Matt And Kim are gearing up to release their sophomore album, ‘Grand’, tomorrow (January 20) in the US.
Speaking about the new album, Matt said that the duo had a “crippling amount of freedom” that caused them to spend too long recording.
“I would never do it that way again — we had way too much freedom,” he told NME.COM. “There was no one to say when to stop or when something was good enough.”
That said, the Brooklyn-based band are quite satisfied with the outcome, which is more complex and well-rounded than their 2006 self-titled debut while still maintaining its playful DIY-punk aesthetic.
“Our last album we recorded in just nine days,” Matt explained. “With this album, anything we wanted to try we could and did try. Instrumentally on our last record it was just two keyboards and drums and we banged it out. This time we tried a few different instruments and different ways of writing songs.”
Matt said that the duo would write the music first, and wait to add lyrics until the music was completed. “Kim would write pages of sentences and I’d pick out the ones that stood out and write lines to fill in the gaps. It would build itself and build meaning.”
The pair recorded the initial elements of the album at Matt’s childhood home in Jacksonville, Vermont, in the bedroom where he grew up. “We were pulling all-nighters editing and mixing. I hadn’t done that since college,” he said.
Matt said that New York came up a lot as a theme, as they were on the road while writing much of the album and missing their adopted home town.
As for living, working and touring with his romantic partner, Kim, Matt said, “It should be a complete and total disaster. We share one cell phone — that’s how close we are. But somehow we miraculously get along. Especially after we got GPS in our van. It cuts down on the fights we have when we get lost.”
Matt And Kim are gearing up for a North American tour to support the new album, beginning with a record release show at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on Thursday (January 22) and concluding in Richmond, Virginia on April 3.
–By our Los Angeles staff.