Matt and Kim
Interview with Matt and Kim
Words: Lily Richeson
Photo: Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor

Matt and Kim will be spreading joy around Florida with five highly anticipated dates in May.  The adorable Brooklyn based couple played at Transitions in Tampa last year and had kids talking for months afterwards.  We had a few minutes alone with them as they were in the middle of recording and were allowed a brief glimpse into their happy family.

REAX:  Your crowds and venues you play at have grown in size recently. Do you ever miss the cramped house shows or the small D.I.Y. venues?
Matt:  We still play house shows.  On our way down to SXSW, we played a venue in Little Rock, Arkansas called The Tree House.  We’ve played it a few times and it’s always been insane.  This time the cops came and shut it down, so we moved the whole show to someone else’s house.  It literally smelled like dog shit, but everyone came and had a lot of fun.

REAX:  I’ve heard both good and bad things about South by Southwest… How was your experience?
Kim:  We’ve played SXSW two years now.  Last year it was on a much smaller scale.  Both years were good to us, but this year was definitely awesome.
Matt:  I had a ton of fun.  A lot of parties got busted, so people we pretty bummed out about that.  We played seven shows and all of them worked out.

REAX:  Have kids started throwing food at you since you put out the “Yeah Yeah” video?
Matt:  No.  We did a video before that where we were cutting each other’s arms off and Kim was kind of worried that people would start cutting…
Kim:  I wasn’t just worried that people were going to cut each other.  I was worried that moms weren’t going to let their kids come to our shows because they thought…
Matt:  laughs
Kim:  Shut up Matt!

REAX:  You guys are notorious for being extremely happy and I know there are times when you aren’t in the mood.  How do you guys get yourselves in a good mood before a show?
Matt:  We try to be honest no matter what.  Normally we are in pretty good moods or if we’re in a bad mood, then playing music will take us out of that.  I think if we were playing a show and everything was going wrong then you’d be able to tell.

REAX:  What’s your main influence in making the music that you make?
Matt:  We listen to a lot of mainstream hip hop and pop punk… things that we can dance around in our apartment to.

REAX:  What advice can you give bands starting out on the importance of stage presence?
Matt:  I can’t stand seeing another band that puts on the “too cool” poker face.  You can tell when someone is faking it.  We play from a place of enjoying our own music and I think it rubs off on the audience.