Ryan: So the Hot Topic song doesn’t seem like it’s the most positive thing about…

John: It’s not. They were actually kind of pissed off about it at first. They were like calling up all our managers-Like what the fuck, we can’t have this, we can’t have this. And a couple days after, they were like-We like it now. And we think it’s cool promotion so we want it in out stores.

Ryan: Nice, so at least that worked out for you. You’ve gone on some Hot Topic sponsored tours.

John: Not quite. McLars and us did a co-headlining tour with us a few months ago. But it wasn’t Hot Topic sponsored or anything like that, but no….

Ryan: So as far as the recording process and what you guys go through while you’re doing it. Can you tell us about that. How do you prepare for a new record?

John: Well our last record, …I guess apparently usually bands pick a producer, go in the studio for like or whatever and they record a record. But we just recorded in between tours. Like going over to Mark’s house. Or going over to Tim’s house, you know. For like a weekend here and a weekend there. Which I guess isn’t the standard way bands do it. But it worked out for us, going to their houses in between tours cause we were able to tour constantly but make a record still, which was cool.

Ryan: Cool man. You know, we’re TagWorld.com. We’re an internet company. We have about twelve thousand unsigned artists on our site. And they’re ultimate goal is pretty much to do what you guys are doing now. What kind of advice cand you give bands that are up and coming who wanna make it?

John: Play as many shows as you can. Be your own band. Don’t try to be whatever is fucking whatever’s popluar. I don’t know just play your own music. Play as many concerts, basements, coffee shops, play anywhere you can. Just tour, play shows, meet people.

For more information and to check out The Matches’ exclusive TagWorld interview at Bamboozle Left 06’ go to: tagworld.com/bamboozleleft