Relient K - An Interview
with Matt Thiessen
Estee Schwartz
Anything as controversial as religion gets an instant “fragile” sticker slapped across it, but music is about expression, not about keeping everyone happy. “As cheesy as it sounds, it’s easy to sing songs about your heart from your heart. It’s definitely tagged us with the 'Christian Band' image. Some people hate that, some love it, others don't care. I guess we fall under the ‘don't care' category.” says Matt Thiessen, Relient K’s singer/guitarist. “We write about personal stuff, but it’s usually not addressed to an audience. I feel like people definitely get a message out of our stuff though. And I enjoy that. The message most people probably get is one of persevering through all the rough things in life.” And in Relient K’s case, that may also mean making sure friends don’t kill each other at times also. “It was about 7 years ago, and we were joke fighting, until I accidentally put Matt's (Matt Hoopes) head through the drywall. Then he lost it, and tried to kill my by jumping on my neck with his knee. We were separated, and everything was fine, but everyone laughed at me for the next week, cause’ I had carpet burn on my forehead...none of this was made up.” Playful fights are only to be expected from a young, persistently touring, pop punk band.
Relient K is known for their constantly maturing sound that Matt accredits to, “making records that we find fault with. The maturing process for us has mostly been learning from what we call mistakes...” Growing with Relient K’s maturity is their success since their self-titled debut album in 2000. Over 300,000 copies of their second album, "the Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek," released in 2001 were sold. Their third full length, "Two Lefts Don't Make A Right, But Three Do," released in 2003, crept up to #38 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. Also, Gotee and Capital Records released their most recent album, “Mmhumm” in 2004.
The members of Relient K have a lot going for themselves right now, “I’ve got a solo thing called ‘Matthew Thiessen and The Earthquakes’…I have a few songs on Pure Volume. Our drummer, Dave has just started recording some amazing stuff out of his house...”
When asked if their success had changed the dynamics between the band members at all, Matt answered coolly, “not really.” Relient K’s down to earth outlook and level headedness is quite obvious when observing how they treat their fans. “Ha...I usually don't refer to them as 'fans'...I say 'people that like our stuff. I’m really shocked and pleased that people like what we do. I feel like I have the opportunity to make a lot of friends through this band. I try to take advantage of that.” On the band’s blog they even have a tendency to give a personal thank you to the particular fans that they’ve received something from, and refer to the fans by their names, not just, whomever.“We just want to prolong this experience. Its fun. We don't care about the bling or the recognition. We’re all on the same page here.”