ON THE MATT

Rip It Up, Issue 186, 1 January 1993, Page 4

ON THE MATT

In fact you’d probably need a Bachelor of Johnson Degree to understand all of his lyrics and comments. Remember that line on the cover of their last album, Mind Bomb? "The melancholy cries across the flatlands of planet earth have been heard and are being answered all across the universe" — what exactly was he on about? "Oh yeah. Fuck knows — I've forgotten."

Take him seriously — but not too seriously. There's something about The The's music that has allowed the band to straddle the decades. Of course the quality of the musicians involved has something to do with it: Johnny Map's cherubic guitars have always complemented the saddened growls of the singers he works with. The lethargic rhythm section, the wincing mouth organ, lyrics like "How many whores have walked through that door, lain by my side and climbed in my mind..." ('This Is The Night') . It all combines to make some pretty full on, blues drenched rock'n roll. But it's still hard spreading the news again after the (now almost traditional) three year gap between recordings. "It is tough as you get a bit older. This is like the fourth major promotional campaign I would have done and they seem to take a long time. The thing is, though, that by the time you're at the end of making a record you're so sick of being in the studio that you look forward to sitting in a hotel room and doing interviews. And by the time you've finished the promotion you're so sick of them that you want to be on

stage playing. And by the time you've finished the tour you're so sick of that that you just want a holiday. And when you've finished your holiday you're so sick of that you want to be in the studio writing. So each phase is evenly paced. You have your moans and groans — but I wouldn't want to be anyone else. "I often remember back to when I was a kid, stuck in a classroom, and when I left school all my friends got jobs in factories. You've got to keep reminding yourself how lucky you are. It's very easy to take everything for granted. To have people all over the world interested in what you've got to say and what you do, and get paid well for it, you've got to keep your feet on the ground and not take it for granted." Dusk isn't necessarily Matt's reflection of the nineties so far, nor is it just another chapter of the Matt Johnson philosophy.

"It's just a reflection of how I feel at the moment. It's quite inward looking rather than outward looking. A lot of unhappy family things have happened in the last three years and that's changed the way that I view things. Some bereavements have happened, and that changes the way you look at your own life and the way you look at the people around you and it deepens you somehow as a person. It probably makes you less certain which is a good thing. Too-much certainty can be dangerous." Is that what inspired tracks like 'Lung Shadows'? "No. 'Lung Shadows' is about telephone sex. Those voices at the beginning are actually prostitutes that were on the end of the phone — I just phoned up and recorded them simulating sex, and if you listen, fairly closely, you can hear them." Why the obsession with telephones? There's another track called 'Helpline Operator'. "I'm interested in the way

the telephone booth has replaced the confession box. People find it easier to confess with complete strangers over the telephone rather than their own family. I think there is a human need to confess and communicate with other people and, despite the decline of the church in the West, that need hasn't gone away. Whether it's alternative therapy and psychotherapy or telephone sex and helplines people need to communicate. I'm interested in how technology is sort of forming a barrier between people. Like these computer games that kids are sitting in their rooms playing, I find that interesting." There's been an uproar in New Zealand recently about kids getting porn through their computers. "I've heard about that sort of thing, that's like kids getting hold of it and the police not

being able to do anything about it. It's interesting how the sort of basic human instincts and perversions will find a way through anything if you stand back and look at it. Humans will use any form of technology in a sexual way if they can." It's not just the intriguing mind of Matt Johnson that has given the band longevity. The ever changing structure of The The also keeps things fresh. "The line up is, I'd say, temporarily permanent. I take it project by project and I never know who's going to be on it. It's good to get fresh blood in, I don't like to keep things too static — people get bored with each other.

"The beauty of how I set The The up is that it can keep evolving. I can have lots of different people in, and it never really takes away from it that it's constantly changing. The problem with a lot of bands is that they're bound together whether they like each other or not or whether they're in h,armony or not. You often get a band staying together because they have to, because it's a business, though

they're no longer working well together. With this set up that I've got as soon as it's not working I can just bring in new people." Have you found people are bitter if they didn't want to leave the band? "I'm pretty straight with people, they know the score if I think it's time to move on. Maybe they are, but you can't run your life worrying about what other people think. I try to be honest with people and that's all you can do — if they feel bitter it's their problem." Later on this year — with an undecided line-up — Matt's thinking of releasing an EP of Hank Williams covers ('There's A Tear In My Beer' being a strong contender). It's that purity of the blues — musical therapy out of emotional agony — that Matt Johnson, Mr The, relates to best.

"I think we get energy from everything. I think we're influenced by a constant conflict between positive and negative. There's a constant tension of opposites and it's just a question of making something positive from something negative — that may be a particularly terrible experience that befalls you. It's like a form of alchemy really, creating something of beauty out of something terrible." So your music helps you personally? "Yeah it's very therapeutic. I'm very slightly balanced between sanity and insanity and this is the only thing that keeps me on the right side — writing

songs. It's a way of justifying certain things that I do in my life. We're all very complicated really." You more than most, I imagine. "I know. It's a constant problem. I've tried everything: therapy, drugs, anonymous sex, drink, football, flotation tanks and I can't quite find the solution. I just keep looking."

JOHN TAITE

"I’M VERY SLIGHTLY BALANCED BETWEEN SANITY AND INSANITY AND THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS ME ON THE RIGHT SIDE M