"[Christian Slater] crushed the beer, pissed on the Forbes... I don't know why. He said, 'Y'all ready to knock this shit out?' And he went in, put headphones on, killed the take, and then left."
Matt Ebert is a great guy. I'm not just saying that because I live with him. I'm not just saying that because I hope he doesn't tell me to take this interview down like others have done in the past. I'm not just saying Matt Ebert is a great guy because his band Joyce Manor is awesome. I say it because he is a great guy.
Joyce Manor is releasing a new full length on July 22. I begged them to release the record a week later to coincide with my birthday but they never properly responded to my pleads. So this was a perfect time to sit down and ask Matt Ebert about Christian Slater spontaneously showing up at their recording studio, his not-so-secret juggalo past, and most importantly: why Epitaph is releasing their lawyers on me.
Matt Ebert is a great guy. He might try to deny it out of modesty. But no matter what he says, Matt Ebert is a great guy who is deathly afraid of me.
"Catalina Fight Song" is the first single from Never Hungover Again directed by Adam Papagan. The rest of the album can be streamed via NPR here.
Painful Burning:
What are you so afraid of?
Matt Ebert:
What am I most afraid of?
Painful Burning:
In this interview.
Matt Ebert:
I'm not afraid of you, Zed. Let's just set the record straight.
Painful Burning:
There's not a certain question you're afraid I'm going to ask you?
Matt Ebert:
No.
Painful Burning:
Then why do you keep looking at the questions?
Matt Ebert:
Because I like to know what's coming up. But I can't read your handwriting so it's alright.
Painful Burning:
What's your opinion on the ruling that juggalos are a gang?
Matt Ebert:
I think that ICP is really cool for trying to go after the FBI. Juggalos get a lot of negative press but they're a very inclusive, very welcoming group of people.
Painful Burning:
Are you saying this because you would consider playing the Gathering of the Juggalos?
Matt Ebert:
I would. I don't know if the rest of my band would agree, but I would do it in a heart beat.
Painful Burning:
I won't ever ask if you've ever been a juggalo.
Matt Ebert:
The answer would be yes.
Painful Burning:
I'm not going to ask that. I don't know if there's any validity to this, but when you recorded your new album I heard something happened with Christian Slater. What specifically happened with Christian Slater during your recording?
Matt Ebert:
What did you hear?
Painful Burning:
I heard that Barry was having trouble with a take and Christian Slater walked in with a beer in one hand and-
Matt Ebert:
-a Forbes magazine in the other hand.
Painful Burning:
Yeah.
Matt Ebert:
He came in right off the street.
Painful Burning:
Is that true?
Matt Ebert:
Yeah.
Painful Burning:
What happened when he came into the studio?
Matt Ebert:
He crushed the beer, pissed on the Forbes... I don't know why. He said, "Y'all ready to knock this shit out?" And he went in, put headphones on, killed the take, and then left.
Painful Burning:
What did he say into the microphone?
Matt Ebert:
Nobody knows. But the vocal melody and everything was perfect.
Painful Burning:
Did you guys stay in contact with him or did he leave before you could get his information?
Matt Ebert:
We tried to get in touch with his publicist to thank him but we've never been able to get in touch with him again.
Painful Burning:
Only in Los Angeles, right?
Matt Ebert:
Yeah.
Matt Ebert and his infamous lips.
Painful Burning:
Earlier you mentioned that Epitaph's lawyers would take me down. Why did you say that?
Matt Ebert:
I think most people in the business know the reputation that you have. I know a lot of lawyers. I don't consider myself to be in the biz, but I do know a lot of lawyers that want to take you down. Because of the blog that you run.
Painful Burning:
For the readers that might not be in the biz, what is this reputation? Because I don't know what you're talking about.
Matt Ebert:
Really? You don't know what I'm talking about?
Painful Burning:
I have no idea.
Matt Ebert:
Really?
Painful Burning:
I mean, I have an inkling, but I'd love to hear it from those lips.
