MATSOD

Hey, How’s it going? Could you shed any light on the cancellation of the remainder of your US tour with Emery; is there need for MATSOD fans to worry? 

Yeah I just have some personal issues back home, and I had to leave tour to try and take care of them. We will be back in the fall on the All That Remains Tour so there is nothing to worry about. 

Apart from being forced to cut the tour short, how have the US shows themselves been? 

They have been amazing. Great turnouts, and a very great response. 

III seems to break away from many of the hardcore elements of your sound in favour of more straight up southern rock/metal… do you think that this move was an inevitable development, or have you consciously decided to head in that musical direction? 

We really did not have any idea what the record was going to be like it just kind of happened on its own. We did know that we wanted to take all the elements of Maylene and expand on them. 

MATSOD has long followed a semi-fictionalised narrative of Ma Barker and her sons (a notorious criminal gang from 30s America,) over your albums. They also however seem to cover personal issues told in an autobiographical manner, where the sentiments expressed could just as easily be those of the songwriter himself as of a character… Is this sense of dual meaning and metaphor something that you’ve embraced, or is it coincidental? 

It is something I have embraced a lot of the times when we write songs we are writing them about personal issues, and in the long run they end up relating to the Ma Baker story or the Mother Maylene story which is a cool thing. 

Would you say that any tracks from the new album are particular significant to you as a band, and which are also going down especially well live so far? 

Yeah I think Listen Close just cause it involves me doing something a little different vocally, and at the same time it is about how hard it is sometimes being gone on the road which is something always on my heart. I think Step Up, and Waiting on My Deathbed have been going over really well live so far. 

Regarding the overhanging concept of Ma and the sons, how can you see this being sustained in the band’s future… would you consider continuing the band without drawing lyrical themes from this narrative? 

I think that might be something we do in the future. On one hand the story is cool, and at the same time we do not want to run it in the ground, and we do not want people to only think of that when they listen to our band. 

Have you plans to tour worldwide in support of III? Will we see you in the UK any time soon? 

We are really wanting to get over there before the year is up. I hope we will be able to get over there very soon. 

Are MATSOD the kind of band with long term goals and aims, or do you see yourselves as taking things by a more week to week, hand to mouth basis? 

I think we are for sure a long term band we are here and are going to be here for a while. 

It seems that you’ve been steadily gathering fans since forming, and currently have a solid global fan-base… Can you recall any times along the journey when you’ve felt especially proud of what you’ve achieved as a band, watershed moments as it were? 

I think being able to tour the world, and record records is the greatest accomplishments of all. I could not ask for more. 

Are there any bands that you’ve come into contact with, or heard recently, that you would recommend we check out? 

A band called Rantings of Eva, The Hardy Boys, and Lynam are all really amazing bands. 

Finally, is there anything in particular that you’d like to say to your listeners around the world right now? 

Thank you so much for reading this, and supporting our band, hopefully we will see you soon. God Bless.