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'RELIENT K' INTERVIEW
Category:
Interviews
Posted:
Monday, August 25, 2008
 Website: www.relientk.com
Interviewed: June 25, 2008 at Van's Warped Tour - Glendale, Arizona
Band Members:
Matt Thiessen - lead vocals, guitar, piano
Matt Hoopes - guitar, backing vocals
John Warne - bass guitar, backing vocals
Jon Schneck - guitar, banjo, bells, backing vocals
Ethan Luck - drums
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How long have you guys been together?
The band started coming up on 10 years now. First show was actually right before New Year's 1998.
What did you listen to early on that influenced you to get a band going?
Starting out, we listened to a lot of Weezer, MXPX, Green Day.
We also got into a lot more smaller punk bands, like 6 Shoes and Millencolin.
A lot of ska bands, too. And eventually the Ben Folds, the Beach Boys. That stuff trickled its way down, but at first it was pretty much Warped Tour culture that convinced us that we wanted to be the kind of band that we started out as.
Growing up, was there music in the house? Did you play instruments? Or did you just decide, "I want to be in a band. I'd better learn how to play something"?
We both come from pretty musical families. His mom used to play classical guitar at church for the kids, and I grew up listening to her. And I've taken piano lessons ever since I was six years old, and I hated it. But it taught me about music a little. I quit the piano lessons, but later on, I would use the piano stuff that I knew to write something. My parents were both in an octet before I was born. They used to tour the country and wear matching costumes from the ‘70s. Plaid brown pants and big, fat ties.
So, the early records - a lot of pop punk influence. How did that change from what you're doing now - you mentioned the Beach Boys. I'm a huge Beach Boys fan, so I picked up on that right away on the new one. How did you go from that to what it is now?
What we are now was always kind of there. On the first record there was maybe a spot where we did a few extra harmonies than we normally would have. That's a little bit of the Beach Boys influence. And then, over the years we would just build on those things because people seemed to like that aspect of our band and the fact that it wasn't all 100 percent pure pop punk. The fact that there was a little bit of piano, a little bit of something else here and there. So, when everybody and their mom started a pop punk band six years ago, we were really glad that we weren't just guitars and drums and bass anymore.
You did a Christmas album last year. How did that come about?
We put out one about three or four years ago, it had 10 songs on it. It was supposed to be an EP. And we decided instead of putting that back out as is, we'd track another six songs. It's fun. But you have to record those in the summertime so it can come out in December. It's always fun to record Christmas songs in the heat.
At the end of the album was that an obvious Beach Boys nod?
Yeah. Actually we did it on our first one, too, except our old bass player did it, and he's not in the band anymore. So we did it, you and me.
The other one was a little bit more verbatim. I always thought it was cool how at the end of their record, Denny got to come on there. You know Denny didn't arrange or really write anything. He pretty much just sat there and sang the whole time. The fact that they let him do the outro to the record - it was still sappy, but it was heartwarmingly Christmas.
Also on the last album you had sort of a country tinge. Was that a risk putting that on there? How have people reacted to that?
It's fun. One of our influences was Fountains of Wayne and they do every genre in the book as well. Doing a little bit of country isn't anything we're ashamed to do. On our new EP, we divided it, but it's 26 songs. the first half is called the Nashville, Tennessee EP because it's a ton of country songs. There are probably six or seven country tunes on it. The last 13 songs are all B-sides that we collected over the last seven or eight years. (Released July 1, 2008)
Have you guys done Warped Tour before?
In 2005.
Did you miss it? Is it the highlight of the year or is it too much work, too much crazy?
I'm already enjoying this year's Warped Tour because we kind of know what to expect. We're already a little bit in our groove. Before you start, you really have to look at your set (?) and go, it's kind of like a bunch of buddies getting in an RV, driving across the country, just jamming out, playing some tunes. But the fact that it's a tour and there are kids there, it's a bonus. But if you think about it, what kid - when he's turning 18 or 19 - wouldn't want to just jump in an RV with a bunch of his friends and go around the country? If you look at it like that, it's a dream come true to do this thing. We're enjoying it and keeping the right attitude. When stuff get hard, you just smile and get through it.
What do you listen to now?
We're all going through the new Coldplay record right now, letting that sink in. I listen to a lot of Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, stuff like that. New Frontiers put out a record this year that's pretty top-notch.
I just got this record called I'm from Barcelona, that I really like.
Normal stuff. And then, at the same, time, I went out and bought Goldfinger's new record - I jam out to that all the time. I love that stuff. Hopefully it's still relevant.
Top three Beach Boys songs of all time?
Feel Flows, Surf's Up and Warmth of the Sun
Tell me something you absolutely hate.
There's too much of that. We're going to do a Smashmouth cover EP, because we hate Smashmouth so much. I used to really hate AC/DC. I thought it was the worst music ever written. But now, I really like them. It's simple, but it's beautiful. The guitar is just perfect - everything just kicks you in the face.
What's after the Warped Tour?
We've got a couple of weeks off, then we start a headlining tour; we're going out with Lou Doe (??), This Providence and House of Heroes. All three bands are pretty cool in my book.
How is the musical landscape different now - as far as the sheer amount and style of bands, and the way bands are promoted - how has it changed for you guys in the last 10 years?
We aren't MySpace fiends. We don't use the Internet as much to our advantage as I think we could. But we just don't care that much, because it's annoying to bother people on the Internet. But a lot of bands really exploit that, and you get some really good bands out of that sort of thing. Also, with technology being what it is, everyone can pretty much be in a band now. But I feel like the cream still rises to the top. Even though there are a bazillion bands out there, the ones that are good end up playing for people and impressing people, and people buy their records. It's cool -a lot of kids learn how to write songs and be in a band and get good at it. It's fun.
We've always had really Internet-savvy bands when we started out, and we always sort of felt that there was support there and we were really able to communicate with people through that. But this whole newer overload generation of Internet advertising and marketing never caught on with the band. We let the suits deal with that crap. That's what they get paid for. There are a lot of bands, but if you legitimately have good songs, it's probably going to go someplace. It's still the came concepts.
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