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Ryan: True. This is actually our first time in a bus so this is the first time we’ve let go of any responsibility ever. Back when we were doing our last headlining tour in May is when we saw the most effect of the increase in gas prices. Every couple of days it was like “what the hell, why is gas a dollar more in this state?” – a whole dollar. Illinois was the worst. In Chicago, Illinois, gas was a dollar more than everywhere else. It hurts because we’re driving 400 to 500 miles to the next show and when you’re doing that, you’re filling up $50 tanks every two or three hours. Just to watch that money be pissed away for something my country is doing that we don’t believe in is very upsetting. I have friends overseas – I have many friends in the military - it’s just upsetting that our country is running things the way it is and we’re the ones paying for it. We’re the ones paying the high jacked up gas prices. Cityzen: I read that Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion was actually the one who first dug your demo. Ryan: Yes, Epitaph records is owned by Brett, he’s the HNIC, if you will, at Epitaph and he just happened to find us one day. We had posted on a punk website that we had mp3s up and he listened to one of them and emailed us. We didn’t believe it was him – Mr. Brett, Brett from Bad Religion slash Epitaph Records, does not email 20-something- year-old kids from NY (laughs) like, we didn’t believe it! But it all worked out well and he was really interested and it’s all history now… Cityzen: So is this the first time you guys have played on the same tour as Bad Religion?
Ryan: Well recently, Andy, our singer, started a political thread on our message board. And we’re talking about putting something up on the site – we’re not sure if it’s going to be pro-Kerry, but it’s definitely going to be anti-Bush, I can tell you that (laughs). We try as much as possible though. We’ve been doing signings at the Hot Topic booth and every kid that comes through gets a little Hot Topic card for us to sign, and on the back are instructions about how to register to vote. We try to do that as many times a week as we can. We bought a whole lot of John Kerry propaganda one day; I have a John Kerry t-shirt (laughs). We just try not to throw propaganda and push our opinions about who we believe is right on the kids, but instead try to push them to get involved and to find out for themselves, and for them not to just go blindly “Oh, well, Ryan from Matchbook Romance says that Bush is evil.” I want them to go out and learn for themselves because anyone who does go out and find out for themselves will find out that “Oh, Bush is evil” (laughs). It’s kind of hard because our target audience is a lot younger, being a little more on the pop side of things. The old school bands have that older generation. But we’re trying as hard as we can. Even with 13-, 14-year-olds – make them learn now so they’ll know to vote when they’re of age. Since so many people our age don’t vote until they’re 23 or 24 and waste four years – they waste an entire office term because they don’t vote. Cityzen: So it’s all about political awareness. Ryan: It is. Our country’s politics have gone down hill since the death of JFK. It’s a shame; we used to be the best country and now we’re the bad guys (laughs). Cityzen: Your debut album actually came out last September, so why did you wait until June to release the single and make a video for “Promise”? Ryan: Moving forward with a single isn’t as easy as it sounds – we thought it was too, like “Oh, you’re signed – the record label just gets you on the radio now!” It’s not that simple – it’s a lot of politics and you have to have the numbers to back it up. It’s like “Oh, you sold 50,000 records. OK, now you can go make a video.” And if you try to push a single and it fails, that’s it. It’s not even that that’s it for the song, that’s it for the whole album. If your first single on your first album doesn’t go well, you don’t get a second album, and the chances of you even getting another single on your first album are slim. So we just decided that we didn’t want to be a band that came out and was like “Look at us! We’re on MTV! We’re on so and so.” We wanted to build an honest fan base so that it wasn’t just who’s on the radio, but “Oh my God! They’re playing Matchbook Romance on the radio!” And that was our goal. We wanted to sell about 50,000 albums, which we got and we’re very happy about. We just broke 70,000 records this week actually. Our numbers are growing so our single’s picking up now. If we tried to do this last September, it would have failed. It was all just a matter of timing. Wait for the right time to do it because going mainstream is a scary scary thing for bands. You could get your back turned on very fast by fans so we wanted to make sure we had an honest fan base supporting us with every step we took.
Ryan: Well yeah, it is a documentary, and it holds true to the truth that shines through. You can present the truth in many different forms, and he definitely presented the truth in an anti-Bush way. And I have no problems with that (laughs). Cityzen: What band’s set besides your own would you recommend checking out on Warped? Ryan: Oh my God, do you want a list? Because I can give you a list (laughs). Cityzen: Haha, sure. Ryan: You need to check out Bleed The Dream. Cityzen: They were on your headlining tour in the spring. Ryan: Yeah they were. Scott, their drummer, got diagnosed with leukemia when they were on tour with us and he’s been home since then. And their drummer who was filling in just left the tour last week so now, every day, half the set is played by our drummer Aaron and the other is covered by LP, Yellowcard’s drummer. They literally play musical chairs switching throughout the set (laughs). It’s a scene to be seen because they are two of the finest drummers on the tour, so for the two of them to have a band that’s like “Dude, just do whatever you want, as long as you stay in time” is like a dream come true. So you’ll hear straight metal drumming, you’ll hear reggae drumming (laughs). Letter Kills is another band to check out. The Matches are great too. And Motion City Soundtrack rocks so hard. Oh my God there are so many bands. Lars Fredrickson and the Bastards is a sight to be seen too. Their drummer Scott is amazing. What else…Flogging Molly, The Bouncing Souls, Yellowcard…Sugarcult puts on an awesome show as well. There are just so many bands! There’s not enough time in one day to see all of them. If I was a fan, I’d have to come to like three shows. Cityzen: Oh we are (laughs). Cityzen: We have a fun thing for you to do now. I’m testing it out – I’ve never done this before with any band, but we want you to draw your self-portrait (laughs). Ryan: (laughs). Cityzen: You can use stick figures if you want. Ryan: And that’s exactly what you’re going to get (laughs). Cityzen: That’s ok, stick figures rule.
Cityzen: Does it really all have an effect? Ryan: It does, it really does. We walk into the studio every day and see all this crazy stuff and it makes you laugh – it makes it fun. When we recorded “Promise” originally, we had just written the song. We recorded it and we were hot and screaming it at the time and it was just getting big. Then when we went into the studio for the album, Judas (bassist and backing vocals) was like, “I want to try to sing this part,” you know, put a harmony on it. So we were like, “Alright, that works, what else do you have?” and next thing we knew, it was just less screaming, a lot more singing. The bridge especially – that’s where Judas was like “I kinda want to try to sing this part.” From day one when we recorded that song, people were like, “I think you should sing this instead of screaming,” so finally we were just like ok we’ll try it, and did it, and it turned out the way it is. Every time we go into the studio it’s always different; the environment always changes. That’s why the Beatles recorded a hundred takes of certain songs and only released one. We were at a ridiculous studio when we did our record (laughs).
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