Yeah, definitely. We've had some of my favourite shows in Canada, in Toronto. Last time we were there we played this kind of crazy place with Cut Copy. We played Circa. It's like if a kid got to design what a club should look like - like a video game. But before that we played at Whippersnapper Gallery, which was really rad, a little art space which got pretty sweaty and dancey. I don't know. We've had a lot of fun there.

Well, we never get to check out anything enough. We're always there for a really short time. Once we were here--I do a terrible job of explaining this, and I can't figure out where it was--but we walked up this hill and through this park and we ended up in this really nice, cool sort of strip with a guitar shop, and we picked some stuff up and ate in a restaurant there, and I just remember it was a beautiful day. I was thinking this is all right, as global warming continues I should start my immigration papers sooner rather than later, but I have no idea where I was, really.

I grew up in Vermont, a very rural place in Vermont. It's a town called Jacksonville. And Kim grew up in East Providence, Rhode Island in quite a different sort of atmosphere. Which shows because when we recorded back in Vermont in my parent's house where I grew up, and Kim's terrified of nature. She can handle some dark alley with dudes with knives and stuff like that, it doesn't freak her out. But to go into the woods where it's dark and whatnot just freaks her the hell out.

The short answer is that we met in college. We both went to Pratt Institute, which is a small arts school in Brooklyn, and Kim picked up on me.

After coming from where I did, from such a small town--which, I love that town and had a great childhood--but the natural instinct was to move to a big city. It's what I was always intrigued by at an early age... I forget how you phrased it, but we're inspired by our habitat. In Brooklyn, so many people that we know are involved with art stuff, music, film, photography or whatever-- people doing rad stuff makes me want to do rad stuff too. In urban place it's more of a concentration of people involved with that kind of thing.

I've never known exactly how that has happened, but definitely a number of people have told me that. I don't know whether they have a connection from the time they spent in New York to when they listen to our music. I always get really excited to hear that since we're such big fans of the city as people who didn't grow up here but have been here for about 10 years separately and have traveled to a lot of different places, a lot of great cities. I don't foresee us moving anywhere again though. I think how we're connected with such a great place is cool.

Ever since we started playing music, we never wanted to sound like this band. We just attempted to play instruments and what came out is what we sound like. I mean, we're into pop punk stuff and hip hop stuff and more up-beat, danceable things. It's just what we listen to. That does make sense that it came out like that. Even our demeanour when we play--we have a big policy on honesty. We play music because we've always loved doing it. And somehow, luckily, it's become the only thing we've had to do for the last few years. When a band plays and they use it to let out some, like--whatever--and they seem pissed and angry, but it's still totally engaging and exciting. As long as bands aren't putting on that too-cool face on stage which is the most boring to watch in the world. And I don't know how that became the standard for how rock bands should perform, but I'm so sick of it.

...You know, we just come off how we do. Kim gets psyched and she has that smile. -- Or I'll say something completely embarrassing just because I don't think about that much, we just do what we do. It can be like embarrassing or geeky or whatever, but as long as you're honest and yourself, it seems to be engaging and that's the level you really gotta connect on.

When we went in to recording Grand, our most recent album, we knew we were going to change to a different label from what we put our first album out on. There was a lot of interest, but we decided we just wanted to buy the equipment, do it ourselves and then find someone to license it so that we had no other influence, it was completely and utterly Matt and Kim--even to the technical standpoints of recording the damn thing. While it was totally enough rope to hang yourself with-- and a pain in the ass-- we were really happy with how it came out. We didn't have anyone telling us it should sound like something, it was just what it came out like from us working on it.

I pick things apart like crazy. Kim and I have a good dynamic that way. Kim is much more of a doer, I am more of a dreamer. She's like, let's just move through, she works on things very quickly, and she's very efficient. I have more pick-things-apart. I think our two demeanors combined makes for a good balance where I'll make sure we spend enough time on something that we get it to our full potential but Kim will make sure we actually get it done. If it was just me working on that album and not both of us, we'd still be working on it because there's too much freedom. Kim keeps that in check.

