by Deborah J. Draisin
Backed by drummer extraordinaire Jarrod Alexander (of
A Static Lullabye,) bassist Hunter Burgan (of AFI,) and
led by Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio,) supergroup The Sekrets
(based in – where else? L.A.,) is set to release its
full-length KUTS this spring. The release will
be their second in three years. On their management’s
website, Skiba is quoted as saying about KUTS that
“Everyone involved in the album breathed life into
the ideas, making them songs and giving those songs a foundation
that couldn’t be stronger or more inspired.”
Jersey Beat was lucky enough to snag a few moments with
Skiba to discuss the next phase of the project.
Q: What did you mean when you said that Matt Skiba and the
Sekrets is “a band, but not a band?”
MS: I said that? Well, I mean, I did write the material
initially and then hired everyone to play on it, produce
it and all that kind of stuff, but it is a band. At the
end of the day, I think that’s the way any musician
works: you find the people to play with and you make a record
together, so yeah, The Sekrets is a band.
Q: Maybe you were being existential? Okay, so it is a band,
everyone, and it’s a good-ass band too. You’re
about to release your sophomore album in June, correct?
MS: Yeah, June 3.
Q: Tell me a little bit about the album.
MS: It’s a record that I actually wrote while I was
on tour with my band, Alkaline Trio. We were on tour in
Europe, and I wrote the whole record with Garage Band in
the back of a tour bus.
Q: You did that whole thing just on one European leg?
MS: Mm-hm.
Q: Wow…
MS: Yep. I didn’t do the whole record - some basic
ideas, and all of the lyrics and chord progressions were
written, for the most part, on that European leg - but the
record was recorded when I got home.
Q: Right, because you had to get the guys involved, of course.
What did Hunter and Jarrod bring to the table this go-around?
MS: Jarrod and Hunter actually contributed to the last record
immensely, as they did with this one. It was great to be
able to play with those guys; they’re good friends
of mine, and they’re all also really, really amazing
musicians.
Q: That they are.
MS: I’m a lucky guy that I get to play with them,
and, of course, the way that that the record sounds, the
rhythm section is hugely responsible for that - the whole
vibe of the record, in fact.
Q: It’s an amazing record. What vibe were you going
for with this record?
MS: Well, (for “Babylon,”) I had a bunch of
songs written that were maybe going to be Alkaline Trio
songs, maybe not. So, the last record started with some
of those leftovers, and the intention was to make kind of
a dance-y rock record. With this one, I also wanted to make
a dance-y rock record, but with a little less pertaining
to Alkaline Trio.
Q: How do you decide that, by the way, like “Okay,
this is not going to make it on the record, but I think
it fits better here,” is there a certain vibe to this
band versus that band that makes you decide that?
MS: No, I think it’s more the shape of the record,
and what’s appropriate for it. I didn’t put
those songs on a different record because I thought they
weren’t as good. They ended up in the so-called “scrap
heap” because they didn’t fit in with the rest
of what that particular Alkaline Trio record was doing.
So, I just took those songs and went in a different direction
and made a different record. But with the new record, I
wrote the songs specifically for it, there are no leftovers
involved.
Q: And that was part of the progression, obviously. Now
you know what the band is, you have more of a vibe for the
three guys that are in it, and you can write for what the
band evolved into. Is “KUTS” an acronym for
something, or just a play on words?
MS: It’s just a play on words, I suppose.
Q: Fair enough.
MS: It’s definitely not an acronym for anything, although
we probably could think of one.
Q: If we were playing “Acrophobia,” we would
have to compete to see which one of us came up with the
best acronym for it. Are you going to be touring on “KUTS”
at all? I know you’re busy – you’ve got
three bands going at this point.
MS: I hope to be. At this point, we have a lot of Alkaline
Trio touring coming up first, and I started playing with
this little band called Blink-182…
Q: Eh, little band.
MS: Though that is uncertain at the moment. After this Alkaline
Trio tour, I hope to get The Sekrets out on the road. I’d
love to do a run of The States again and then take it over
to Europe as well.
Q: Any chance you would do a double-header?
MS: No, nobody needs that much of me.
Q: Right? It’d be like “Can you let somebody
else get on the damn stage now? Jesus Christ!”
MS: Yeah, I don’t want to do like a Matt Skiba Fest.
Q: You actually did some podcasting, recently. I know you
did the Tim Armstrong one, and you did a Mark Hoppus one
too, didn’t you?
MS: Yep, and I did a Chris Shiflett one a couple of months
ago.
Q: Nice! Do you think radio is a lost art?
MS: Hm…I’m the wrong guy to ask. I don’t
think that radio does what it used to. There was a system,
obviously, where you’d put a single on the radio,
it hit and then you’d sell a billion records –
that doesn’t happen anymore. That, I think, is a very
rare occasion, unless it’s pop, or hip-hop, or R&B,
or country. With Rock Radio, I’m not really sure…I
don’t listen to radio.