Matt Ebert:
These lips?
Painful Burning:
Yeah, those beautiful Matt Ebert lips.
Matt Ebert:
Well. I know that some of the things that people have said about you with plagiarism. That you're kind of a Mencia.
Painful Burning:
Okay...
Matt Ebert:
You've been known to be a bit of a Mencia.
Painful Burning:
I'm not going to cut the interview here but that's a ridiculous claim. The Carlos Mencia of the music blog industry. I don't know why people are saying that. That's ridiculous. And if Epitaph's lawyers want to fight me over plagiarism they need to sue Rolling Stone for being so damn easy to plagiarize. We've had a lot of the same parallel thoughts, Rolling Stone magazine and myself. It just so happened that they published their thoughts before I did. But this isn't about me, this is about you. You're on the cover of the new record, Never Hungover Again, is that uncomfortable?
Never Hungover Again
Matt Ebert:
It was at first but I came to terms with it pretty quick. Now it's cool. It's okay.
Painful Burning:
What is it your idea?
Matt Ebert:
It was not my idea. I kind of pushed against it. Like any self respecting person would I think. But in the end the rest of the guys really wanted to use it. I've come to like it.
Painful Burning:
It's a great picture.
Matt Ebert:
Thank you.
Painful Burning:
The woman... I won't even ask about her, it doesn't matter. Is there any bad blood between the former members of Joyce Manor and yourself?
Matt Ebert:
No. It's fine. As far as I know.
Painful Burning:
Do you know any of them?
Matt Ebert:
Not really personally.
Painful Burning:
Do they ever sarcastically ask you about the band?
Matt Ebert:
No.
Painful Burning:
Why did Barry ask you to join?
Matt Ebert:
Because we've been playing in bands together for many years. I was moving home from Portland in 2009 and I asked, "Want to start a new band?" Because I know he was interested in doing something full time and I was interested in doing something full time. And he just said, "Hey, want to join Joyce Manor?"
Painful Burning:
Did this conversation take place at a bowling alley?
Matt Ebert:
No, this was on the phone.
Painful Burning:
Do you know why I brought that up?
Matt Ebert:
Maybe?
Painful Burning:
Because I heard everyone knows each other in the band from a bowling alley.
Matt Ebert:
I met Barry at a bowling alley when we were fourteen years old. And coincidentally, several years later, Chase worked at the same bowling alley.
Painful Burning:
What bowling alley was this?
Matt Ebert:
Gable House.
Matt Ebert ;)
Painful Burning:
Weren't you all in the same league together or something?
Matt Ebert:
I was in a youth league with some friends. Barry was in the same youth league with some friends. And we were on opposite teams.
Painful Burning:
Did you guys ever play against each other?
Matt Ebert:
Yeah.
Painful Burning:
Who won?
Matt Ebert:
I don't remember. We actually talked about this last night, Barry wanted to take bowling because he was a ska kid and it was the ska thing to do. And I'm sure I was doing it for the same reasons. Barry had a Mustard Plug shirt on and I had an AFI shirt on. So we really hit it off. You don't find too many other kids like that in Torrance.
Painful Burning:
Is Torrance one of those places where there aren't a lot of punks so everyone that was into it knew each other?
Matt Ebert:
Torrance is so big, there are three high schools. I didn't even go to school in Torrance, I went to school in a town over. So yes and no. Backyard shows and house shows definitely happened there. But I think I mainly met Barry through the OC ska messageboard. It was just a coincidence that he lived close by.
Painful Burning:
Did this have anything to do with you managing a band called Let's Go Over There?
Matt Ebert:
No.
Painful Burning:
Are you surprised I knew that?
Matt Ebert:
You're like Nardwuar. I'm not surprised. Those were friends from my high school. I didn't manage them.
Painful Burning:
Everybody told me that you managed them.
Matt Ebert:
Who's everyone?
Painful Burning:
I did some research, I asked some people.
