This Match Isn’t Going Out

Bands don’t start out as headliners. Let me rephrase that. Timeless bands don’t start out as headliners. Fame has reared its ugly head for all too many bands who are immediately thrown into the limelight before ever releasing a full length album. More often than not, these same bands can soon be found doing commentary for Vh1 shortly thereafter. The Matches will not be one of these bands.


The East Bay of San Francisco was the playground for rockstar youth in the eighties, before the sold out tours and platinum records. Green Day, Rancid, AFI among others all called the East Bay home at some point as they busted their asses to achieve recognition on Gilman St. Excuse the cliché, but it was the blood, sweat and tears that paved the way to the Hollywood Hills for these uber-successful rock bands – not a catchy single on Myspace. The East Bay has given birth to yet another determined band called The Matches. Their guerrilla marketing attack on the industry has earned them a place on Epitaph Records, a home to bands who don’t do well with suits.  


The Matches’ front man Shawn Harris took the time to share his short-lived dream of charging Mavericks, his expertise on stealing fans and his approach to becoming a “rockstar.”

How’s the Warped Tour treating you?
It’s been treating us like a lover mostly. We’ve had our bouts, but that’s part of its personality I guess. There are thousands of other bands fans that we can potentially steal every day, so that’s a good reason to be out here. Absolute thievery.





What stage have you been playing?
We’ve been playing on the Hurley.com stage. Typically we’re set up to play in amphitheatres on the tour.

How old is everyone in the band?
I’m 25 and our youngest member is 21.

You guys really stole the show while touring with I Am Ghost.  What does it take to engage a crowd?
One time Justin and I were playing our guitars outside of a Green Day show at the Warrior’s Stadium in Oakland. We couldn’t afford tickets at the time. We ended up walking around to the side entrance with our guitars and security mistook us as band members, so we just strolled in and ended up being within feet of Billy Joe as he performed. Even though it was a stadium he managed to make it feel like a small club. As our shows have grown we’ve tried to remain conscious of the energy that comes from playing a small room and we try to harness that no matter how big the crowd gets.




In Pomona you played an acoustic set outside the venue afterwards. Was that an impromptu performance or a regular occurrence?
We try to play outside after every show, especially if we’re not headlining. In doing so we’re able to play for everyone who showed up late for the headliner as they leave. Playing on the same ground as our fans as opposed to a stage where we’re out of reach is also great. It’s an entirely different vibe and we enjoy the interaction. On warped tour we try to make sure half of our autographs are signed in the crowd rather than an organized line set up behind a table. For example, I feel like hugs aren’t meant to be given upon a formal request. Hugs are meant to be shared instead of an awkward gesture from behind a table.

Why did you guys sign with Epitaph? I’ve heard they treat their bands pretty well.
When we were getting our first record deal proposals around the time of our first record, we were hit up by about six labels. To put it this way, none of the A&R or VP’s who were into our band at that time still work for those labels. Then there’s Epitaph, which is owned by Brett (Gurewitz) from Bad Religion who actually came out to our show and proposed that we sign with their label. If a band plans on lasting beyond a hit video or hit single it’s important to pick a label that will be around to support you.  Our goal is to build a career, not appear out of nowhere with one hit song.

Exactly, nobody wants to be a one hit wonder.
Exactly – well actually, some do…ha ha!

While on the topic of one hit wonders. How did you contribute to MC Lars’ “signing emo” which is clearly aimed towards today’s pop-punk.
Lars wrote it and we played the song live with him on tour in Australia. We jokingly proposed that we play backup as his “disposable emo band” for the song. After the song’s success on tour we wrote and recorded “Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock” with Lars.

How did the East Bay’s music scene influence you growing up?
It was amazing to hear and see a band like Greenday on TV and on the radio, knowing they were from our backyard in Oakland. If they could do it having grown up here, we figured we could do it too. If they’d been from New York City we might not have followed in their footsteps. We also got into Operation Ivy, Rancid and anything else punk rock at the time. As Green Day, AFI and Rancid all became extremely popular it left a crater in the area’s music scene. Anything melodic or commercially appealing was shunned by the Gilman Street Club and local promoters as a backlash to the scene becoming so popular. That left us in a funny place because these same bands were our inspiration. Refusing to change our music, we started promoting our own shows which made them love us even less. In time kids started coming out of the woodwork for our L3 shows which stands for Live, Loud and Local.

You’re coming up on your one year anniversary since the release of Decomposeur.  What was it like working with legends Tim Armstrong and Mark Hoppus?
We joked about how you couldn’t be our producer unless we’d covered one of your songs in high school. It was a total head trip starting out. We didn’t know how to act around them, but it quickly became apparent they were only human. As we grow as a band and grow as “rockstars” to an extent I want to dethrone that so that it’s not a rockstar thing. Knowing that our idols were only human opened doors for us through which we were able to create art.

When do you plan on going back to the studio?

We’re just about done with the third album and it should be out around March 2008.  

What can you tell us about it?
It fills the gaps that Decomposer left behind. If the walls of the room we were in while recording Decomposer were getting smaller, the next album will show a fear of wide open spaces – like you’re in an open field. In a way there’s more hope in this record. But then in a way what fun is hope if you don’t peck at it and expose it for the human coping mechanism that it is.

Does anyone in the band surf?
I used to surf near the hook in Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay and sometimes Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I learned to surf on a longboard but as my buddies and I progressed we wanted to go after the bigger waves, partly because the big wave surfers were getting so much press out at Mavericks. We’d always head out with binoculars to watch in awe. Eventually we bought a big shiny gun, but of course never paddled out because we sucked so hard. We went back to longboarding pretty quickly.