Q: I haven’t listened to the radio in ten years. I
listen to Pandora.
MS: I listen to Pantera.
Q: I listen to Pantera! Did you know that they used to be
a hair band?
MS: Yes, I did!
Q: I just found that out a few years ago, I was shocked.
I don’t think anybody even knew who they were then.
MS: Only diehard Pantera fans like myself.
Q: Yep. I think I came into that era too late. It’s
cool to go back and listen to them now and go “Whoa,
that’s what they used to sound like? Wow!” And
what about the vinyl resurgence, what do you think of that?
Am I the only one who thinks that’s weird?
MS: I like vinyl – I’m a big fan of it. I’d
rather see vinyl do well than radio.
Q: That’s fair, yeah, because vinyl sales are more
direct to the artist.
MS: Well, and it’s also something tangible –
a piece of art, and I’m just a fan of that.
Q: It’s true, I forgot how great that felt, and I’m
kicking myself for every single vinyl album that I put out
on the side of the road, because I didn’t know it
was going to come back. It was nice to open an album and
really dive into it. You can’t do that with digital,
it’s not the same.
MS: Nope.
Q: So, the “Past Live” tour, that’s still
going on, right? You’re doing that in some other cities.
I’m bummed that I wasn’t able to score a ticket
– they sold out in like three seconds. How was that?
Did you have to study for the deeper cuts, or did you have
that all down in your head?
MS: No, I have to study again. We don’t leave for
the tour for another couple of weeks, and once these guys
are done preparing at home, I am going to start relearning
Alkaline Trio songs.
Q: And there are probably some songs that you don’t
relate to anymore, right?
MS: Hm…not necessarily. I mean, I relate to them because
they got me to where I’m at. I wrote them from a different
perspective; I was a different person when I wrote many
of those songs, but I relate to them because I experienced
it. It’s just a memory.
Q: So you’re not going to pull a Dave Mustaine, where
you’re like “I can’t play that anymore,
that’s not who I am!”
MS: We’re playing all eight of our records.
Q: I know, I really wish I could’ve gone. Just tell
me that it sucked, so I’ll feel better for not being
there.
MS: Oh, I hope it doesn’t suck!
Q: It won’t suck. I’m just telling myself that.
I’m sure it’s been amazing, and I’m sure
that the fans have been super receptive. And we’re
about to find out what happens with Blink. Are you still
going to do the kiddie punk album you were talking about?
MS: With Mark, actually, yes, we’re still doing the
kid’s record.
Q: That’s cool! When’s that going to happen?
MS: I’m not sure. We’ve already started recording
it. I have to finish writing it. That’ll probably
happen when I get back from all of these Alkaline Trio dates.
Q: Badass. You could maybe work on that on the road if you
guys go on tour together. Okay, so back to “KUTS.”
How about a brief “Storytellers?” Let’s
do “She Said.”
MS: That’s just your basic breakup song. It was influenced
pretty heavily by a couple of Pogues songs that I really
like. There’s one in particular, the Christmas one,
“Fairytale of New York” - it’s a duet-y
kind of thing. You know, or a song like “Candy”
by Iggy Pop – Kate Pearson sings that. Of course,
“She Said” isn’t a duet, but it’s
kind of from both perspectives of a guy and a girl, and
their negative thoughts toward each other during and after
a recent breakup.
Q: Cool, so it’s to try and get both sides of the
story, which is not usually something you get in one song.
MS: Nope.
Q: And what about “Vienna?” I like that one.
MS: “Vienna” I wrote in Vienna, Austria. I was
sitting in back of our tour bus, and I wrote that song in
like ten minutes. I was just sitting in Vienna and it was
pouring rain outside, so there’s that.
Q: It’s really pretty. So, just like a melancholy
moment?
MS: Yeah, just, you know, in a beautiful city, but kind
of stuck. It was a weird time for me, and it was a weird
day, and I wrote a song about it. Vienna is one of my favorite
cities to play, and one of my favorite cities to visit.
It’s a gorgeous city, it was just kind of a shitty
day.
Q: I heard that it’s dark there, that there’s
kind of a darkness in Vienna that hangs over it. I haven’t
been yet, but that’s what I’ve heard.
MS: Have you been to Europe?
Q: I’m about to! I’m going for the first time
in May. I’m going to Italy and France.
MS: Okay: there’s a darkness that hangs all over Europe.
Q: Because it’s old maybe?
MS: It’s the weather, but the more south you go: Italy,
Spain, it gets a little sunnier. Generally, Germany and
Austria, England, it’s usually pretty gloomy and rainy.
