Interview with Matt from Matt & Kim:
Q: How do you feel about the upcoming Coastline Festival?
A: I’m psyched! It’s been a minute since we were in Florida this year. We have been but like… we’ll go through Florida and do like five or six, seven shows sometimes, and I feel like there’s a certain amount of getting crazy that happens, which is exactly what I love during the show.
Q: What do you like best about touring in Florida?
A: We’re a band that makes a lot of sense in places where there’s sunshine and people are active and like to get wild. Sometimes when we go somewhere darker and colder like the northern UK, it doesn’t make as much sense for our band. So going somewhere south like that is something that works with our band: People just wildin’ out.
Q: How do you stay so energetic during your shows?
A: There’s certain days where you have an early flight and a late night beforehand and whatnot, but we’re on stage for an hour out of the day or just around that, and there’s 23 other hours in the day when we’re not. And I feel like that one hour when you get out there and there’s an audience that’s excited to see you, it immediately pops me out of whatever sort of funk I’m in. I don’t know how some bands look so bored on stage because it’s fun and it’s exciting, and the other bands look like they’re taking a nap while they’re playing. And for us, it’s seeing people who are excited to hear this music that you wrote, and I don’t know, it always gets us exhausted.
Q: How is Matt & Kim going to leave their mark at the first Coastline Festival?
A: I hope that we leave our mark in just people walking away and saying, “That was one of the funnest sets I’ve seen.” I always say that we’re always jumping around and whatnot, and we always make mistakes because we’re human and whatnot, but I think that just the energy of having fun and being involved it’s what carries us through it all, and it’s what carries the audience through it all, and I think if people can leave and say, “I had so much fun.” You don’t even have to know our songs — it’s not about that. We put all sorts of other pieces of other songs and stuff like that, and yeah, that’s the bottom line: to have fun.
Q: You guys were scheduled to play at UF’s Swampfest this past July, but it was canceled due to lightning. So how can UF fans get their Matt & Kim dose?
A: That was so sad that day. We were right there. We did the soundcheck, and all the volunteers were really cool. And we had set everything up, and we were waiting, and that storm came in, and they said the policy about the lightning, and every half an hour, they had to reset the clock, and we just kept hoping it would stop. The worst-case scenario is not being able to play. That’s the whole reason we do all the traveling, and that’s the whole reason people come out, and that’s the whole reason it all happens. We were so frustrated we ended up hanging out for a while and taking pictures with a lot of wet people who stood out there in the rain. We’re so sorry it didn’t end up working out, and we definitely hope that whoever can make it does make it. I’ll definitely give a special shout-out to the folks that tried to be at that.
Q: What’s next for Matt & Kim?
A: The Florida shows are the finale shows of the year. They might be two of the last shows before we take a break to write some new music. We’re home for a while, which is weird, because we’ve been on the road for more than half the days out of the year, sort of every weekend. I feel all warmed up just for these finale shows.
A version of this story ran on page 10 on 10/31/2013 under the headline "Matt & Kim talks weather, Swampfest and getting wild"
