In Conversation with Citizen
Jessica Martens, of WLUW, sat down with Mat Kerekes, vocalist of band Citizen, prior to the last show of their U.S. tour. Citizen‘s tour began shortly after their new album, Calling the Dogs, released. We discussed the tour, the making of the album, Pokémon, and more. Read about it below!
Interview conducted by Jessica Martens
Jessica: How are you feeling about it being the last show of the U.S. leg [of tour] here?
Mat: I mean, I feel good in the sense of I'm homesick. But all the shows have just been so cool. So I don’t feel burnt out. You know, in the past when you have a tour with a lot of ups and downs its kind of… you play the good shows you feel awesome then you play the not so good shows and you feel like a loser and you feel down. I feel this is the best tour we've ever done and in terms of playing I'm fully there and rejuvenated but I'm ready to see my wife and my dogs and stuff so that'll be nice.
Jessica: I bet, yeah. I know that there's newer and older members that compile into Citizen… you guys played here in Chicago with the current crew how many times?
Mat: I think this will be… tonight will be our fourth time. Ever since the lockdown ended and tour kind of kick-started and things, whatever, we've been on the road a lot. And you know it's fun. But yeah, they've played, I think they've done three tours with us so far.
Jessica: So what keeps bringing you back to Chicago then? How do you feel about your Chicago shows? Is it a good city for you guys?
Mat: Yeah, I think the first time we played Chicago was 2011 or 2010 or something like that. It's always just been good. I feel like people here just come out and go crazy for anybody; you know. Or at least that's my experience. I don't really know, but I always know when it's time to play Chicago, it's going to be a good night.
Jessica: Yeah, I haven't always lived here, but I have had a lot of fun at the concerts I've been to here for sure.
Mat: It's a really good scene. For this scene at least.
Jessica: Oh definitely. I want to get into the bands you're touring with this time around–Modern Color and Narrow Head. I know me and a lot of other people were excited when that dropped–who was gonna be with you guys. How did that come about?
Mat: So I don't really pick the bands we tour with. It's usually Nick from Citizen. It's his genius. But I know that Modern Color and Narrow Head are, you know they're just hot right now, and they're really good people and they rock. I'm a fan. I'm a fan of them too. So when you do tour lineups you usually have a wish list of bands you want to tour with. It's–usually you get turned down. Like, ‘oh we want to tour with this band!’ and they say no.. But this is one of the first tours where we asked our two first options and they both said yeah. And I think how well the tour is doing, you know, it's them too. It's the whole package. It's not just Citizen.
Jessica: Yeah. Again, I'm super excited for the show tonight. I was so stoked when I saw [the lineup].
Mat: Hell yeah.
Jessica: You toured earlier this year as well for the 10-year anniversary of [your album] Youth. How has that tour kind of compared and contrasted to this one?
Mat: [the Youth tour] was totally nostalgic. Youth is our first record and arguably our most popular one so it was just–the shows were huge and it was fun to revisit that. And it kind of put things in a different perspective where you kind of appreciate things a little more. I feel, at least in my case, I've taken a lot of things for granted for a long time and doing those Youth shows was just like, oh, wow, we really have come so far. And I see all these people that I've just been seeing for 10 years and I can't believe they keep coming back. And it was just really nuts. It made me feel very happy and, you know, happy-sad. It was a really emotional thing. But this tour is just, it's on the new record, so it's current and we're all fired up. And yeah. Not that we weren't fired up for these shows–those were amazing. I'm glad we did them. But I feel like it kind of set a new standard and it got us excited to kind of get back out there.
Jessica: Getting into that new record, I was wondering what song came first? Or what was the first demo for this that you kind of built the sound off of?
Mat: I think the first song was “Bad Company”. You know, our previous record it’s called Life In Your Glass World. It was built upon a rhythm section–a drum loop with bass. And then the
guitars were kind of secondary. And that's why it kind of has that–I don't want to say electronic because it's not electronic, but it was kind of written like an electric song. Most of that record. This [record] was guitar first and kind of garage rock-y and back to just kind of jamming out and kind of back to your roots a little bit. Yeah, I think “Bad Company” set the stage for that
Jessica: Yeah I saw you mention “Hyper Trophy” being the last song that you did so I was wondering what was the catalyst. So there is my answer for that! Interesting for sure. I also saw you in a previous interview talk about y'all going to a cabin to work on this record. Tell me about that. What was that experience like for you?
Mat: So the demoing process for this record was like, I do a quick demo with guitar and vocals and that's pretty much it. Maybe a drum loop, you know. And I sent it to everybody in its barest form. And before we went to record with Rob Schnapf, or Schnapf, however you say it. We got together in a cabin and jammed the whole album and kind of sorted it out and wrote it together. And we've never done it like that before. It's always the demos are very hashed out and there's minor changes or whatever. But yeah. It really felt like a grassroots approach, you know.
