Cold War Kids are releasing a new album in January 2011, ‘Mine Is Yours’. Bassist Matt Maust talks to Anaya Latter about becoming studio hip, the karaoke song he’s afraid to do, and tips for festival-goers this summer.
Where are you right now?
I’m in my hotel room in Athens, Georgia. Home of REM. But they’re not here right now…
Can you sum up the new album in one word?
Very ‘relational’
What are some stand-out stories from the recording process for the new album?
Sure, like ‘Cold team and cold floor’ is probably my most favourite recording of any of the songs. We had the song for a long time, very much like a song that we would do in our old 5-6 years ago spirit y’know, writing it off the cuff… and we were playing in the studio, all very live, and something just wasn’t working and so Jacquire (King) the producer that we were working with at this time called us into the control room and he kinda just said I can see It’s not working but it’s maybe 80 per cent there but something’s missing.
He told us to all… play like your hair’s on fire, something like that, “play like you’re telling a story and your hair’s on fire” and then we all did a couple shots of whisky and then went and recorded it and that’s the version that’s the take we ended up using on the record. It’s probably the most live of all the songs – [just] us playing in the room – very little overdubbing on that song, a lot of holes and quote unquote mistakes in that song but I think that’s my favourite recording, that song.
How did Cold War Kids come to be?
We pretty much met all at school except for our drummer Matt. Me Jonny and Nate all met at school, at college. We didn’t play while we were at school, we just became friends there and then after we all graduated had gone the way of desk jobs or teaching jobs we started playing music and one thing led to another and pretty soon we were on tour, quitting our jobs and then here we are now. Yeah, that’s kind of the nutshell version of it.
What is the best thing about playing bass in Cold War Kids?
Oh man, there’s so many good things about playing bass… the best thing about playing bass and not having [to do] background vocals or anything is I get to move around all I want. I can move around as much as I want or as little as I want – that’s a luxury that no one else in the band has. So I get to vibe the entire song with not only my bass but my body.
Have you toured Australia before?
Yeah this’ll be our 5th time.
How do you find playing live? What keeps it fresh and interesting?
We’ve always been much more of a live band than a studio band. I could probably [better] answer the question what keeps the studio interesting, because we’ve always been a live band, people come to see us because of our live shows.
That’s one thing we wanted to change this in this record we really wanted to become more studio hip.
And because we are not only kind of intimidated by the studio but we also don’t like being in the studio for very long. So I think that would be a better question, but I think live has never lost its lustre for any of us I think. We’ve [maybe] had a show here or a show there that will not hit as hard as it could, but for the most part, playing live shows is really the one that comes easy to us, being in the studio is the one that comes a little bit harder. That’s [why] we tried to really stay inside the studio a lot longer this time for this record and it was a great result.
How long did you end up spending in the studio?
Well in the studio probably about almost three months, whereas our first two records we spent as little as eight days or maybe three weeks I’m guessing in the studio. That was just recording, but we spent a year or more writing the songs in our home studio.
You’re playing some of the big festivals here like Falls Festival and Southbound, Got any tips for festival-goers this summer?
It’s a little different for the bands than the people, but I would say just bring your repellent. I don’t know. Bring your earplugs and bring your insect repellent. I always think of Australia having a lot of bugs, I don’t know if it really does though. You know I don’t have any tips I’ve never been to a festival as a goer, I’ve never gone to one I’ve only played them. That’s one of my never have I evers – never gone to festival. But I don’t really think they’re the best environment to see bands but it’s a good environment to see people.
What’s your favourite artist or album to listen to on your ipod whilst walking?
When walking? You know what, right now I’d have to say Grinderman. I’d have to say the new Grinderman record is probably the most walking album I’ve got. Especially that song Ghost of the Montezuma, I think it’s one of Nick Cave’s best songs he’s ever written. That song is insane.
What’s your karaoke song?
Karaoke song? Uhhh the one that I’m too nervous to do, or the one that I always do?
Both, why not.
Let’s see. I haven’t done karaoke actually in years, but the last karaoke song I did was I think it was Rock the Casbah by the Clash.
And the one that I’m too nervous to do is By the way – by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
What’s your secret obsession right now?
Nope I don’t think I have any of those, I think they’re all out in the open.
