The 80s Matchbox, admiring Manchester's architecture
From left to right: Rich, Marc, Guy, Tom, Sym
They were heralded; they were big news when the first album Horse of a Dog came out. They were inspirations to almost every single decent band for their comeback album The Royal Society, and yet briefly after the release they got dropped. After the long hiatus, now armed with their new EP In the Garden, SUPERSWEET finds out what lessons in life have the 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster learned.
The 80s Matchbox are entering a new phase. Taking a look at the photos we’ve just taken of them and it’s obvious something is really different, but no one can quite figure out why. True, it’s been three long years since these guys made an appearance in a solid article of SUPERSWEET (or anywhere else for that matter), but age or time aren’t the reason.
The 80s Matchbox we see before us is a different band from when they first commercially appeared around 2002, hardly fresh-faced any more, yet there’s the energy stirring in the air around them that feels wildly alive.
There’s something strangely symbolic about some of the influences singer Guy McKnight cites in making In the Garden. He mentions how he is fascinated by actor Klaus Kinski, and Kinski’s relationship with one of his best friends director Werner Herzog who famously recounted working with Kinski as the actor threatened to leave the film set after countless attempts: “‘You can't do this.’ I told him I had a rifle and that he'd only make it as far as the first bend before he had eight bullets in his head— the ninth one would be for me.”
Like love and hate, they are two of the same thing. That’s the kind of passion we can find in this band these days and it’s all or nothing. And it could only go either way from now on…
SS: Why don’t you tell us you’ve been doing since the last album?
Tom Diamantopoulo (drums): We’ve been writing, making shitloads of music and trying to reinvent ourselves really. Since Andy (Huxley, former guitarist) left, been trying to find ourselves again. So going through that musical journey has been really good actually, I feel like I’m sort of finally getting there.
SS: Has it changed a lot since he left?
Guy McKnight (vocals): I think the dynamic in the band has changed. I think I agree with Tom that we definitely had to find ourselves again and it made sort of far huger impact when he did leave in terms of I really had to refocus and learn. It’s been a huge benefit for me personally because it’s made me write music whereas before I only wrote one of the ten songs on the first album and then just kind of vocal melody and lyrics on bits of the second album, but you know I really love writing music so it’s been a massive benefit. I’ll always be grateful to him to that, and having someone else new in the band has been challenging but I think it is brings some new energy and a different dynamic certainly.
SS: So it helped to take some time off then?
Guy: I think being out of the limelight for a couple of years has helped us get to a place now where we have much more of a identity within the band, and it’s given us really that space to forge band, develop band - personally and musically and even though 2006 was a…
Tom: Year-long bender!
Guy: (Laughs) No! That was 2005 ...was the yearlong bender! 2006 was a huge struggle. I wish we’d played more and I do regret not taking more action to play more but at the same time I feel like it was the best year of my life. And so because of that, I’ve been able to be much more open to my friends in the band and give so much more. I think it’s really only just the beginning and I feel now that there’s a definite sense of a new era and I feel a burning to create and write now all the time and I feel really frustrated if I don’t do something creative everyday.
SS: In hindsight, how do you view the previous works, pre-Rich (Fownes, new guitarist)?
Guy: I think the music on those two albums is sort of fantastical, a lot of characters and a lot of story telling. Personally the kind of lyrics that I’m going to be writing from sort of this point on that I will be contributing to the next album will be a lot more personal. Even though a subjective view can be seen as a selfish one but if it’s from the heart, and your intention is sincere then in fact I think it’s a lot more accessible and people can relate a lot more. I can only speak for myself, but a lot of lyrics that I’ve written, not all of them but the majority of them have been quite sort of obscure and only I know what they mean and the kind of the mood and emotion is in the tone and how the voice has been used as well as with the music and the lyrics I think I haven’t really used that kind of opportunity to share something. So I think from a personal point of view, yeah, I’m looking forward to the rest of the year and bringing out the album. I think it will be a great development. And for the EP, I’m really pleased with that as well. I think we’ve all contributed to it and it’s harking back to the energy of the first album which I think is a great deal of what we’re all about.
Tom: I think since we left Universal. That having happened has been crucial for the band. I think if we got signed straight away again, I think we kind of... we haven’t lost ourselves but we hadn’t much of a direction really. The Royal Society, I listened to it the other day and I really enjoyed listening to it, and I don’t regret it at all but I definitely sense at the time there was a lack in unity amongst us.
SS: Really? That was an amazing album.
Tom: Yeah, it’s a good album but I think between the band and our music differences at the time, whereas since losing that record deal and having to fight for two years or whatever, it’s really given us that opportunity to really find and get back to what we’re actually about again and to all be coming from the same page. And now we all are on the same page.
SS: Do you do most of the lyrics now, Guy?
