Matisyn & Parker from EVANS BLUE Interview
On the road supporting their newly released sophomore album, RMR had a chance to catch up with Evans Blue. We got to chillout with "The Voice" Matisyn and "The Distortion" Parker on their bus as they were relaxing before a show. The boys discussed their new album, buffets, Walmart, and much more in this RMR Exclusive!
Asif: How's it going guys?
Matisyn & Parker: Good man, how are you?
Asif: Good! So, how does it feel to
have your own headlining tour?
Matisyn: It's cool. It's cool to go around and see that we have some real fans. It's surprising to see how many people will actually show up to our own show.
Parker: We've played some shows where we weren't expecting anybody to be there and it's packed. So, it's cool.
Asif: I know, as a band, you guys are still relatively young. All of you just formed the band in early 2005 by meeting each other on an online music classifieds type of deal. Did you guys click right away, or were there some guys that came in and you were like "ehh…I dunno"?
Parker: There was him [Matisyn] and Pitter, our bass player and it had to be worth it right off the bat because they were driving two hours to where I was living. And, I think we hit it off right away.
Matisyn: It clicked from the beginning. We were a four-piece for a while and then we decided we needed a fifth member and we found Vlad, our other guitar player. He came in and he knew our songs, we gave him songs and he learned them all.
Parker: He was a keeper.
Asif: How does the new album differ from the first album? I know as far as the process goes, you guys wrote all the songs first, then went in, where with the last album you guys would write a few songs then go into pre-production, then into the studio.
Matisyn: This one, I think it’s a bit heavier musically and a little darker lyrically.
Asif: I definitely picked up on the darker lyrics.
Matisyn: It's darker and then "The Pursuit" is like the hopeful song at the end kinda leading up to the next album which is going to be a bit more positive.
Asif: Cool man! I'm excited to hear about a third album already! What does the album title The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends represent?
Matisyn:
Basically just moving forward past all the negative things in life.
Letting them die and starting fresh.
Asif: You guys have gone one tour with many great bands. Alice In Chains, Three Days Grace, Shinedown, Trapt, Taproot, Breaking Benjamin, Flyleaf…I could go on and on. What has been your guys' favorite tour thus far?
Parker: Breaking Benjamin. The Taproot one was really good too, but with Breaking Benjamin everyone just got along. There were some tours and some shows where not everybody spoke to each other. Breaking Benjamin was really awesome, all three bands on that tour got along everyday.
Asif: I know you could probably name a million things, but besides health care, give me just one thing that makes Canada better than the U.S.
Parker: (laughs) That is a great question! Hockey.
Asif: Your in Minnesota, you can't say hockey! What about hockey players?
Parker: (laughs) Hockey players!
Matisyn: (laughs) Health care and hockey!
Asif: You guys Toronto Maple Leafs fans?
Matisyn: Yeah! We also have less junk food in our country too.
Parker: Yeah! And our portion sizes are a lot smaller than yours.
Matisyn: Our fast food is more expensive.
Parker: (laughs) I think, really, that's better.
Asif: It's totally better. It's more expensive to eat like crap, so hopefully less people will eat unhealthy.
Matisyn: (laughs) Yeah!
Asif: When you guys are out on tour, what is the first thing you look for to eat in the morning when you wake up?
Parker: We usually look for a breakfast buffet. That's another thing the U.S. has over Canada is breakfast buffets. Just a buffet period!
Asif & Matisyn both laugh
Matisyn: There really isn't any buffets in Canada.
Parker: There's no buffets! There's a Chinese buffet in Canada and it costs like $20.
Asif: What about the classic breakfast of most Americans: an egg McMuffin?
Parker: We usually try to get to an IHOP. A somewhat real breakfast. (laughs)
Matisyn: A quasi-real breakfast! (laughs)
Asif: (laughs)
Matisyn: We're big into beef jerky. We've had a bit too much of it though lately.
Asif: The stuff is good for you though man! Compared to the other snacks you could be having…
Matisyn: Right.
Parker: We've found a red hot flavor of beef jerky which is incredible. The after effects are just as incredible! (laughs)
Asif & Matisyn both laugh
Asif: I see you got a little soccer going for the video games right now. When you guys are on tour, what do you do to have fun and keep loose?