Matt Ebert:
No, I was going to be in that band and one time they kicked me out without telling me. I had maybe played with them one time. I didn't care about it at all.
Painful Burning:
What did you play in the band?
Matt Ebert:
Guitar...I think. It was one of those things where I was fourteen or fifteen and I didn't care about it at all.
Painful Burning:
How did you find out you were kicked out?
Matt Ebert:
From their website. They had a website. They did nothing but they had a website.
Painful Burning:
But why do people think you managed the band?
Matt Ebert:
I hung out with them at every practice they had, I went to every show. I think maybe I tried to get them a couple shows. But I don't know where people get that.
Painful Burning:
You never got ten percent of their cut?
Matt Ebert:
No. But I did get a Let's Go Over There tattoo years later. But Barry's band played a show with Let's Go Over There one time.
Matt Ebert's Let's Go Over There tattoo.
Painful Burning:
What were they called?
Matt Ebert:
Kid Gruesome. But I already kinda knew him at that point. So there's really no connection. Long story short, there's no connection.
Painful Burning:
The first full length was recorded in 2010, now four years later, how do you feel the band has changed?
Matt Ebert:
When we were starting out the band we were sort of like a pop punk band that subconsciously wanted to be a power violence band. But not like one of those Lifetime influenced bands that are trying to sound like a pop punk band and a hardcore band.
Painful Burning:
Pop punk with breakdowns.
Matt Ebert:
Because of where we came from, without even trying, there was a subtle hardcore influence. I think the more and more we play together and the older we get we're slowly moving away from that and our songs are more like pop songs. I don't want to say it's what we've always wanted to write but it's where we're at right now.
Painful Burning:
Maybe you weren't ready when you were younger.
Matt Ebert:
Yeah.
Painful Burning:
I've noticed a lot of bands that come from a punk sound slowly moving into folk and country. Is that your next step?
Matt Ebert:
I do like the pedal steel guitar. I think it sounds really good. But no.
Painful Burning:
Maybe that's a preview of what's to come. Why are you in love with Huell Howser?
Matt Ebert:
He's the heart of California and I love California. He represents everything I like about it.
Huell Howser rasterbated.
Painful Burning:
Which is what?
Matt Ebert:
I love the weirdness, the pop culture, the history. I like his way of disarming people that I think is a trait that not a lot of reporters have. I do realize it's hoaky. And that it's normally something that only old women like. But I'm okay with that.
Painful Burning:
Do you feel like you're being disarmed right now?
Matt Ebert:
No.
Painful Burning:
You don't feel disarmed at all?
Matt Ebert:
If anything I'm arming myself.
Painful Burning:
Would you ever make a Huell Howser t-shirt for the band?
Matt Ebert:
No.
Painful Burning:
Why?
Matt Ebert:
Because it's not something that resonates with the band as an entity. It's more of my thing.
Painful Burning:
Why did you almost get fired from Peet's coffee six years ago?
Matt Ebert:
I don't know if I got almost fired, I may have exaggerated when I said that. When I was living up in Portland I lived on a futon in the living room when I was drunk on shitty malt liquor and stoned on bad weed all the time. So I would miss my alarm a lot and be late to work a lot. When I wanted to transfer back to the Peet's in Southern California I had to call and beg for my job back.
Matt Ebert casually hanging out.
Painful Burning:
This is the last question. When you're on tour what stops you from cheating on your girlfriend?
Matt Ebert:
It's not something I have to think about.
Painful Burning:
What do you mean?
Matt Ebert:
I don't do it because I care about her.
Painful Burning:
Why do you care about her?
Matt Ebert:
Why are you doodling on your interview sheet?
Painful Burning:
It helps me. I don't want to stare at you. It's something to do with my hand... Hey, I'm asking the questions here.
Matt Ebert:
Because I love her very much and I have no desire.
Painful Burning:
Do you promise?
Matt Ebert:
I promise.
-Z
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