Date: October 29th, 2004
With: Shawn and Justin
Thanks To: Hector at Epitaph and Shawn, Justin, and Matt.

Borderless Promotions caught up with The Matches at the Chicago date of their tour with The Starting Line and Yellowcard. This interview is a follow-up interview to the interview I held with the guys on June 10th, 2003. Since last year, The Matches have been signed to Epitaph, re-released their album, been on Warped Tour, and have gained thousands of new fans around the world.

BP: It's been awhile since we've talked to you.. so for the new fans, why don't you tell us a little about yourselves?

Shawn: We're the most underrated band on the bill tonight! The Matches, The Starting Line, Yellowcard: we are the most underrated mother fuckers. Nobody even knows about us. Shit.

BP: What are your names and what instruments do you play?

Shawn: I'm Shawn. I play the guitar and I sing pretty songs. Justin plays bass and sings pretty songs too. Jon also sings pretty songs and plays the guitar beautifully. Matt plays the drums.

BP: The band has written and performed a few new songs since last year, including "December Is For Cynics" and "Shoot Me In My Smile." Do you still feel your music style is "somewhat a bastard child of a punk rock band and this smorgasboard of stuff that affects how we play our instruments?" That was a quote from the last interview.

Shawn: I don't know what we are. We're kind of...I'm confused. We've been asked this question too many times. I know that we're stupid little bastards and we play really shitty pop music. You shouldn't listen to us.

BP: How would you describe your stage show?

Shawn: We're really calm and we don't really like to move around a lot because it makes you tired. I think that you don't sing as good when you're really tired.

Justin: We don't like to sweat.

Shawn: We don't like to sweat. It's gross. Sweating is for roudy bands that play roudy music. I want no part of that.

BP: Last year when we interviewed the band, you were unsigned. Now you guys are signed to Epitaph. What's different now that you're signed?

Shawn: There's a logo on the back of our record. I drew it though. [laughs]. I scribbled it. I made the Epitaph logo out of pencils. It was funny. And now, it's crazy, five more people know who we are. It's huge. We have stickers that are yellow, instead of white. We're on Epitaph's website. We're on Punk-O-Rama. We have a video coming out on FUSE for "Chain Me Free."

Somebody is spending money on us. I won't say who, but his name rhymes with Bett Rhurwitz and he's got a little label that likes us, apparently. So apparently, we're punk rock now. Before we were just some band. Now, we're Epitaph punk rock, punk rockers. We're punk 100%. If you like punk, you will love us, because we are punk, punk, punk. We're so punk. We dress punky. We look like Hot Topic mother fucking ads, baby. If you like punkiness, you will looooooove The Matches. We're coming out with our own line of socks and notebooks and bobbleheads because we're punky.

BP: You did the Vans Warped Tour 2004 all summer.. how was that?

Shawn: We got some free shoes. That's one more way I could reiterate that we're punk. Damn, we were on the Warped Tour! It was tough. We were driving 8 hours all night and then loading in at 7 in the morning and sweating to the oldies outside, but you know what? Punk rock. And I'm going to stop saying punk. I'm going to now start a pop career for us because I heard the future is in pop. So everything I just said I'm writing it off, baby. This is Stage 2 of the interview. Stage 2 of The Matches career. We're selling out. We're corporately sponsored by Vans now.

BP: Now the band is on the Yellowcard tour, and rumor has it you were invited to tour with Simple Plan. That's awesome! When do you find the time to rest?

Shawn: I usually rest while...I don't know. It's not that hard. You get time to rest all the time. We're lazy little fucks. It's why we've got this guy, Gabriel. He sets up our guitars while we go downstairs and pretend to be all introverted and arty and we like to paint on ourselves and we play our instruments, and we're like "I am so...where's my inspiration for the next show?" And we got somebody to set up all our stuff now. You know why?

Stacy: Why?

Shawn: Because we're fucking pop. Fucking pop. Sold out. No, no. We're past that. We sold out. In this interview, we are pop. Pop. We're poppy pop pop. You can't find us at Hot Topic no more. Mm mm, girl.

Justin: We sold out!

Shawn: We are Target catalog. We are rap wear. We're sportin' Fubu. The Matches are so hot right now.

BP: Justin..last year when we interviewed you, you said that "The record industry is designed so every band fails, pretty much, even if you're on a major label." Do you feel the same way now that you're signed to a major label?

Justin: Stacy just put her interview mic in my spaghetti. [laughs] Well, we're not on a major label.

Shawn: 'Cause we're pop.

Stacy: OKAY, [laughs], now that you're on a major indie label.

Justin: Um. Did I really say that?

Stacy: Yeah, you said that.

Justin: Okay. I..yeah. Okay. I mean.. [laughs a little]

Shawn: Let it be known that we are...destined to fail.

Justin: We are destined to fail. [laughs a little]

Shawn: We are going down! This ship is goin' down! Hard!

Justin: We're renaming our band the Titanic.

BP: Last but not least, do you have a message for your fans?

Justin: Stay in school. You know what? We're doing a Stay In School tour next fall.

Shawn: Don't eat the candy that Yellowcard gives out.

Justin: Don't take candy from Yellowcard around Halloween. [laughs]

BP: Thanks