 By Sari Delmar DD/MM/YYYY: "Abstract Flow of Music"Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m just going to say it, great musicians are fucked up. There’s something about living on the verge of insanity that makes them so good at writing songs, that tear down genre borders and create their own. Elliot Smith, Kurt Cobain, and Max Bemis can all owe their insecurities and oddities big fat royalty cheques. Their battles with themselves have translated into incendiary art, well in some/most cases. The list of names could go on, it’s just how things work. I was on the phone with Matt King from Toronto’s manic and too-hard-to-define prodigy, DD/MM/YYYY when this idea of insanity equaling great music resurfaced. Now, don’t get me wrong here! I do not think Matt will commit suicide at a young age or that he’s “insane”. If you’ve lent an ear to the unique noises that make up any song by DD/MM/YYYY, you would understand completely, there’s something special about this band. Well there’s something special about Matt too… Matt King: Well… I don’t necessarily ever detach myself from music. Haha I think all that goes on in my head is music.
Truth.Explosion: Thinking about band stuff?
MK: Well yea, but also…so I’ve got this thing… kind of a problem…. kind of like radio stations in my head. I can just tap into them. Like when I’m trying to think about something else music just starts playing in my head.
TE: Like what kind of music?
MK: It could be orchestra music or be could be more rock. It’s always changing. Different stations just outline my mood, they like show my mood.
TE: Oh wow! That’s so neat.
MK: Yea but it’s really kind of annoying sometimes.
TE: How so?
MK: Because sometimes I have to be thinking about something.
TE: So it’s hard to concentrate?
MK: Yea yea, like I’ll be thinking about having to do an essay but all of a sudden in my head it’s like DER NER DUH DUH DUH DUH DER NER DUDUD DOO DOO DOO DUD DUD and then it keeps changing and modulating and sometimes it goes into actual songs by me or other people. Haha I guess it’s not very interesting.
TE: No No! It totally is, tell me more.
MK: Hah ok…
TE: So you’ve got these radio stations, do they have names? Genres? Or does a random song just pop up?
MK: It’s just my mind fitting into this thing and there’s just a constant stream of music going through my head.
TE: What if you don’t like the song that’s playing? Can you switch stations?
MK: Oh yea. It’s constantly changing. If it were a song that I didn’t like, then I would probably be in a situation that I didn’t like, or is uncomfortable. It’s basically like hearing emotions in the music.
TE: So does it ever help you sort out how you’re feeling at the time?
MK: Sometimes. Like a good example is just if I’m riding my bike or something, the song will be faster, more driving.
TE: Do you have a story where something was maybe awkward and then like an awkward song plays in your head?
MK: Umm well kind of yea. I had an exam two days ago and I started thinking about music and stopped thinking about the exam!
TE: Uh-oh!
MK: Yea, so it would go into the theme music from “Psycho”. The drums at the start and it was pretty intense because I was supposed to be writing an essay on modern art and instead the themes that I was writing about were being translated into music and notes. So say I was thinking about Data art then something really abstract would start going through my head and when I was thinking about impressionism and stuff like that the music changed and I had to keep trying to stop myself so I could actually focus on the exam. There’s got to be some way for me to control it.
TE: How did the essay turn out?
MK: I kind of botched the essay part. I knew everything about the exam but my essay was pretty shabby.
TE: Bummer. So say a Doctor could cure this with a pill? Would you be down with that?
MK: I don’t know. I’ve considered it. I’ve talked to people about it. I’m sure it’s an attention disorder and has something to do with anxiety that sparked it, but I mean it’s not entirely bad. We actually have a couple songs on our new CD about people that do take drugs and decide to, and in our album there’s somewhat of an anti-stance. Especially this one song we wrote called “Sanitary America” and that’s about… I was talking to this girl that works testing water samples and she was telling me about the fact that everybody is on medication. Every time somebody takes a pee or something. Those chemicals are going into the water table. So that means eventually I’m on diet pills and you’re on menopause medication and everybody is just sharing these chemicals in medications. Personally I’d like to live my life for who I am and get myself into a situation where I can use these problems that I may have to my benefit. If you do have an attention disorder than do something that will use it to your advantage. Like write music that doesn’t constantly repeat itself.
TE: For sure! Do you ever think you’ll go crazy, get wrapped up in your mind? I’ve heard lots of stories about composers and such that just go insane, they’re usually the most intriguing ones, mind you.
MK: Yea haha, hopefully that doesn’t happen. There was a time when it was really bad. It started when I used to smoke pot a lot and that was definitely one of the reasons I stopped smoking because I couldn’t think of anything else other than this abstract flow of music.
TE: So now that you’ve stopped and it’s calmed down a bit more, do you think that shows on the new album?
MK: Yea definitely actually! Well I’m one of five songwriters but the new album it definitely shows and it also has to do with a bunch of things. Just that we have an actual practice space, so the last album was recorded in our house. The equipment was always available and we always had the opportunity to record, and so the new album we went to practice and then to a studio to record so it’s more of a standard approach. There’s definitely a lot more songs that sound more like songs. They’re longer and we poke a little more fun at standard pop music.
TE: Sweet. I’m pumped to hear it.
MK: Yea like one time somebody, I don’t know who, called us a “tempo tantrum band”. I thought that was pretty funny but our new stuff is kind of removed from that. Hopefully we’ve gotten ourselves into a situation where we can constantly change and do whatever we want.
TE: Well yea, I’d say you’ve established that. So what is the “truth” about DD/MM/YYYY?
MK: Umm there is no absolute truth about DD/MM/YYYY.
TE: Fair enough.
MK: Nothing is absolute.
TE: Nothing?
MK: Yea, well we’re actually really into new country music. New country is really something…..
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