mattgoodinterview2

It's that fine line you have to walk every day.

Yeah, but it's a bullshit line. It has nothing to do with anything real. In this business especially. You know I can count on as many fingers how many bands just kowtow to policy. Especially in a country where the labels are complete idiots and working off 10 year old rock 'n' roll templates.

Hey, I just finished covering North By North East. I understand.

The really unfortunate part about that I find is because of the inferiority complex people in this country have about their own art� I mean, let's face it. There's nothing wrong with most Canadian music. There's a lot of fuckin' great Canadian music but for someone like me it's very difficult to compete with bands from the U.S. and England in the eyes of Canadians. And for one reason and one reason only. They have more money than I do. An American band or an English band can out-spend me fucking tenfold. Let's look at Radiohead . Let's just take Canada for example. Obviously in an international profile they're much bigger. But how many copies did Kid A sell compared to Beautiful Midnight? Half. But, they're fucking Radiohead and they have a gazillion dollar marketing budget. They have a fucking machine, a behemoth behind them that just throws cash into whatever they want to do. Canadian labels don't have that kind of clout. And why don't they have it? Because they're locked in an industry where people can't think outside of the box. I always found that unfortunate because Australia has a population smaller than ours and they're like this microcosm, this musical microcosm who doesn't give a shit about the rest of the world. But it just is.

They've got Men At Work. They exist outside of any machinery.

Oh, totally. It's impossible. I understand American TV and American everything gets beamed across our border infinitum, and that is a large problem with it. It starts in the industry and it spreads to regular everyday people. Unfortunately it effects how bands operate. They feel they gain a certain amount of success and they fear losing their career. Let's face it. When a Canadian band goes to America to play, or does an interview with American media, the first thing they know about you is that you're a Canadian. And the first thing that that basically entails is that you're not as good as them. No matter what I can do � you know me and the press, dude � it doesn't matter. You sit down on a couch and they go, 'Oh, you're just a Canadian.'
When you're British and you come across from the ocean you've got that lineage behind you. Like a fucking fist!
If you're from Liverpool or Birmingham or London or any of it you have far more musical credibility somehow. But if you're from fucking Mississauga no one cares.
The truth of it is when we released Beautiful Midnight in America, we probably could have spent a fucking year down there working it and we probably could have done pretty well. I'm 30 years old man. Fuck that.

That's the Barenaked Ladies model. They spent years down there.

No wonder they [Americans] have such a bullshit opinion of Canadian music. Jesus Christ!
You gotta remember too that America is built on the cult of celebrity. Think of the Super Bowl here for a minute. You've got Aerosmith and Britney Spears. I mean this is someone like Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, who you'd think would have enough control over their careers to go, 'Fuck, that's just not rock!' But they do it anyway because it's about the cult of celebrity. It's got nothing to do with intentions, because if intentions ruled, then bands like Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo would have sold trillions of fucking records. But it doesn't work that way in America. And I don't even know them, but I bet fucking dollars to doughnuts that's one of the main reasons why At The Drive-In is no longer a band.

They didn't want to be part of that.

They didn't want to play the game. They're in a country where that rules. I just don't understand it. And the great thing about Canada is we don't have that here. We really don't. That should be celebrated in our musical culture instead of 'We're not as good as the Americans.'
I just challenge anyone to go to Los Angeles and hang out in West Hollywood for awhile at all those bullshit hotel bars to get a true sense of how fucking non-human that industry is.

Or make 'em watch MTV for 24 hours straight.

Even better. That's a fucking great idea.
My favorite is VH1's Top 100 records of all time and you've got like [The Police] Synchronicity is like number 47 and Cyndi Lauper is like number 21 or some horseshit band like Britney Spears is number 11. It's like, 'Dude, are you on crack?'

At least Canada doesn't get that MTV influence? The core 20 bands pelting you over and over again. We're saved.

We are and we aren't. I mean, I watch these pop bands and I try to see. I try to clear my mind of all thoughts and feelings on it and I actually try to find some relevance in it. I look for it, I really do. On a sociological level, I try to understand. For the life of me I just can't understand. Kids just have their heads up their ass. I don't get it! It has absolutely no soul. You know what my favorite thing is? You know that ID band? What the fuck is happening? You line them up and give me a bat and I'll do the world some fucking justice. Oh God! Are they fucking serious!

We get tons of records like that.

Have you heard the new Copyright record?

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