LouFest 2014: Matt and Kim

It’s an hour before a Matt and Kim show, and the pair is backstage. Matt’s doing some vocal warmups before he spends an hour “essentially screaming.” And drummer Kim Schifino?

“She can’t be interrupted when shaking her ass in the backstage room to Beyonce’s ‘Get Me Bodied,’” says keyboardist and singer Matt Johnson. Laughing, he adds “She’s very superstitious.”  

That energy explodes onto the stage at every one of their shows. The pair feed off of their crowdsurfing, jumping, moshpit-ing audiences. A Matt and Kim show is nothing short of an hourlong cardio workout, only more fun. The indie dance duo doesn’t hold back. Restraint, Matt says, is “impossible.”  

It’s a good thing their songs aren’t exactly the type of music to sway gently to, anyway.  The peppy, smile-inducing notes in “Daylight,” for example, make jumping along practically a requirement for even the most reluctant of uncomfortable headbobbers.

They are self-taught musicians “for better and for worse,” he says. He loves Kim’s style of drumming, affectionately known as “hitting shit with sticks,” but its sometimes criticized. She drums with her whole body, not with small hand motions like most percussionists.

“If she had learned conventionally, they probably would have told her ‘Look, don’t drum like you’re trying to kill the drum set the whole time,’” he says. But Matt and Kim aren’t ones for convention. They prefer to keep things simple, albeit a little crazy.

“I remember one time when we were making one of our albums, and the chords would get too musician-y, too lush, too many notes,” Matt says. They stop and ask themselves WWMKD?

What would Matt and Kim do?

“Matt and Kim would simplify it.”

This attitude carries over to the group’s unconventional music videos. They don’t feature that oh-so-typical storyline, Matt says, with “a band that plays in kind of a cool-looking room and there’s a subplot with this girl and this guy.” They’re clear-cut ideas, like Matt and Kim take their clothes off in Times Square, or Matt and Kim beat each other up.

“I look for something very specific which is sort of a simple concept that if someone explained it to me in a sentence, I would be like, “Yeah, I’m kind of curious,’” Matt says. They’ve also got Matt and Kim get stuck in a closet, a car and other small spaces. There’s Matt and Kim have an awkwardly awesome glamour shot session. Really, their music video themes read like a series of sitcom episode titles, and it works perfectly for the duo.

The pair is sitting on some new songs that he’s itching to share with people. With new music coming this winter, or maybe, next summer, Matt says, they’re keeping up with their offbeat antics that make Matt and Kim so lovable.

“We’ve been doing this for awhile and I never cease to enjoy it. I always love it.”