Why should you shun your studies and go see Matt Pond PA Wednesday night at the Paradise?
According to Matt Pond, “If we’re doing this every night and we’re hanging out and partying, I think people should be obligated to party with us.”
Pond fronts Matt Pond PA, the newly-buzzed band whose music has been characterized by the press as everything from “emo for grownups” to chamber pop to easy listening. But Pond, like many other introspective musicians, hates pigeonholing.
“Those [descriptions] all suck,” he laments. “Rather than chamber pop, I’d say that we try to orchestrate as much as possible and not only with orchestral instruments. We’re not trying to create backdrops, we’re trying to build a response.”
Pond’s version of rock ‘n’ roll is never too harsh and never too whiney — unlike its younger punk rock and emo counterparts.
After ten years of making music, Pond is finally getting some deserved credit. Rolling Stone saluted the band by naming Matt Pond PA one of its “Ten Bands to Watch” last fall.
“[When] you see your name in Rolling Stone, you’re like what the [expletive deleted]!” Pond says. “It makes you almost nervous that it must be a typo or something, but you know [it’s okay because it’s] a typo with a picture.”
Matt Pond PA has also made a dent in one of the most influential compilations in popular music today — The O.C. soundtrack — which is sometimes a sore spot for artists who are often accused of selling out when putting their music on the show.
“[The O.C. producer] Josh Schwartz is invested in helping people that otherwise mostly just struggle,” Pond explains. “I’ve never seen anyone that brings that much focus to things that otherwise wouldn’t be focused upon and I think that’s really cool.”
Though feisty when it comes to The O.C., Pond is a lover, not a fighter. He laces his lyrics with hopeful heartbreak and enjoyable melancholy without slipping into the black hole of bitterness that so many musicians irritatingly fall into. But don’t worry, ladies — Pond claims no ex-girlfriends will be on Commonwealth Avenue next week.
“I never made many mistakes in Boston … not yet,” he laughs.
Celebrating a new seat in the spotlight and the album Several Arrows Later, Matt Pond PA’s Boston show will be night two of the 40-date tour and the closest show to Pond’s childhood home of New Hampshire, which means it might be the most untamed show of the tour.
“That’s the night I get in ultra-party mode and then I swear on the stage,” Pond said. “I’m like, ‘my [expletive deleted]’n mom’s here, nobody [expletive deleted]’n swear!'”
Catch Matt Pond PA swearing in front of mom at the Paradise Rock Club on Wednesday, Feb. 8. Doors open at 7 p.m.