Well, see, I'm a huge fan of sleep, it's one of the best parts of the day. If I get a full nights sleep I'm so much happier. And the things is that we do have a lot of late nights so me getting a full nights sleep involves sleeping until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. On the occasion that I have to wake up in the AM, which has been a lot lately, I've been travelling so much... I don't feel like the same Me. You know, one of our songs starts "I wanna sleep through the weekend". These days we're so busy, sleep is the last possible place we can get more things done, so we have to cut it back.

Yeah, we definitely appreciate time at home, even though we love being on the road, but you really sacrifice a lot of things friendship-wise. A friendship is like any other relationship in that you have to work at it. I feel weird, like we'll be gone for a month or two months.. then, coming home and calling people up, acting like we never left. Sometimes it's bizarre, and it doesn't work. You're not where everyone else is, not in what everyone else has been going through. Sometimes it becomes a little difficult to maintain those friendships. I don't get to see my family as much as I'd like to. I haven't seen my parents in a long time... and that sucks. Luckily, I live with my brother so when I’m actually home I get to see him. It can be a little tough. The fact that Kim and I get to do this together, it's pretty badass.

I'm so bad with that, I don't even have an email address anymore because, while I liked getting emails, I was no good at sending them back. So when your email is a one way street it stops after a while. But that's how it's always been. I try to make phone calls when I can. My mom keeps up to date on where Kim and I are and what we're doing with my twitter. That's one thing I've gotten to updating.

In that same dreamer sense, I over think everything, even if it's an email to someone. When I can just do it on my cell phone it's no big deal to write something dumb down. I know my family and people who are interested in the band, or friends, can see where you're at and what you're doing. It's one of the few things I've gotten into, as far as the social networking things. I never figured out Facebook, I still can't figure that thing out. I feel like my grandmother trying to figure out a VCR.

We had problems for a long time with that. I was using a 70s keyboard and an 80s keyboard. I'd gone through five of them there was so much sweat and beer. Keyboards haven't necessarily been made as a rock and roll instrument yet. I keep saying I need a keyboard that can hold its alcohol. I've been trying to connect with this one particular keyboard company for a while, to make a rock and roll keyboard of some sort of water resistant nature. Or maybe we just need to make a keyboard condom or something that can be stretched over it to save it. I recently moved to a different keyboard for the one I kept breaking. One show, we played in London maybe two weeks ago, I kind of over-sweated it, but it came back to life.

Well, we started this band in the way most bands are started, just in our bedroom. We were the only ones there for us. Kim was in school for illustration, I was there for film. I knew people in school that would start fake bands just so they could make album covers. It was all just fun, different parts of the process. After we had control for so long, we really firmed up, you know. We knew who we are. Sometimes bands go to a photo shoot and they have a stylist there to dress you. It's for people who don't know who they are that need people to manipulate them to make them who they are. But we aren't going to wear any of that, we're going to wear our own clothes, this is what we look like, this is what we wear. It's the same with everything. We're still very hands on with everything. Even the back side of a sticker that you peel off, how that's going to look...we're like, no it should look like this. Almost to a point where I think we're annoying.

You see it happen to artists, not that things don't become overwhelming the more they pick up, but artists have a certain way--I call it the way they package themselves--the way their t-shirts look, the way their photographs are and the way everything was when they controlled it early on. The more they give these responsibilities to other people, the more it gets watered down and it's not focused because it's not them anymore. It's all these other peoples' ideas of them. It becomes difficult, but it's worth it to control your image. Venues will propose opening acts for shows and we have to approve them for every show. Most bands will put on whoever will play, but it all comes down to the feeling of the show at the end of the night, down to the music played between the bands and you need to take control of all of that.

Yeah, even the bouncers at the place. We'll have meetings with the security staff beforehand. People are probably going to stage dive or whatever and dance. They're not fighting, you don't have to break it up and pull people out of the venue at all. People are humans when they walk through the door.