THE MATCHES // A Decade of Rotting in the Free World

Californian Pop-Punk outfit The Matches reunite to honour the ten year anniversary of their second album Decomposer.

Ready as ever, The Matches will be hitting Australian shores this May. Vocalist Shawn Harris discusses the importance of Decomposer as a genre-bending record.

“The whole still being able to do shows and be like ‘a part-time band’- that was definitely not something that ten years ago seemed like an option,” Harris says on tour life after almost six years apart. “I’m looking forward to this just as much as anyone who is coming to spectate the show. Because you know, we’ve never got to do it. And it feels like finally being able to punctuate a sentence.”

After playing their final show in late 2009, The Matches’ hiatus status allowed room for each of the members to pursue personal projects and other musical ambitions. “It’s great to be able to play with them again and still have our trajectories with like our other bands or recording projects.” Releasing their third full-length A Band In Hope in 2008 and reuniting to celebrate the ten year anniversary of E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals, leaving the scene in 2009 really created the impression that things were close to finished for Matches fans.

“We toured so extensively before and we were just so tired. We didn’t really know why we were continuing, you know. I have since continued to make music; it wasn’t music I was tired of. I think we got out before things got stale and before we got really too frustrated with things. We wanted to go out with that bang, on top, and I feel like we ducked out while we were at our pinnacle. And it was only our third album.”

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“I am really proud of the album. I am really proud that we took that jump and made our own sound.”

[SHAWN]

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Realising Decomposer impacted massively on themselves, their fans and in the punk scene, it seemed appropriate to acknowledge the lasting connection each band member has through their music. Envisioning a reunion tour that extended as far as Australia seemed the most appropriate way of celebrating this success.

“To me, [Decomposer] it’s not really ‘punk’. It was really like the make or break for us in terms playing the exact same game, or changing it and making it ours. I remember it felt really risky, like to start the album with Salty Eyes which is for all intents and purposes, a waltz and not a punk song. As the album goes through, there are times that the sound of the band is a lot heavier than the first album. And there are times when it’s a lot lighter. Like lighter to the point of being not a punk-rock record at all.”

“I am really proud of the album. I am really proud that we took that jump and made our own sound.”

While Decomposer shifted The Matches sound, Harris says such a breakthrough record would have been impossible had they not entered the scene the ‘right’ way. “We came back from doing our first album which was basically our bid to the world, like ‘Hey! Let us into the punk scene, open up the pit! Let us into the circle!’ On that album, we were almost trying to conform to certain recording styles and certain audio checkpoints that would allow us to be a ‘real band’ instead of just a garage band, if you get what I mean.”

Decomposer was helped by an impressive team of nine producers, pushing boundaries and stylistic goals. Those goals even Epitaph Records was unsure about. According to Harris, this is a feat The Matches still consider a defining moment.

“If there is any particular point that says this is why we still have a following from ten years ago even after breaking up, I would say that this album is the real start of that reason.”

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THE MATCHES AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Friday 27 May – Max Watt’s , Melbourne 18+

Saturday 28 May  – The Brightside, Brisbane  18+

Sunday 29 May – Oxford Art  Factory , Sydney  18+

Tickets on sale now via Taperjean Touring