Taking the best elements from rock, pop, electronica, and anything else you’ve ever heard with melody and a sense of schizophrenia, The Matches are at the forefront of a unique sound that most thought was impossible during this stagnant era of musical creation.
The Matches were able to create something new when it seemed that everything else had already been done. I asked drummer Matt Whalen how he felt.
“I think that in all music scenes it seems like there’s a trend where everything is being done by bands that sound exactly the same. A lot of music or art that’s different is leading that trend, but it’s all the stuff that follows the wake of something becoming popular that makes it feel like everything has been done before.”
The Matches don’t seem to throw any restrictions on their song creation and studio production. Starting in Oakland, CA in 1997 with a DIY attitude under the name The Locals, the boys from The Matches have done everything from impromptu acoustic sets outside of venues to roping in a plethora of outstanding producers to work on Decomposer although everyone told them it wasn’t possible without label support.
When your music is so unique and refreshing, it makes sense that the likes of John Feldmann, Mark Hoppus, and Tim Armstrong would want to be a part of the production just to be part of something amazing. I was telling Matt that whenever I listened to Decomposer, I heard new things about the songs that I hadn’t heard during the first spin of the CD.
“That’s what we were trying to do in production…if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of it, there is stuff there for that. There is stuff in the background.”
Most bands aren’t ready to admit that they’ve started a band to make a living out of it. The portrayal of the goal is much more convoluted, but Matt readily admits that The Matches are striving towards something that will feed them for years to come.
“We started out this band with the goal as a basic principle to be able to make a living doing this. To make a good living doing this. We want to do it our way and we want to do it from the ground up. That’s why we signed to Epitaph and that’s why we didn’t sign to majors.”
When asked why Epitaph out of the whole sea of labels, Matt responded, “Well, the history of the bands from the ground up…they’re such an artist friendly label. I mean, we got to choose our first single. Most labels won’t let you do that. They left it in our hands and we hit it off with Brett Gurewitz [owner] really well right away.”
For most bands at the level of The Matches’ musical complexity, it would seem that they were already past the apex and on a steady decline toward retirement, but The Matches are just getting started and, with a history of no constraints, we can only put our heads between our knees and brace ourselves for the next chapter of schizophrenic genius.
– Gen Wolff