Q&A: Matt and Kim

Kim Schifino (drums) and Matt Johnson (vocals/keyboards) are Matt and Kim (Credit: Matt Hoyle)

Matt and Kim, 'Sidewalks'

A guy, a girl, and a few instruments manage to make for a...

“We wanna do one shot. What’s something that might be able to hold interest for a few minutes?”

That, says Matt Johnson, was the thought process behind the video for “Lessons Learned,” which earned his synth-punk duo Matt and Kim an MTV Video Music Award last year and inspired Erykah Badu to make her controversial “Window Seat” video. In the clip—which was indeed filmed in a single camera shot—Johnson and Kim Schifino walk through Times Square in winter, casually stripping off layers of clothing until they are, apparently, naked among the tourists. (Their privates are digitally scrambled, so it’s hard to tell for sure.)

A simple concept leading to audacious results: That’s pretty much how the Brooklyn-based pair approach everything, from their sparse but infectious music to their high-energy stage shows, which tend to feature unlikely covers (think hardcore hip-hop and Beyoncé) and stunts like the diminutive Schifino walking (not surfing) across the outstretched hands of the crowd.

For their latest album, “Sidewalks," what Johnson calls “that Matt and Kim spirit” is still there, although he’s also quick to note that he doesn’t feel confined by the pair’s trademark keyboards/drums setup.

“I think Matt and Kim is whatever the hell Matt and Kim play,” he says. “As long as we can keep the butts shaking, we’re happy.”

Was working on “Sidewalks” a pretty different process for you guys compared to your previous albums?
Yeah, sort of inherently different in the sense that the album before this, “Grand,” was recorded in my childhood bedroom in my parents’ house. And on this album, we worked with a producer, a fellow named Ben Allen, two months in Atlanta at his studio, and then came to New York and finished the rest of everything here.

From the descriptions I’ve read of your childhood home, it sounds like a little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.
That’s pretty much what it is. The public school that I went to, kindergarten through 12th grade—my graduating grade was 17 people. That’s the public school in Jacksonville, Vermont. Kim kind of went a little crazy being in Vermont that long. She’s just sort of scared of nature. That and Freddy Krueger.

I know that Kanye West is a Matt and Kim fan. Do you guys have any other famous fans that you’re aware of?
It’s funny, we’ve been doing this Dead Prez cover, “It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop,” for a long time. So Stic.Man from Dead Prez did a remix for Matt and Kim, and De La Soul did original verses on another remix. We just got a remix done for “Sidewalks” from someone I’m a big fan of, a big name.

You’re not allowed to say who?
I don’t know! This is the first we’ve even mentioned it. So I don’t know if I’m allowed to bring it up. [Ed. note: The remix has since been released; it was done by Mike D of the Beastie Boys.]

The lead single “Cameras” is still very recognizably you guys and your style, but there’s some new wrinkles in there, like a sound I’d describe maybe as a “synth tuba.” Where did that come from?
A lot of that song came from, I’d just gotten this weird old, early ‘80s synthesizer. Not that horn sound, but that sound it opens with—I remember I was just going through different tones on this thing, and that is the weirdest sound. It sounds like a cat in heat or something. I was like, “I’ve never heard that on a track before. Using it!” Sometimes certain sounds will inspire you to make a song out of them.

When Erykah Badu got naked in public for her “Window Seat” video, she wound up being ticketed for indecent exposure. Did you get charged with anything for shooting “Lessons Learned”?
No, we made it out scot-free. We couldn’t get a permit to shoot a music video, so we got a permit to shoot a “web promotional video.” And you need to describe what’s going to happen, so [we wrote] something like, “Two tourists walk through Times Square dressed inappropriately for the weather.” But it got us out of any trouble, because we had some sort of paperwork with a city stamp on it.

Which activity makes your parents more nervous: Kim walking across the crowd, or you climbing the scaffolding at bigger shows?
I’ll say both. My mom will send an email like, “Saw this picture. Not approving of you standing on top of”…whatever. Or she came to a show once where Kim went out on the crowd. But it always comes back to being my fault, of course. She’s like, “You shouldn’t make Kim do that.” I’m like, “I don’t make her do it! She chooses to.”

Kim doesn’t seem like the type of person where you could make her do anything.
No. Sometimes I have to make her open pickle jars for me, but that’s just because she’s the tough one.

I’ve heard some conflicting information on this subject, so I have to ask: What is yours and Kim’s relationship?
We are together. We met in college and became a couple, romantically or whatever. Not till years later did we start playing music together. We don’t talk about it much or bring it up much, because we want people to think of us as a band, not as a “couple band.” The same way Kim wants people to think of her as a drummer, not a female drummer. If Kim was here, “Yeah, I hit that,” is probably what she would say. We don’t deny it, but yeah, we don’t bring it up.

I saw some clips of your Lollapalooza set and it looked amazing. I liked the balloons you threw into the crowd, too—that was a nice touch.
For awhile, we were blowing up like six trash bags full of balloons and then bringing them out and having a couple of people toss those all to the crowd. But we were blowing most of them up ourselves. I remember specifically, we were on tour the day we won the VMA for “Lessons Learned” [for] Breakthrough Video last year. And someone came into the back room where I was and was like, “We won!” And I was like, “That is awesome. All right, gotta go back to blowing up more balloons!” Then I realized at one point that we could just throw a bunch of balloons into the crowd and they could blow them up themselves. [Laughs] It saved a lot of light-headedness.

That was a real breakthrough moment for the band.
Yeah, geez. So we’re about to leave on this tour—we just got a shipment of like 5,000 balloons. People better have their lungs ready.