I called Matt Pond for an interview at 3:30 in the afternoon. After several rings, it went to voice mail. Two minutes later I get a call back. Matt Pond PA was practicing for their up coming “two-weeker” tour and they were just trying to squeeze in a few more songs before taking a break. Matt took a few minutes to talk to Reax about the evolving music industry, distain for the Internet, his long tenor in the indie scene, and what makes him write. Matt Pond PA will be performing live October 6th at New World Brewery with Company (Co.), and King Of Spain
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REAX: You have a pretty prolific profile, eight EPs in twelve years and a bunch of EPs in between. Did all of these songs pour out of you or did you have to work hard to create such a vast collection?
Matt: It depends. It depends on the year. I mean, lately I’ve got to work a little harder, but I think it’s because I don’t sit and wallow in my own misery as much as maybe I used to. Not that I wallowed in it, I just kind of took a dip in my own misery, I guess. And so now…if you let your problems take over your life and you have a guitar you can do some interesting things.

REAX: Was it a goal of yours, as a musician, to release as many recordings as possible?
Matt: I never imagined doing any of this. I didn’t grow up with a guitar, I didn’t expect to play guitar. I think I’m only getting good at guitar now, and I’m just saying good, I’m not saying great.

REAX: Well then, if you never imagined doing it, what was the catalyst for it?
Matt: You know, I don’t know. You just start doing something and then it just goes on its own momentum. Sometimes I may use too many self-deprecating remarks in these interviews. I never wanted to be a rocker, or even a soft-rocker, or even a folk-rocker, or even an anything, I just wanted to….I don’t know, I don’t know if anybody knows what they want to do. I mean, do you know what you want to do?

I went to college and I just kind of floundered. I couldn’t see myself doing anything that I was learning or applying it to anything in life. I mean, I like the idea of having a job where I show up in the morning and I leave in the afternoon and everything makes sense in a 50s family sort of way, but I don’t think the world, even more so now, is even made that way. I feel like it’s a better time for people to be creative, the problem is people use that creativity to sit on computers and search for things.

REAX: You say you’re not a great guitar player, but you’re a good songwriter, so, from album to album, how would you mark your progression as a songwriter?
Matt: I mean, it’s hard, you’re asking me to grade myself. If I were doing it for a job I’d give myself all A’s. But, you know, it goes up and down. Some songs, when I look back, I don’t know how I wrote them. I’m excited by that, but how do I get to do that again? Some songs just fall out, and some songs take years to figure out. I wish I could break things down. Look, when I was my most beaten up by, relating to other people in my life, that’s when I’ve written the most songs, but that’s when I’m not aware of anything except for, you know, just terrible, terrible, things.

REAX: In New York the opportunity for an artist to be noticed by a label or someone who can get you somewhere is greater but your also in a really dense population with hundreds of thousands of starving artists. What are your thoughts on that, on being in a band in Brooklyn?
Matt: I know more bands not from Brooklyn than I do in Brooklyn. Again, I don’t want to make everything in the world about the Internet but it really changes everything in terms of people finding out about music, and in terms of how people know about music. So, being here, I like it sometimes (laughs), but I’m leaving here, just because I’m not good at the city. I’m terrible at subways, I fail miserably at subways and I fail at crowds. I grew up in the country. It’s fun to be here, but it’s neither the opportunity nor the cluster you’re describing, I mean people here stick to their groups just like anywhere else.

REAX: You release your first album in ’98, right around the beginning of the big transition that music industry went through, and is still going through, in terms of the impact of the Internet. I’m interested to know what your experience was over the last twelve years as it’s been changing. Was it difficult to keep up and stay relevant?
Matt: I don’t know, I can only be as relevant as someone decrees. The positive impact would be that there is more possibility to listen; the negative impact is that people are more interested in what other people have to say than to actually listen to music. It’s so fast; there are not a lot of people who have been around for a long time on a lower level. People are looking for the next thing, I mean they’ve always done that but now it’s just at the highest rate ever. That band is done, this band is new. I just keep making music. If I were to pay attention to reviews and all sorts of things out there…if I were to digest them, I would be sick. I only can believe in what I’m doing, and what the people around me like doing, and therefore do it.

REAX: I assume when you write songs that you sit down with your guitar to write them. Now, I haven’t seen you perform live yet, and I’ve only seen a few videos, but in the ones I have seen you aren’t playing guitar on stage. Is it always like that? And if so, why?
Matt: I like, in our small little group, to play and not play. But I play guitar more than I’m not playing guitar. But, thing the thing is, there you go, there’s the Internet and it influenced you. You’ve watched a few videos and now that’s what you’ve…sorry just waiting for some music-type-dudes pass by, because no one likes talking about music in front of music-type-dudes. but, you know, from a couple songs something will appear or seem as what it is, rather than listening to an entire album or rather than seeing a whole show. It’s impossible not to, I will hear a song or two and I will decide the larger scheme of something. You know what I mean? Everybody does it! But no, I play guitar most of the time. And I’m not cracking on you, I’m just saying that’s where we’re at, that’s kind of how we perceive. Our whole manner of perception is, like, shortened.

REAX: Tell us a little bit about the song writing process in your band as a whole. Who plays what roles when you bring a song to practice?
Matt: It’s always different. Sometimes I’ll know most of the parts that will go on it and sometimes I’ll barely have the chords for it. It just depends on people. I mean, on the last record Chris and I did everything, except for drums. He added in all the extra parts. It just varies, song-to-song, person-to-person, place-to-place. With these things I wish there was a formula, I wish you could just plug it in. But, it just isn’t that way.

REAX: You moved from Philly to Brooklyn in the early ‘00s, did the aesthetics or the vibe of your new home have any affect on the lyrics or music you wrote?
Matt: It does. In New York things are a little bit more high-strung, and high-strung-ness got into it. In Philadelphia I made lusher music, I feel like. And here it’s more stripped down, and the lyrics are kind of more to the point. It’s the way you’re living every day. In Philadelphia everything was around me and I went through my days kind of leisurely. Here, you have to know where you’re going, what you’re doing, and how you’re going to get there. Always.

REAX: Going back to your tour, I noticed that it’s a relatively brief and geographically spaced out tour. I’m just curious if there is any rhyme or reason for the cities you’re visiting on this run?
Matt: No (laughs). But then, I’m completely wrong because we like playing in Tampa. Florida somehow, generally, well who knows how it’s going to be this time, but it’s generally decent to us. Syracuse we haven’t played in a while, and we haven’t played in Toronto in a while either, and then we’re playing a music festival. I mean, there is a rhyme and a reason but I’m not the agent. I try not to think about these things I guess. The more thinking I do the more it kind of ruins things.

We like playing Tampa; we’ve always had a good time. It feels ruckus, it feels right, it feels the way it should be rather than being perfect. We’ve always had a good time, so, we really just want to…I mean, god, I sound like a hair-metal dude, but we like to have a good time when we play shows. The point is, even on a Wednesday night, is to have a semi-dignified party. That is what we aim to do, even if it has its sad moments.

REAX: What about the next year or two? Do you guys have any aspirations or goals you’re looking to meet?
Matt: Well, I’m trying to finish up the next record, so we’ll see how that goes. It’s a little harder because I’m just not focusing on the negative aspects of living as much as a used to, so it’s more difficult to write songs (chuckles). But you know, I have at least one more album left in me and that’s probably what I’m going to do.

REAX: Well, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview, good luck on your tour.
Matt: Sure! No problem.