Many a young band faced with the dilemma of following up the surprising success of their self-released debut with an album on a high-profile label might decide (or, likelier, have it decided for them) to bunker down in the studio with a renowned producer, and put together a more accessible, streamlined version of that which made them popular in the first place.
While that may seem like the logical progression, not so for Oakland band The Matches. The group’s first proper album for notorious punk label Epitaph Records, Decomposer, features the work of nine – count them, nine – producers, including such scene luminaries as Rancid’s Tim Armstrong (who has produced Transplants, Pink), Goldfinger’s John Feldmann (The Used, Story of the Year), Blink-182 and +44’s Mark Hoppus (Motion City Soundtrack), 311’s Nick Hexum and Epitaph founder Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion.
Lead-guitarist Jon Devoto laughs down the phone-line that the Bay Area four-piece – comprised of Devoto with Shawn Harris (vocals/rhythm guitar), Justin San Souci (bass) and Matt Whalen (drums) – have a history of doing things a little differently, even if they have a few more famous contemporaries.
“If Jay-Z can do it then why can’t we?” he jokes about the number of producers. “I’m not even sure how the whole thing really came about. We just recorded a song here and there with a friend, one weekend at a dude’s studio, and then another weekend at a dude’s studio, and after a few months we kind of had a record.”
As you might expect from one with so many contributors, Decomposer is an album overflowing with ideas. Like a child with attention deficit, the disc tackles everything from energetic pop-rock to in-your-face punk to ballads and electronic meanderings – except that the attention to detail is most definitely there. This shows a remarkable transition for a band once pinned down as standard pop-punk/ska after their debut album E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals.
“Our first record was written over a very long period of probably five years,” Devoto explains. “As such Decomposer is a much more accurate representation of who we are at the moment. I think that we’re a band who will always drastically change. We change our appearances often and I have a feeling that every record we do will have a different sound but will still kind of keep the whole Matches vibe – whatever that means!”
And change they have. Devoto states that The Matches started off as a typical high school band. When he joined six years ago the group went by the name of The Locals, before a woman by the name of Yvonne Doll put a stop to it. The story has gone down in The Matches folklore by virtue of their debut album title, but Devoto is happy to retell it once more.
“Yvonne Doll was a woman in Chicago who had a crappy, country, Dave Matthews-type band called The Locals,” he begins, stoking the fire again. “She heard about our band about half way through the recording process of E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals – which obviously wasn’t called that at that point – and contacted us…well, she didn’t, her lawyers did, with a cease-and-desist. We thought it’d blow over and ignored it for a few weeks, but then she emailed us again and threatened us. We kind of freaked out but in retrospect we were just a local band then and no-one really knew who we were so changing our name wasn’t a big deal…and I’m glad to say we also ended up with the better band name!”
While The Locals had little trouble attracting such unwanted attention, the band members took up unusual methods of establishing a fan base. In addition to booking and promoting their own shows, the band gained notoriety for “commo-promo”, or commotion promotion, in which they would play “guerrilla-style” acoustic gigs at various Bay Area locations, notably high schools, malls, skate shops and outside large concerts.
Having now shared the stage with the likes of Yellowcard, Matchbook Romance, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, MXPX, Motion City Soundtrack and 44, and played the Vans Warped Tour, it is clear the The Matches no longer have to force their music upon others, and that people, gulp, actually want to listen to them. Devoto is modest on the topic of the band’s popularity
“I wouldn’t say we’ve had a great deal of success. We haven’t really played that much and we’re used to touring to a place 10 or fifteen times before anyone really knows who we are. Live we’ve been experimenting with guitar effects to try and recreate the new sounds,” he reveals before recoiling, “I think that we do a B-plus job at pulling off all the sounds.”
The band’s B-grade rock antics have been enough to ensure that The Matches will tour Australia for the second time this March. Having hit the road with Something With Numbers and MC Lars late last year, the band will be headlining their own shows this time around, safe in the knowledge that they’re “not really familiar with the geography of Australia or even what our tour schedule is!”
Modesty in rock stars is hard to come by, but with Jon Devoto at least it just seems to fall out.
“We’re not nearly popular enough to have people freak out at us,” he laments. “Actually when we played a festival a few of months ago, afterwards we were driving and we stopped at a gas station at probably 2am. I happened to pull up in front of a car with a Matches sticker on it. The girl filling up the gas was turned away so I came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and just started screaming. She woke up her friend who was in the car asleep and she started freaking out also. But that doesn’t happen often, I promise you.”
If you come across a tour van filled with a bunch of lost looking musicians during March you may like to lend a finger of direction – and perhaps even a scream of acknowledgement. You can be sure that it will be appreciated.
The Matches 2007 tour dates:
Friday 23rd March: Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW [18
Tix via venue www.annandalehotel.com
Saturday 24th March: Engadine Community Centre, Engadine NSW [All AGES]
Tix www.moshtix.com.au, Engadisc 02 95207537 & Fantasy Music 02 95236455
Sunday 25th March: Northern Star Hotel, Newcastle NSW [18+]
Tix via www.bigtix.com.au
Wednesday 28th March: The Road House, Yallah NSW [18+]
Via www.moshtix.com.au & the venue Ph (02) 4262 2655,Redback Music 02 4229 6169 & Hewletts Record Bar Ph (02) 4421 2265
Thursday 29th March: Plantation Hotel, Coffs Harbour NSW [TBC]
Via www.plantationhotel.com.au or the venue Ph (02) 66523855,Park Beach Music (02) 66523725 Coffs Music Ph (02) 66523725
Friday 30th March: The Zoo, Brisbane QLD [18+]
Tix via venue www.thezoo.com.au
Saturday 31st March: Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta QLD [18+]
Tix via www.oztix.com.au
Sunday 1st April: Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay NSW [18+]
Tix via the venue
Wednesday 4th April: Three Legged Dog, Albury NSW [18+]
Ph (02) 6023 1900
Thursday 5th April: Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc VIC [18+]
Via the venue Ph (03) 59788717 or www.peninsulalounge.com.au
Friday 6th April: East Brunswick Club, VIC [18+]
Via the venue Ph (03) 9388 9794 or www.eastbrunswickclub.com
Saturday 7th April: Enigma Bar, SA [LIC ALL AGES]
Tix via venue www.venuetix.com.au or CB ticketing Ph: 08 83210824
Decomposer is out now on Epitaph through Shock Records in Australia.
