By: Jen Thuy-Tien
Contributing music writer
After celebrating with confetti, other various party decorations, and the dog powered robot, Andy Matchett of local band Andy Matchett and the Minks sat down with TheDailyCity after the band’s well-received set at Orlando Calling on 11/13/11.
Q: How are you today?
A: Doing Great.
Q: You guys just performed this afternoon. How do you feel about your performance?
A: It was fun. It was totally fun. It was a little stressful before hand. We were trying to work with everybody’s rules. We do a lot of crowd participation stuff. We have balloons and some friends of ours in dog costumes.
Q: When you found out you guys were going to be playing in Orlando Calling, what went through your mind?
A: We were really excited. The first thing I honestly thought was “I wonder what side stage are we going to play? Where are they going to stick us at?” I thought we’ll be kind of off the side somewhere but this is a cool stage, right by the entrance. We were happy to be a part of it. I was happy Festival Republics decided to include a lot of Orlando bands.
Q: So for people who may be just learning about Andy Matchett and The Minks, how would you describe the band’s music?
A: We’ve always had a tough time describing it. People describe us kind of as power pop. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s happy, fun, straight up rock and roll. You know, alternative, indie, whatever you want to call it. I guess pop rock is good.
Q: How did all the band members meet?
A: I’ve played in a lot of bands over the years. I kind of met everybody along the way. Friends of friends, people we knew. It’s a band of friends from a bunch of other cool bands.
Q: What inspires you guys to make music together?
A: Geeze. Anything. Everything. I write about whatever that is happening around the house. Whatever is going on. I don’t have any particular area I get inspiration from. Just the world, whatever the hell it is at the moment. I listen to other bands and there are things that inspire me and there are things I hear and don’t feel anything else.
Q: Before hitting the stage do you do any interesting things to warm up and prepare for a show?
A: I stay busy. What we do is we build our robots and our set pieces and inflate balloons and fill confetti guns. We talk about the show before hand. Everything is going as it happens. My pre-show warm up is usually “Alright, let’s move this bag of balloons over here and let’s make sure to get this.”
Q: What are your favorite songs to perform?
A: Of ours? “Too Much Happiness” is a lot of fun because we get the crowd involved with it. It’s got a neat kind of la la la chorus and we get everybody to sing it. We have another song, “DayLillies” is a lot of fun. Anytime you have an instrumental section and not be on the mic for a minute and take the whole thing in is a lot of fun.
Q: What do you think are the main themes or topics for most of your songs?
A: On this last record, I sing a lot about my suburban upbringing and what effect it had on me. I can talk a lot of about this. I’m a father now. I have a son and daughter. I was kind of reflecting on my childhood when I had kids. I think alot of people do that. You think about where you came from and what kind of parent you want to be. How music is going to work with all that stuff. I was reconciling that lifestyle with how do I get a job. Music is pretty much a glorified hobby for a lot of people these days. You can’t really make a lot of money doing original shit.
Q: Have you found the balance between fatherhood and being a musician? A solution?
A: I wouldn’t say there’s a solution. We kind of work through it, event to event. I have a full-time job that’s outside of this. There are certain things that I do even at the job that allows me to get out of the office to take care of some business. As far as my wife, kids and I, I travel only a certain a number of days a week, only a certain number of days a month, just limit that. If we’re doing band stuff, it’s online. It’s a great time to be a band. I’d say, 10 years ago if you had kids, you’re done. You know, go get a job. You can’t do everything. It’s a lot of work. Everyday is a challenge when you’re trying to squeeze that much stuff in your life but it’s worth it for everybody involved. A lot of us have kids and nobody wouldn’t change anything.
Q: What are your favorite venues to perform at in Orlando? Any upcoming shows?
A: I would say The Social. We make a huge mess with our shows. A lot of places try to put the lid on that, you can’t do this and you can’t do that. The Social lets us do anything and they love it. The last time we play there, we had a mountain of confetti like five feet tall. But we make the mess, we clean it up. A lot of my band mates hate me for that but that’s what we do.
Q: So what’s going on for Andy Matchett and The Minks for the next year or so?
A: We have decided to take a break. We’ve been playing pretty much straight through 2011. We’re taking December off and the rest of this month to write the next record. In January we have a lot of shows, pretty much the Florida run. Then we’re going to try in the spring to go to the East coast.
Q: Being a local band, what is your view on the local music scene in Orlando?
A: There’s a lot of people who say that it dies every couple of years. I disagree. There’s always something happening. I think it’s doing great. I think there’s alot of cool bands out there.
Q: For people who are thinking about starting or being in a band, what advice would you give to them?
A: I think about this with my kids all the time. When I was growing up it wasn’t something you did. Nobody knew how to tell you how to manage yourself. When somebody was starting a band when you were like 15, I’d say just have a lot of fun, learn what you like, don’t make any serious ties with anybody else, keep your options open and play with a bunch of people but when you get in your twenties you got to have a business mind about it. You have to treat it like a small business. Have fun in your teens and get serious in your twenties or don’t bother doing it.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge as a band?
A: It changes constantly. When I was younger doing it, it was getting enough money to go on the road or getting everybody off work at the same time. I’m always in awe with the bands who are able to get off the ledge in this unknown. Are you getting money from some undisclosed location? It doesn’t make sense. The biggest challenge at this point is to figure out how to tour. There are tons of challenges but I think the positive stuff outweighs the challenges every time otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this.
Q: So what are some interesting but little-known facts about you?
A: I should make some awesome stuff up. I’m just kidding. I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I love that city. I’m a big football fan. I’m a big fan of the Pittsburg Steelers. If you’re from Pittsburg, you have to be a fan. It’s not even football at that point. There’s a big stigma of football and musicians. It’s like the jocks and the geeks. Not in my family, everybody is the same. So, I’m a big NFL fan and nobody would know that.
Q: Any last words to your fans?
A: Hope you guys will enjoy the next record we’re working on.