Q: That’s where my people are from; that’s explains
what’s wrong with me.
MS: That’s where all of our people are from! You’re
in the middle of the ocean, so…
Q: Yeah. I actually met a guy from England recently who
told me that it seriously never stops raining there, and
he couldn’t take it anymore. He moved out here because
he couldn’t stand it.
MS: Oh, I could never live there, no.
Q: I couldn’t either. It would be bad for my hair
too. Can you tell me anything about your work on “Home
Sweet Home” (the musical written by No FX's Fat Mike?)
MS: I went out and worked on the play before it went into
production. I did pre-production for it, and I played one
of the characters, helped with some of the music, helped
with some of the writing.
Q: Awesome!
MS: I was slated to play one of the characters, but it didn’t
really work out. Musical theater isn’t really my calling,
I discovered. But, it was a really terrifying/amazing experience
to work with all of these great actors and do something
that I’ve never done before. We performed it several
times for an audience, and it was definitely a really intense
experience – especially playing the character that
I was playing. I played a rapist, and I had to perform a
rape scene.
Q: Oh my God!
MS: It was really intense, and something that, I think if
I were to pursue, study it, it’s something that I
could learn to enjoy. But, being an untrained amateur actor
going into this thing because my friend wrote it, I felt
like it was an insult to the art, and I wasn’t really
landing it. In rehearsals, I would be fine, and then I’d
get in front of an audience and it was a completely different
experience.
Q: Now, that’s strange, because you’ve been
in front of audiences for a long time. What was different
about being in front of an audience as an actor versus being
in front of an audience as a musician? Was it just out of
your comfort zone, or…?
MS: It’s just a completely different thing. In theater,
you could hear a pin drop.
Q: Yeah.
MS: You don’t have instruments, and there’s
no crowd response. I mean, obviously, you can hear the crowd
laughing or crying or whatever the scene in the story calls
for, but it’s a totally different thing. The scene
is different, the setup is different - it’s like the
difference between painting and sculpting.
Q: I feel like everyone secretly has the acting bug and
they never tap into it.
MS: I think everybody wants to be an actor – I think
there’s a reason that actors are so revered, so thought
of as superhuman. There’s this celebrity that surrounds
acting; I think a lot of people, in a way, want to be that,
but I think it takes a special talent and kind of person.
For the great – the really great – actors, that’s
something that they’ve studied. There are people that
they call “naturals” – I don’t think
I’m one of them…hang on…(pauses to speak
to someone, then returns.) Fucking shoot me.
Q: (laughing) You sound like me at work!
MS: It’s been such a long day with these guys. Anyway,
yeah, I think a lot of people have the acting bug, I just
don’t think many people can do it, is my point. There
are a lot more people that think they can do it than can
actually do it – it’s really hard.
Q: Wouldn’t you say that’s true about music
too? That there are a lot of people who think they can do
it, but can’t?
MS: Um, not necessarily. One of my favorite bands in the
world is The Misfits, and those guys couldn’t play
for shit.
Q: Oh, that’s true…but I guess if you listen
to an old Black Flag album, it’s going to sound like
crap though.
MS: But I think music is sort of like painting: you don’t
really have to know how to paint to be good at it. You don’t
have to necessarily know how to play instruments to be good
at it; you can make music out of anything, but acting? You’ve
kind of got to be good at it – it’s a whole
different thing. You can’t really fake it, otherwise
you’d be a terrible actor (laughs.) I mean: you’ve
got to be good at faking it, if that’s what you’re
doing, you know?
Q: I guess you’re right…but art is subjective
anyway though, even film. If something’s meant to
be campy, can you argue that it’s shitty acting? That’s
how it was supposed to be, right?
MS: Well, but there’s a huge difference between screen
acting and stage acting.
Q: True, yeah.
MS: If you’re watching a film, you’re looking
at somebody’s face, or you’re looking at somebody’s
hands. When you’re watching someone onstage, you can
see their entire body the whole time, unless they’re
obscured by something or whatever. So, live acting versus
when you have fifteen hundred takes to choose from, it’s
a very different thing. There’s also editing and all
kinds of things that you can do to make shitty screen actors
seem like good actors. Onstage, it would be a lot harder
to fudge that.
Q: Stage is naked. Is it hard, even on your end of things,
to kind of unplug sometimes from the audience? Can they
be distracting?
MS: On the very rare occasion when someone’s inciting
violence or a fight breaks out, or somebody gets shitty
in one way or another, of course that’s going to be
distracting. But, generally, the crowd is the whole reason
that we’re there. That revolving energy, that’s
the show. We’re only as good as the crowd.
Q: That’s true, isn’t it? If the crowd isn’t
giving you anything back, it’s going to take away
from your energy level, and it’s going to bring the
show down.
