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How do you feel about the current pop/punk cookie-cutter scene?

Matt: We're fans of Sum 41, Blink 182, The Starting Line. We listen to them all the time.

Is there anything redeeming about Sum 41's stylistic approach? In my opinion, there's no art in their music.

Matt: I think they write cool riffs and occasionally a cool lyric or two. His vocal is the perfect mix for me between a Blink 182 vocal and NOFX. Listening to records like that is almost a work study for me because I want to make a record that sounds that good without spending half a million dollars to produce it. Sum 41 is cool, but their new record is really one-dimensional. I don't like criticizing other bands, but I was kind of discouraged by their lyrics.

Is it offensive to be categorized with a group like that?

Matt: My favorite band is the Beach Boys, and my second favorite album is that Ben Folds solo album. That kind of encompasses what I love, mixed with pop/punk, of course. We once got compared to Blink 182 meets the Beach Boys, and that was cool. We would also love to tour with Good Charlotte or New Found Glory.

Do bands like that have longevity? Two years from now when their listeners are all grown up, where does that leave the band?

Matt: Well, pop/punk bands aren't supposed to stick around forever. That's why you gotta kind of stretch and not just make the New Found Glory record over and over again. But one of my pet peeves is when a band completely changes. The fan likes a band for a reason. My prime example is the new Get Up Kids record or The Promise Ring, because they totally changed. Both of those records bummed me out, and I didn't buy them. Total departures are too extreme, but some change is necessary.

What will allow you to continue and stick around?

Matt: We may not. The whole culture's gonna get sick of it, and that means the guys in the band are gonna get sick of it. We love what we do right now, and I'm all about doing this when we're thirty years old because that punk rock instinct keeps you young. But we may break up in four or five years or even two years, but I've got plenty of side projects I'd love to explore.

Are you guys interested in taking a mainstream crossover approach?

Matt: Our mentality is that we never in our wildest dreams expected to get where we are right now, and we're not expecting anything else beyond this. We're very happy with what happened. But we're not just gonna sit on our hands, so if something happens in that direction, we'll go after it.

Two years ago, you said you were pretty excited about being in a band and enjoying life on the road. Is the enthusiasm still as high?

Matt: When I get off the road for a week and a half, I want to be on again. But if I'm on the road for three months without a break, it's tough: "Man, I don't even want to play a show today." I've said that maybe three or four times in the last year, and I never used to say that. When you've done everything a couple of times, the enthusiasm isn't always there, but we're definitely not jaded. The enthusiasm is still high. We see each other on the road and we hang out at home, but if we get sick of each other, we give each other space. We may whine and complain sometimes, but we see the demise of other artists and where they went wrong and we try to avoid that.

Catch Relient K on their fall 2003 tour with Anberlin and Number One Gun. You can learn more about the band at our artist page, where you will also find album reviews, including one for Two Lefts Don't Make a Right … But Three Do. You can listen to song clips and purchase Relient K's music at Musicforce.com.

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