Interview with Us And Us Only vocalist/guitarist Kinsey Matthews | By Renaldo Matadeen
Baltimore’s Us And Us Only have been finessing their sound through a myriad of EPs over the last seven years, recalibrating their catchy, melodic energy to full flower.
However, Full Flower—the band’s debut full-length, released July 14 on Topshelf Records—is their most triumphant narrative yet and, ironically, is tempered by the band’s most calming, soothing, and least aggressive sound to date. Us And Us Only’s newest songs bear the familiar tones of Death Cab For Cutie and Pedro The Lion, but done with a style that’s distinct enough to call their own.
Vocalist and guitarist Kinsey Matthews takes a moment to share the story behind Full Flower.
Full Flower has hints of Death Cab For Cutie and Pedro The Lion, but what would you say are the biggest musical influences on this album?
I love that you came away with Pedro The Lion. David Bazan has been one of my favorite songwriters since I was about 15.
In the time that we spent on this album, I had been made aware of the absolute force of nature that is Sade. That’s had a huge influence on my songwriting and how I approach perspectives. Her songwriting taught me to approach things in a more sensitive and less emotive manner than I’m accustomed to.
[I’m] listening to a lot of Broadcast, Stereolab, and rekindling my love for Limp Wrist. Wye Oak is also a huge influence. They’re from Baltimore as well and have been the band we most align ourselves with when people ask who we sound like. I think we’re similar in how we utilize dynamics.
There are quite a few different-sounding influences meshed in there. Taking all that in, how would you best describe your sound? Emo? Indie?
I always want to say “rock,” but then I feel like people will think we sound like the fucking Allman Brothers [Band] or something. Indie is probably the most accurate, if for no other reason than independent musicians and venues are the environment we surround ourselves with.
In the beginning, we were pegged as a folk band on every flyer, so I always said: “not folk.” Looking back, we were somewhere in that spectrum, whether I like it or not. Not like, on some Bob Dylan shit or anything, but in that we played mid-tempo strummed-out songs with a violinist. But here we are, it is 2017, so I guess my answer is still “not folk.”
What does the album title signify or mean?
Full Flower is the idea of something becoming fully formed—a flower in bloom. I think that this album is a more accurately-realized representation of any ideas or strides we’ve made in the last few years.
What are the main themes of Full Flower?
A lot of these songs are a monument to realizing it’s time to move on. Whether that’s from someone else or yourself. “Kno” touches on someone who knows what’s best for themself, but continues to work against that in an effort to please someone else. “Shame” is about owning your shit and leaving.
I come back to this frequently, because I’ve had a lot of trouble of knowing when it’s a good time to move on. The reality is that there’s never a good time to move on, so these songs are largely about the next couple steps once you’ve made that realization.
“sun4u” is reminiscent of Sorority Noise. What’s this song about?
Thank you. Much appreciated. We have a lot of love for Cam [Boucher] and those folks. “sun4u” is basically about self-mourning. Like, “I did the hard thing, OK. I just want to lay in bed, and the rest will just come to me whenever.”
There’s a lot of emotion and intensity behind these tracks. How was the songwriting process and the overall making of the album?
It was generally wonderful. Typically, I come to the band with a half-realized idea, they tell me if it’s awful, and if it isn’t, we work from there. We recorded this album over almost two years, so there were a lot of changes, both musically and personally, in that time. Many of these songs were written with our old guitarist and good friend, Dan Windsor, who has since gone off to do other amazing things at film school in Canada. We brought in our new guitarist, John Toohey, sometime after that.
As with most of our recordings, a huge part of what makes them more than just a few people playing music is the work that Sean [Mercer] puts into the process. He plays drums for us, but is also forever working on our arrangements. He records, engineers, mixes, [and] produces everything we do. I feel bad for how many times he’s had to listen to this record in the past year, but he’s championed through the entire thing. Nick [Hughes], who predominantly plays bass, also added a lot of textures to the album.
This was also our second release—after [the 2015 EP], Bored Crusader—to feature Lindsey Mills. I met her when I was 17 and messaged her on Myspace in awe of her songs, and she asked me to come to Florida and play [at] our friend Tommy Coleman’s house. In a lot of ways, although she doesn’t play shows with us too frequently, she is such an integral part of our music and sound. I couldn’t—and wouldn’t want to—imagine an Us And Us Only release without Lindsey on it.
Jumping back to Bored Crusader: it had a lot more pace to it, so why slow down your sound for this album?
I want to play every song as loud and fast as possible. I spent my teenage years playing Three One G [Records]-esque punk rock music and worshipping Converge—which I still kinda do. By the time that I settled down and started writing songs where you could actually make out the lyrics, I had found myself playing with people who had a better sense of good music than I did.
We still have some faster songs that didn’t make this album and might make the next. I think the world is not in need of any more hypermasculine bullshit, nor do we have any desire to really play anything like that. So, I sort of took a hard left and started writing songs like “sun4u” and “way2loud,” which is literally about learning when it’s more valuable to be quiet and listen—which is damn near all the time! In songs like that, there’s a joy in exploring that space that is difficult to find in loud and aggressive music.
Finally, what were some of the biggest challenges in making Full Flower?
Probably scheduling. Getting everything together between five people with full-time jobs can be a feat in itself sometimes. I think I’m probably the least valuable human and most available, in terms of capitalism and what I offer the world. Sean helps run Mobtown Studios here in Baltimore, Nick does a ton of freelance film work, so that keeps both of them pretty busy.
Beyond that, the biggest challenge in making this album was finding our voice with it. We waited until what we considered to be the “right time” to put out our first proper full-length, so when it came time, we had a ton of different songs, some of which didn’t make the cut. We came from Bored Crusader, which was a pretty energetic release, but my desire is always to do the most or the loudest and fastest thing I can manage, which is not always a wise idea.
Luckily, I’m surrounded by four other people who can tell me when this is the case.
Pick up Full Flower, available on cassette, vinyl, or digital formats, from Topshelf Records today!