MS: Absolutely.
Q: What’s the best show you think you’ve played
to date? Do you still remember it?
MS: I don’t know, there’s been so many good
shows.
Q: Do they blur?
MS: No, I’ve just played a lot of shows in twenty
years, and I’ve played shows that I thought were terrible
and that people thought were great, so it’s subjective.
Q: That’s weird, yeah. Do you sometimes disagree with
your band – like your band member had a great show
and you had a terrible one, and you’re like “What
the hell?”
MS: Oh, every night!
Q: Every night? You never agree?
MS: It’s very rare that all three of us have a great
show.
Q: Wow…so that’s a life goal, right there.
MS: Yeah. Usually, something goes wrong for somebody.
Q: Damn. I guess it’s like life.
MS: Exactly. There are times where all three of us will
genuinely have a great time onstage, but there’s almost
always a problem.
Q: Oh, like technical problems?
MS: We’re dealing with electricity and man-made things,
and shit happens.
Q: You’ve got to roll with that though, right? If
something doesn’t want to work, it’s like “Fuck
it, I’ll throw it in the corner and I’ll wing
it.” You can’t let something small ruin everything
for you – and that’s a life lesson too, right?
We’re philosophers here.
MS: Sure.
Q: You’re a philosopher. A lot of you guys get told
things like “You saved my life,” “Your
lyrics are on my body forever because they changed me.”
Does that ever get overwhelming?
MS: No, it’s amazing to hear that kind of stuff. I’ve
had people do that for me, and to be able to do that for
other people is an amazing thing.
Q: Who do you feel most inspired by right now?
MS: Right now, Mr. Clean, because I’m looking at my
floor, and the guys who were painting my ceiling tracked
dirt all over my house, and I just had it cleaned this morning.
Q: You sound like somebody who should have a lot of children.
MS: I’m just looking at the dirt all over my floor,
and I have uptown problems, but I just had the fucking floors
cleaned!
Q: I hear you. That’s kind of what happens when I
clean the entire house and then my son comes home, makes
a sandwich, and there are crumbs everywhere, and I’m
like “Really?” I just stare at the crumbs angrily,
because you’ve got to stare at them angrily before
you get up and clean them, that’s just how it has
to be. Alright, so what’s next for you? You’re
doing “Past Live” shows now, you’re going
to put “KUTS” out in a couple of months, you’re
doing Blink.
MS: Yeah, that about covers it.
Q: That fills your year, and you’re always writing.
You’ve said that you write with idle hands, that you
can’t be still.
MS: It doesn’t necessarily have to be writing. I paint,
and I have several things that I do creatively. I have a
hard time sitting still; I don’t really like to waste
time. There are always songs to be written - I feel like
there’s always something to be done, so I stay pretty
busy.
Q: Do you sleep?
MS: Yes, very well.
Q: Poe called sleep “little slices of death.”
It kind of is.
MS: I disagree; I love to sleep, because when I wake up,
I have energy to live life.
Q: Oh, you’re looking at the end result of it.
MS: Yeah. I mean, I also have a really comfortable bed that
I enjoy, so I’m not afraid of sleep.
Q: You’ve probably got those thousand-thread count
sheets and big, fluffy pillows.
MS: They’re 666 thread count.
Q: I walked right into that one. That’s what they
say about you guys, that you’re devil worshippers,
right? The logo is the Illuminati.
MS: No, that would be the high-go.
Q: Well, that’s true. So, The Sekrets will be on tour
hopefully this fall-ish, maybe?
MS: It’s hard to say, I’m just not sure.
Q: Will there be a video?
MS: I’m sure there will.
Q: Looking forward to it – I’m going to let
you go clean your floor.
MS: I’m already doing it; cleaning it as we speak.
Q: Multi-tasking like a fiend! How do I not hear the exertion?
Do you ever find yourself wondering what people are actually
doing when you’re talking on the phone with them?
Like, “Is that guy seriously picking his nose really
hard right now while I’m talking to him?”
MS: I don’t spend that much time on the phone usually,
unless I’m doing an interview, but I usually know
what people are doing, because my first question to one
of my friends when I call them is “What are you doing?”
So, I get that right out of the way.
Q: They could be lying, I’m just saying.
MS: They could be. I don’t really hang out with liars
though.
Q: Yeah, but if I were doing something really embarrassing
when someone called, I’d be like “Um, I’m
reading, yeah. I’m totally not washing my underwear
or anything.” Anyway, solid multi-tasking on your
part.
MS: I try.
Read up, listen up, watch a vid:
https://www.facebook.com/mattskibaandthesekrets
https://www.youtube.com/user/superballmusictv/videos
JerseyBeat.com
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music, focusing on New Jersey and the Tri-State
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