Matt And Kim Discuss New Band PG14 And The Difficulty Of Self-Promotion
It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Matt And Kim, the duo whose energetic and hard-bleating indie-pop took them from DIY warehouse spaces to massive festivals. Matt And Kim were always best-known for their euphoric live shows, so it’s not exactly a surprise that the pandemic did a number on them. In 2021, the duo released a few singles, which didn’t get too much attention. Now, singer and keyboardist Matt Johnson, who’s lately been absent from social media, is talking about how hard it can be to try to market yourself online, and he’s also introduced the new band from both Matt and Kim, which is separate from Matt And Kim.
In a long five-minute TikTok post, Matt Johnson talks to the camera while drummer Kim Schifino, his partner in both the band and in life, encourages him in the background. In the video, Johnson talks about being bummed out and terrified at the pressure involved in releasing new music:
About a year and a half ago, two years ago, we put out a few songs, songs we like. But it was in the pandemic, and we’re off the road, and we’re just on social media — basically making music that we love and just begging people to listen to it. That’s what I feel! I hate selling myself! You know what it’s like. Neither of us like doing sales…
The reality is, my whole adult life, I’ve put basically all my self-worth into the band. And I’ve found that we didn’t have the shows to lean back on. We were just at home, and then the songs aren’t getting played as much. People on the team are like, “I wish this does better.” And I just started feeling shitty about it. It wasn’t fun.
In the same video, Matt Johnson also talks about how hard it was to walk away from social media:
Honestly, I felt like I was screwing up every day I didn’t post. Like, “Matt, you have this wonderful opportunity. You got so fortunate and lucky to have a band that like, somebody likes. What are you doing? Are you giving up?” I need to pivot all of this into just loving this great life with this OK person I have over here and not just putting all my value in external stuff.
@mattandkim WE’RE STILL ALIVE@PG14 ♬ original sound – mattandkim
At the end of the video, Matt Johnson also says that he and Kim Schifino have also started a new project called PG14. Kim chimes in to say that Matt And Kim aren’t done, and she mentions some new thing that gets bleeped out because they aren’t supposed to talk about it yet. But that post also links a TikTok page for PG14, the duo’s new band. Here’s how Matt describes PG14 in that page’s first post:
We were in the middle of the not touring and all of that, and we’re just like, “What would bring us happiness?” And we thought, “Let’s just make a weird art-school kid project, which we are at heart — as grown-ass adults now, but still art-school kids at heart — with no rules, nothing that came before it.” We’re making our first album again, or whatever this is… It’s sort of synth-garage punk, and it’s the music we’re so excited about.
@pg14world Clearly still figuring this project out… stay and figure it out with us!
The PG14 also has a video of Matt Johnson recording himself playing bass at home, and the text on the video says that it’s his first time playing bass “since his high school punk band.”
@pg14world
