11 Minutes with... Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim are one of the hardest working bands in show business. Brooklyn’s most dynamic duo, Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino, make incredibly fun indie dance music, which they peddle from coast-to-coast and country-to-country like traveling salesmen of rock. While Glengarry Glen Ross instructed sellers to “always be closing,” for Matt & Kim, that motto is practiced as “always be touring.” The band tirelessly travels to shows, playing somewhere almost every weekend and sometimes multiple gigs per night. While Matt & Kim are hardly newbies in the game (they just put out their fourth album, Lightning on October 2), they never seem to get sick of being on the road, which is just fine with their fans who eagerly fill venue after venue to witness Matt & Kim’s legendarily hyperactive live performances.

We grabbed the duo after a gig at SXSW, just before they headed off to spend the week playing at Ultra Fest, to talk about the joys of being a Road Warrior, connecting with fans and their hilarious video for “It’s Alright.”

Noisey: Hi, how are you guys?

Matt: We are doing good!

Kim: I think a lot of people can’t say that at SXSW.

I’m not sure I can say that right now.

Kim: I feel like we’ve done so many SXSWs that we’ve finally figured it out.

How many have you done?

Kim: Six, maybe? And, you know, it started with the first one, doing 12 shows in three days and then, lik,e every year cutting it back. Now we did one show as soon as we got to town and that was it.

You played at the Fader Fort, right?

Kim: Yeah, we played a private Dell show.

Did you get Dell computers?

Matt: No, but we did witness them cutting one. We were like, “Is this some kind of protest?” before I realized that they were trying to build some kind of weird Dell structure.

Matt, I notice that you have a King Tuff patch on your jean jacket. Are you a big fan?

Matt: I am! Kyle and I grew up in Vermont together. We’re Southern Vermonters. I just heard he’s doing a show at 6 o’clock today. But I don’t know if we’re going to go see him.

Kim: This is where the whole figuring out SXSW thing comes in. We have made no plans. We’re just going to end up where we end up and if someone we want to see is playing, then it happens. We have friends who have lists printed out and…

Matt: It’s never going to happen.

Kim: Yeah, it just seems so stressful! I’m like, “Let me rip that up for you.”

Matt: Yeah, “Can I see that?” [Shreds imaginary Excel spreadsheet] “There you go.” That’s going to make your SXSW that much more enjoyable.

Kim: So we have no plans to see anyone. We’re just going to see what happens.

Are you on tour right now?

Matt: We are just finishing up. We were on tour with Passion Pit and Icona Pop. The tour was throughout the North and Canada in February and, who the hell does that? It was blizzard after blizzard and disaster and snowstorm. We finished that show in San Francisco about a week ago, and then we did our own show in Santa Ana and Tempe, Arizona, and then we came here. Then tomorrow, we head to Miami to Ultra Fest.

Kim: It works out, because we went through the North and it was awful with the snow and everything. And Ultra Fest is one of those two weekend festivals, so we play one weekend, we hang out all week.

One thing I love about you guys is that you are all over Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. Do you think it’s important as a band to use social media to connect to your fans?

Matt: My feeling is that as much as people can connect to music or to art or to film or any of that, but what people really connect deeply to is other people, just instinctually. I think that it’s not really a coincidence that our band name is Matt & Kim. It’s like we’re on a first name basis. I think having a presence on social media is a great way to make a connection.

Kim: But it’s also fun. We kind of treat our Twitter account as our own little comedy stage. Like, “Oh this is funny, I’m going to put it on Twitter.” Have you started using Vine?

Yes, I love it. After the interview, I’ll show you my Girl Talk Vine, which is awesome.

Kim: Cool, I’ll show you my Matt and King Tuff one. Matt’s not really into Vine yet, but I think it’s great. And we use our social stuff. People post on Facebook and we respond. We DM people on Twitter. I think it’s a great way to stay in touch with people and not have this separation. We kind of treat it like our shows. Our shows aren’t like we’re on stage and you’re in the dark and we don’t acknowledge you. We want the crowd lit up, we want to see people, we want to talk to them. It’s the same way we are on social media.

Matt: It’s like we’re all doing it together and that’s what makes it what it is.

In your “It’s Alright" video, you are both in your underwear, dancing in bed. Was that awkward at all? Who approached you with the concept?

Kim: Well, the idea was Matt’s.

Matt: I approached us with the concept. Most of our videos have come from ideas we have had, which is why the videos pretty consistently feel like Matt & Kim. There’s a vibe that we go for, which is simple but has some kind of intrigue that can hold you for a few minutes. Kim, naturally, can dance. Me, not at all, as one would expect. So we were looking through choreographers’ reels and hired this woman, Tanisha Scott. We didn’t want a modern dance, we wanted someone who would get the booties shaking.

Kim: Someone who could teach us to drop it low.

Matt: I loved her exploration of how to really shake your booty. She had done all the Sean Paul videos and stuff and she said, “You have to release the meat from the bone.” That’s how you do it. We did it. I had to work out a little beforehand.

Kim: I was actually texting while walking a month before we shot the video and I missed the last three steps. I messed up my ankle and I was on the couch the whole month before we shot the video. I had these dreams of my booty being, like, BAM! But it wasn’t.

Matt: It was great! What are you talking about.

I was impressed. I would have worn full-body Spanx. You have been on top of some trends lately. You were one of the first bands to do a Harlem Shake video. Even though it’s a trend that people aren’t even talking about anymore, it was kind of awesome how you guys instantly owned the whole trend.

Matt: Thanks! That’s what was so awesome about it. I remember watching the views the week we put it out and it was like eight million views, nine million views, and then just one day it just stopped. People just stopped watching it.

Kim: I wonder what people moved on to? Oh, they moved on to Grumpy Cat!

Matt: But, yeah, I had seen a video and we are fans of Baauer and that song beforehand, and it was already on the sampler that I have on stage. I saw a few videos, we just did it on stage and that evening, after getting off stage it was up. A day later it was everywhere. It was a lot of fun. We hold the Guinness World Record, apparently, for the most people in a Harlem Shake video. That was at the time, but I think the Heat did one.

Kim: Yeah, I saw one. All the guys on our bus love sports, so ESPN is always on. I saw some sportscasters doing one at a basketball game and I feel like that might have surpassed us, but I don’t know. How many people were in ours? 5,000? So I don’t know.

Matt: That Guinness World Record will make sense for at least the next two weeks.

But you can put that on your résumés forever.

Kim: I want the book!

Matt: I want the plaque! Put it right next to my college diploma.

What are you guys doing next?

Matt: This summer is festival after festival after festival.

Kim: Bonnaroo.

Matt: There’s a number of them that aren’t announced and some smaller regional festivals, too. We are like weekend warriors. Every weekend, we have a show and then we are home for a few days. I’m kind of looking forward to that. Then we head to Australia. We’re doing shows all through the fall.

Matt & Kim’s album, Lightning, is in stores now.

Follow Melissa on Twitter - @woolyknickers