Guy: It’s still whoever writes whatever, it’s a joint effort, but I am embarking on lyric writing mission from this point onwards. I think it’s a form of art or expression, music is such a great tool, isn’t it? It’s an opportunity to speak to people, particularly young people. I’ve been too drunk and too lazy for too long. So at the moment, I’ve been really deeply inspired and energised and passionate, and actually, I’ve just discovered Joy Division (laughs)! It’s been as much of an epiphany as first hearing the Pixies when I was thirteen that’s really making me crap my pants (laughs), really changing my view on music and what’s possible. Of course, I’d heard of them before and I’d heard the hits, but I’m kind of immersing myself in it and become familiar with it.
SS: Like you have to hear it at the right time.
Guy: Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. You have to hear it at the right time. I’m ready for Joy Division now!
SS: And that’s your epiphany?
Guy: Well, this week, yes (laughs).
SS: No, the epiphany that made you get back on track.
Guy: I think what it is, once you take actions if you make the course, make the effort to challenge yourself to really try to craft something, in any aspects. It applies to any areas, it’s a life factor - if you genuinely want to push the boundaries of your own life and you’re making courses to do that then I think your life opens up, doesn’t it? And you’re beginning to notice and hear things that’s probably always been there but begin to really appreciate and it goes a lot further and much more profound depth than just the band. So they weren’t the course of me deciding to create something amazing but because of actions I’ve taken, because of the encouragement I’ve had.
SS: Music-wise, do you write together as a band?
Tom: Sometimes, Sym (Gharial, bass) writes with you? Rich and Marc (Norris, guitar) write together, I write on my own generally.
SS: Do you always argue?
Guy: We never argue (laughs), we’ve never had arguments!
Tom: (Shakes his head) We never argue.
SS: That’s not what we heard…
Tom: God! (Laughs) Yes, we argue, but…
SS: Who always wins then?
Tom: Yeah, we always win (laughs)! I think it wouldn’t be sort of normal function really. But when it comes to song writing, we generally are on the same page with it, we’re all kind of going in the same direction. Sometimes we argue but I think that’s natural and I think that’s the product of us not being one person beneath the band. I think that’s where the unity comes from. I think that’s why we’ve probably lasted so long as well (laughs), even though we haven’t done so much in the past two years but we still haven’t broken up. I think a lot of bands would have probably given up by now but, as we’re all close friends, it’s all in the equal part that’s kept us together.
SS: Is that also because there’s nothing else in the world you’d rather do than this?
Tom: No, I think you’ve got to fight for what you want. You can’t just give up on this because we’ve lost the record deal, all of that out of the window.
Guy: We lost our marbles… spent the money…
Tom: We lost our marbles… spent the money… everything’s fucked. And it’s quite easy to go, “Oh well, fuck it!” I think the course is too big a thing to lose.
Guy: Yeah, in rehearsing for this tour, there’s been some moments in the studio, I really felt like there’s definitely something going on, something else in the room. And it’s really touched my life though because we haven’t toured for two years. We haven’t been rehearsing, we’ve just been writing. I think we’re more unified than we have been for a long time. I think it’s everything in the way we were playing and the energy and the music, I really feel like something amazing happening in moments when we played. There was definite a moment when I was just dumbfounded really.
SS: How are some of the German themes/elements (eg: Klaus Kinski, Werner Herzog and his films) related to the music on this EP?
Guy: I mentioned them because Klaus Kinski is probably in my opinion one of the greatest film actors that ever lived. I did find it really interesting when he gets really angry and becomes emotional because it can be really frightening. There’s something really fascinating about seeing people express anger or animal nature or a side that we all have as human being but we don’t express very often, or it can be inappropriate to express in our culture. That’s why people go and see the Brian Jonestown Massacre, they want to see this man (singer Anton Newcombe) lose it, like more of a curiosity, but I don’t think people are saying, “Oh my god, how weird!” People are sort of looking and knowing that it’s something in them as well and that’s why it’s so fascinating to watch and he just really inspires me. I just hope that I could have put that much of energy into performance. And Werner Herzog is one of his best friends that he worked with and they do really love each other but at the same time they really piss each other off and it’s quite an explosive relationship that kind of really worked and really interesting.
SS: All this time and you give us four songs?
Tom: Well, it’s an EP, isn’t it?
SS: What happened to all the other songs that you’ve been writing?
Guy: Well, they’re not released yet, they’re secrets!
SS: When are we going to get the new album?
Tom: We’ve actually got about three albums’ worth of material but we need to get a record deal to record it.
Guy: We’re holding out for the right one, there are offers on the table but we haven’t done anything yet.
Tom: So soon, A-SAP, basically (laughs)!
As this interview draws to an end, something rather large runs into Sym who happens to be walking by. All of a sudden, all we can hear is Sym screaming, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” repeatedly. He asks if anyone sees it too, “Christ! How could it be? Did you see the fucking size of it? I thought it was a cat, but it was a rat!” We all laugh, Sym is still screaming. As fearless as he seems, this is a spectacle that not even the band get to witness that often. Guy is thinking about naming their third album It Was a Cat But It Was a Rat. Happy with the idea, he excitedly prompts us, “You’ve got to put this in, it’s brilliant!”
Of course, sir, your wish is our command!