(Cord Magazine's questions are in blue. Artist responses are in grey.)


What do you do on your downtime between recording and touring?

RUSTY MATYAS : Uh record music.

MATT PETERS : Yeah write and record.

R : And record.

M : It's all we do.

What is your vice of choice?

R : K.

M : What?

R : I said k, as in okay. Uh there's more than one. I mean… can we say? Smoking pot.

M : I get drunk a lot.

R : Drinking beer. Smoking cigarettes.

M : I would say like… yeah…

R : Pot beer and smokes.

M : Yeah there you go.

R : Vices of choice.

Favourite venue or city to play in.

R : Um venue or city that’s a good one.

M : I would have to say Winnipeg at the Albert. I just love the Albert. The Royal Albert Arms.

R : Is this like a mutual answer here?

No you can have different answers.

R : Maybe I want a different answer. Uh… all right. I probably shouldn’t think too long about it, I don’t know. Uh maybe uhhh… sure the Albert. Albert’s good.

What issues and aspects of the world most concern you these days?

M : I’d say like American arrogance and everything that goes along with that.

R : Thank you [waitress brought the bill].

M : And China. I like Chinese people but like I just think… if the Americans keep on being as pushy as they are, the Chinese are gonna react, and we’re gonna get the brunt of that. 'Cause they're like the largest untapped resource in the world… and uh.. China’s my concern.

R : Well uh can I uh reiterate that? I don’t know if that’s the right word. I’d also say American uh, whatever you said. Arrogance. It pisses me off, it really does. But other than that I’d say that I really don’t give a shit about anything.

What is an interview question you could care less to hear again?

M : Uh what’s the show gonna be like tonight? What can people expect from the show tonight?

R : Tell me about Watch Your Money.

Haha I kinda did, I asked about the video.

M : No you didn’t no you didn’t no no you were fine.

I’m terrified of someone answering that it’s exactly a question I asked them.

M : Like a question that you asked already exactly?

Yeah but any time I ask a question like that it’s 'cause I’ve never heard the answer before…

R : Something that you are interested in.

Anyways what was your favourite Saturday morning cartoon?

R : Astro Boy. I think.

M : I’d probably say Gummi Bears. I loved Gummi Bears. Or Care Bears!

Do you remember the theme song? Then you have to sing it.

M : I cant remember it. God!

R : How are you gonna do this? Is it gonna be like two separate answers?

Yeah there’s a section for the interview like an article. And the other half of the article would be like your answers and my questions.

R : Yeah just like question answer question answer question.

The reason I asked about singing the Gummi Bears is that I've already had two people who voluntarily - not because I asked them to - but they just started singing it.

M : That exact theme song?

Yeah.

M : I don’t know why… it’s so close.

Besides musician, what did you want to be when you were growing up?

R : I always wanted to be a musician. I never wanted to be anything else.

M : I wanted to be a geographer. That’s really weird to say but it was when I was like really young. I loved math.

R : Actually I remember one time I wanted to be a vet but never… never followed through.

If you could trade places with anyone for a day who would it be and what would you hope to accomplish?

M : Hmm. Huhhh… hmmm. Good question.

R : It is a really good question. Uh.

Take your time!

R : I am!

People always get stumped on this one.

R : Yeah, it’s a good question though. That’s definitely a thinker.

M : You know who I’d like to be, I’d like to be… sorry… I’d say a president I’d say President Bush. Like a president and I’d like to go through all the CIA secret files and… I wanna know everything that they're not telling us. About like aliens, extraterrestrials. Whatever there is, all the secrets that Area 51 has, I wanna know all the truth from the past, and I think if you're a president you probably have access to that.

R : I’m gonna say that. That’s an awesome idea.

M : Do you ever hear Coast To Coast AM? It’s like the best radio program you’ll ever listen to. It’s like kinda like an institution. It’s between like 8 and 10 in the morning on AM radio and it comes from like somewhere in the desert. This guy has like a pretty big radio station program that’s syndicated all over North America… R : All over the world actually.

M : Yeah yeah! And they just talk about really out there wacky stuff. Like crazy aliens and… do you like that stuff?

Yeah I love that stuff.

M : Okay go to this website, and they actually have daily news reports about all sorts of paranormal stuff. They have like ghosts, they have everything.

I end up at Anomalies Unlimited a lot. It’s all like yeah, underground stuff, concentration camps, airport, etc....

[this goes on for a bit… we found our connection for sure, and everyone at the table gets really excited talking about conspiracy stuff]

M : Okay go to that website, this guy talks about stuff like that for like 5 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Okay! A shark and a bear fight... there's just enough water for the shark to keep alive, and a small rock in the middle of the water for the bear to stand on…

M : Can you repeat that one more time?

R : Are you allowed to?

Yeah.

R : Is the rock out of the water?

Yes. But it’s not like far out of the water. They basically both have just enough room to hang out. Neither have been trained, neither have been fed for a few days, they're both really pissed off.

R : Right so there’s just enough water for the shark to swim around the rock?

He has to swim to keep himself alive.

R : I say great white shark. So he can like swim around and catch the bear blindsided and push him in the water and fucking eat him.

M : Yeah but that’s not like his natural prey, whereas a bear, a fish is his natural prey.

Not a shark though!

R : A fish won't eat you!

M : I think the shark has a much bigger mouth. But the bear is really like…

R : If the shark jumped out of the water at the bear with his mouth open, the bear couldn’t really go [bat bat with hands] cuz the shark would go [opens mouth, eats].

M : But the fish has to keep swimming and he couldn’t really like… if it’s shallow water he couldn’t really like kill… oh they uh, they suffocate their prey don’t they?

Sharks? No like whales will take something underwater and drown it.

M : Yeah maybe that's what I'm thinking of. For a shark to keep on… to kill the bear… he’d probably have to keep swimming to keep alive. So there’s gotta be air… I dunno.

R : So let’s go uhhh … go bear. Bear.

M : Is there a right answer to this? Not until the day we actually find a grizzly and a great white and pit them against each other.

M : You’ve got to have everything that we were just saying in our interview.

R : No I say actually they keep fighting, and one of them cracks a little wink or a joke, and then they like chill out and they like fall in love and make great white grizzly bears.

M : Great white bears.

R : Yeah great white bears. Yeah.

M : Yeah no one dies.

Happy ending.

R : No one dies. In fact, people get made. I mean great white grizzly bears get made.

And the final question. If you could ask me one question, what would it be?

M : We’ve asked you a lot of questions already.

R : Who were the largest douches that you ever interviewed?

M : Yes. that’s a great question.

It is a great question and it’s also a dangerous one.

M : I know that’s why it’s a great question.

R : The hugest tools, losers.

(Well we've had this question before, so boom, I leave you with the Waking Eyes ten questions...)

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : February 2005.