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The Wonderful, True Story Of Matt & Kim

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This is what we know: Matt and Kim are a lot of fun — and may just be our new favorite people. Their performance at the inaugural Boston Calling festival was replete with balloons, confetti, and lots of energy. For fans of the musical duo, it was a celebration — for first-time listeners, a revelation. We caught up with Matt and Kim about their history with music, the challenges of being on the road, and what makes them a truly unique duo.
What came first? Were you friends before you became band members?

Kim: “So, we met at art school in Brooklyn at Pratt. I…uh…I hollered at Matt.”

Matt: “She made the moves on me. I was intimidated! She’s a little bit older
than me and has tattoos. I’m from a really small town in Jacksonville, went to public high
school, and graduated with about 17 other people — K-12 in one building.”

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So, you met at school and then?

Kim: "We started dating and working on art projects together — we worked really well together."

Matt: "Kim killed it and did my homework."

Kim: "I wanted to learn how to play drums, and Matt played guitar and bass in other bands, but he wanted to learn how to play the keyboard. So, we just started learning together. A friend in this band called Japanther forced us to play at this show!"

Well, there you go. Sink or swim.

Kim: "We played three songs in this art space in Queens for maybe 15 people. We were terrified."

Matt: "We were so scared!"

Kim "More and more people kept asking us to play their parties, and we just started to play three to four times a week in Brooklyn. Some friends told us we should go on tour, but we were like, ‘We’re not a band! How are we going to go on tour?!’ Then we ended up going on tour."

Matt: "It’s been my only job in six or seven years. I still have a tough time writing ‘musician’ on my immigration papers."

Are you guys into video games? Or do you just get featured on a lot of video-game soundtracks?

Matt: "Electronic Arts, you know, EA Sports, was our publisher for a while and they connected us to a lot of people. My extent of video games was Snake on those old Nokia phones. I didn’t know. I tried playing on buses during tours with the Xbox, but it never works."

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What do you try to play? Hard stuff like Call of Duty or, like, Mario Bros.?

Matt: "I don’t even know. I don’t think they’re easy enough. I think there’s a learning curve with it all."

Kim: "Why isn’t it just like an A button and a B button? Now there’s like two direction sticks alone. Sometimes you need them to turn on the TV, and I can’t even figure out the TV in the first place."

Kim, where do you shop in Brooklyn? Or, do you not shop in Brooklyn?

Kim: "I actually tend to not shop a lot in Brooklyn because we travel so much."

Matt: "Not because you don’t want to…"

Kim: "No, not because I don’t want to, but because we’re never home. I spend a lot of money on the Internet. Gilt.com gets a lot of my money. I love Nasty Gal. My P.O. Box guy always gives me weird looks when he sees the package and I’m like, ‘It’s not what you think!’ I also love a good
Bloomingdales trip where you get lunch and go shopping, but that’s when we have time when we’re home. Can I tell you how I found out about you guys?!"

Okay!!

Kim: "Alice + Olivia was doing some sort of contest with you guys — I love Alice + Olivia, and I found your site! I love it!"

We love you, too! What are you guys working on now? Can we expect any fun and exciting things?

Matt: "We’ve made four albums so far, and it’s always been like we tour, make an album, tour, and we really just want to make music. We started just writing songs in the studio with a DJ just to see what happens. I just want to make more stuff. Let’s put out songs instead of an album; be
more free."

Kim: "It’s also the world we live in now. People don’t want the albums. They want new songs every month or two. I feel like that works better for us with our schedule because we’re never home. Luckily, we’re doing a bunch of festivals this summer, so we’re home a few days a week. Some times we’re home a week during the whole year."


Photos: Mike Diskin

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