Matisyn: Fun…
Asif: Oh come on! Is it that bad!?
Parker: (laughs) There's no fun going on! We sit around all day! This is what we do! We sit on MySpace and text message all of our friends.
Asif: What about when you aren't on tour? Do you guys go to hockey games?
Parker:
Yeah, we go to games.
Matisyn: Sit around and watch movies.
Asif: See any good ones lately?
Matisyn: We saw "The Simpsons" movie the other day. That was okay. "300" was really good.
Parker: "300" was the best movie I've seen...
Asif: Really? Isn't it just a gorefest?
Parker: No.
Matisyn: The cinematography was just amazing.
Parker: Yeah. It's amazing that they did that whole movie inside and then made the background. It was incredible!
Asif: I have a few short randoms for ya. Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. First one. Give me your thoughts on reality TV shows.
Matisyn: I love reality TV shows. Not like all of them, I think there are some good ones. They are just starting to get overboard though.
Parker: It's getting over saturated. I like the Food Network reality TV shows. I'm into Rachael Ray.
Asif: Who is that? A chef that has a show on the channel?
Parker: Yeah, she's really hot. Hot!
Asif: (laughs) I'm gonna have to go online now and check her out!
Parker: (laughs)
Asif: Google search "Food Network hottie"!
Parker: (laughs)
Asif: What about strip clubs?
Matisyn: I've never been to a strip club. We're not really a huge strip club band. Our crew is. But we're not really a huge strip club band – it's just like a money pit. You go there and just throw your money away.
Parker: We're not popular enough to be popular with strippers yet!
Asif and Matisyn both laugh
Asif: What's the best part of being a rock star?
Matisyn: Playing shows for a living. Not necessarily having to work. I mean, it's work, but we're doing what we want to do.
Parker: Playing shows is obviously the best.
Matisyn: We do absolutely nothing for 12 or 13 hours a day and then playing a show for 1.5 hours.
Parker: People are like "Oh man, you've been to every city. You've must have done this, this, and this." Its like "Dude, we have a bus, not a car." It parks in one spot and it just stays there!
Matisyn: We see a lot of parking lots. And a lot of Walmarts.
Parker: Going to Walmart is like our days out. It's like "There's a Walmart in the area! Let's all go!"
Asif: (laughs)
Matisyn: One time we got kicked out because we tried bringing a camcorder in.
Asif: Into Walmart?
Matisyn: Yeah, and they wouldn't let us.
Asif: Walmart is so anal man!
Parker: They are! I dunno dude, they are weird.
Matisyn: Way weird.
Asif: [Facing Matisyn] In an interview early last year, I know one of the places you wanted to see yourself in the future was to headline your own tour. Well, here we are now in late '07 and you guys are doing that. So, I'll re-ask that question now: Now that you guys have accomplished that, what's the pinnacle for you guys as a band now?
Matisyn: I think we'd just like to keep building. Keep building our fan base so we could do big shows. I like smaller club shows just because they are more intimate more than anything else. To have thousands of people singing your songs I think would be way cooler than 500 people singing our songs
Parker: I'd like to rule the music world! Just take it over- get our hands into everything like produce a country album! (laughs)
Asif and Matisyn both laugh
Parker: We want to be the Timbaland….wait, Timbaland?
Matisyn: Yeah, the Timbaland!
Parker: We want to be the Timbaland of the rock industry. Everybody comes to us to do their album.
Matisyn: The
Paris Hilton of the rock industry. (laughs)
Parker: (laughs) Just want to be everywhere. We'll do anything.
Asif: Hopefully you guys won't be making any sex tapes!
Matisyn: Oh man, nobody needs to see that!
Asif: (laughs)
Matisyn: That would be the least downloaded video!
Asif and Parker both laugh
Parker: That would be the first time somebody complains about a sex tape on the internet.
Asif: (laughs) You guys were great. Thanks for sitting down with me for a while. Go out there and rock it tonight!
Matisyn: Thank you!
Parker: Thanks!
BY: The Asif
PHOTOS: Cho & Izzy High
SPECIAL THANKS: Go out to Erik Stein @ Scoop Marketing
