1 Keyboardist-vocalist Matt Johnson and Drummer Kim Schifino
Beckington, Jesse Jane
Matt & Kim
Issue #30
The Brooklyn pop-punk duo knows how to get the party started
By Sandra Carr
Published: December 1st, 2006 | 10:14am
A Matt & Kim performance is more than just a show — it’s a euphoric synth-pop experience.
Though the couple has been compared to male-female duos like Mates of State, Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino portray a different disposition than most groups. “You see a lot of bands [onstage] acting like it’s a recital and like the audience should be thanking them for playing,” Johnson said. “People should still be young and goofy. At a Matt & Kim show, you can be over 25 and still crowd-surf.”
Matt & Kim played a number of art spaces and intimate venues over the summer and fall. “We tend to play a lot of shows where it’s just a big dance party with a bunch of energy in the room,” Johnson said. One of their most memorable experiences was in Houston. “We were getting so much stuff thrown at us and people were sticking pizza in our mouths as we were playing,” he said. “ At a show in Savannah, Georgia, Matt & Kim played in a venue with no ceiling and missing walls. “We were half outside and half inside,” Johnson said. “It was a great place to be playing, with just some clamp lights.”
As for their startup story, Johnson and Schifino met among their circle of friends while studying at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute in 2002. It wasn’t too long before they started dating and moved in together.
Johnson, 24, had played lead guitar in various punk bands in the past but none really clicked. Schifino, 29, became fascinated with drumming after her brother David (aka DJ Venom) turned her onto rave music’s rhythmic beats. Fed up with playing in other bands, Johnson started writing and singing his own songs while playing the keyboards in their apartment. Schifino listened and dug the lyrics and sound. “Kim picked up the drums with some intensive practicing for the first year or so,” Johnson said.
The buzz started hitting the streets about the twosome and turned into a grassroots experience after they had released a five-song EP without being signed to a label. “It’s funny because we have been playing shows in a lot of places and had our demo for so long,” Johnson said. “We would go as far as San Diego and still have crazy, dancing, sing-along crowds, which are bizarre because we never had anything officially released.”
When we asked about the title of their first EP, Schifino said it started out untitled but someone named it To and From for them. “I really like mail,” she said. “I check it every day in hopes to receive something. Usually I am disappointed. We thought it would be appropriate to have a letter format for the cover art. The “from” address was the apartment where we started the band and the “to” address is where we live now. We used to coffee-stain them too ... but that stopped after the first 3,000.”
Matt & Kim played shows for a couple of years before meeting DJ Franki Chan at a party gig in Brooklyn in 2004. Chan, who heads up the events company and record label IHEARTCOMIX, signed the couple shortly thereafter and released their self-titled debut in late October.
When writing songs — such as the upbeat fan-favorite “Yea Yeah” — the duet’s musical composition begins with a beat. “I find that the easiest way for me to figure out the keyboard stuff is by doing some of the melodies on top of the beats,” Johnson said. “And Kim always says to do it faster!”
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