Jessica: Do you think that altered how it ended up sounding in the end?
Mat: I think so. I think the album; it translates well live. It's energetic, and it's all fun and I do think that's because we were all together in a room doing it.
Jessica: Oh I bet. I thought that was really interesting when I heard you mention that in a previous interview. I also wanted to ask you about the album art for the cover of [Calling the Dogs] as well. What's the story behind that?
Mat: So Nick did that. He’s the guitarist, and that is a photo from the cabin. It’s a photo of Nick and Mason standing by a tree. I'm going to speak for him a little bit. I could kind of regurgitate what I've heard him say, but he just said that the photo felt very Ohio to him. You know, we were in a cabin in Ohio. And he redid it with charcoal. The tree was not actually on fire, that was a genius (laughs), you know, effects, special effects (jokingly). But yeah, he said the photo felt very Ohio to him. Like the grassroots approach of writing the record. And we're all from Ohio, or most of us are now, because we've got Mason and Ben, but yeah.
Note: (Mason and Ben are from Michigan)
Jessica: Alright, and do you have any stick out memories or funny moments from that time at the cabin?
Mat: From the cabin… so that was a… I don't want to say frustrating time for me, but I'm the only one who knows how to record. So it was like we would wake up at 10 and then at 11 we'd start recording till 1 a.m. and I never got a break because I was constantly engaged, you know, doing whatever. But a memory from that that I really liked is we would all get in the hot tub every night and chill. Just a bunch of dudes in the hot tub.
Jessica: Oh yeah, just decompressing after all that?
Mat: Yeah! It was fun. It was cold outside and the hot tub was outside. I thought it was cool.
Jessica: What month was that in then?
Mat: I think we went in January.
Jessica: Okay, so chilly out still.
Mat: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jessica: Do you have any specific artists or sounds that you think kind of went into or inspired this album? Because all your albums sound a little different from each other. Is there anything that you would call inspiration for [Calling the Dogs]?
Mat: I think the early 2000s New York garage rock scene really, really bled into this record. Mason, our new guitarist, that's where his heart lies. He showed me a lot of music and Citizen is whatever we think is cool at the time. Whatever we're listening to is just essentially what we're gonna sound like because, you know, you want to draw inspiration and that's what we're excited about right? So yeah, I think New York garage rock, British punk, things like that.
Jessica: I see that for sure. Okay. I got some music and un-music related kind of shorter rapid-fire questions for you as well.
Do you have a dream city to play in or venue that you want to hit someday?
Mat: I would love to play in New Zealand. I don't know any city in New Zealand (laughs) I don't know. I would just like to go to New Zealand, you know. I've always wanted to go to Thailand and we're doing that in March. So that will be a cool bucket list thing.
Jessica: Oh, that's going to be awesome. What are you going to do when you get home both music related and not music related? I know you mentioned getting back to your family there, but do you have anything in specific that you're just dying to do unrelated from the band?
Mat: I was actually Googling things earlier today. There is a laser tag place that I'm going to go to that I think will be awesome. And then there's, I forgot what it's called, but it's like you're in a real life video game and they put you in these like Mission Impossible settings. So I think I'm going to hit that up too.
Jessica: Like a virtual reality escape room?
Mat: Yeah. Yeah. But it's a little more… I don't know…
Jessica: Intense?
Mat: (at the same time) Stupid? I don’t know. Yeah whatever you wanna call it (laughs). Music wise, I don’t know. I feel like I just am demoing sporadically all the time. I'm sure at some point I'll just be…. oh, whatever. No plans!
Jessica: What track off the new record have you had the most fun playing?
Mat: “Lay Low”. You know, we've done a lot of album tours, obviously, when you first are going out to promote a record, and we've never gone out and had people be excited about us playing our new songs. It's always you feel like you're trying to win them over. This tour has been totally different. People already know all the new songs. “Lay Low” wasn't a single and people are singing it, and it just feels really cool.
Jessica: Oh, I bet. That's gotta be so awesome. Oh! I wanted to ask you if you have a favorite Pokémon?
Mat: Scyther.
Jessica: Okay okay nice.
Mat: Yeah (laughs). Scyther. I always thought he was cool.
Jessica: What would be your death row meal?
Mat: Death row meal… crab legs, probably. As many as I can eat. I love crab legs.
Jessica: As many as you can fit (laughs) I love that. Alright, that is all my questions for you. Is there anything else you want to say about the record or tour wrapping up?
Mat: Yeah, Calling the Dogs by Citizen is out now and go get it. And we’ll be touring a lot next
year.
Jessica: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time I really appreciate it!
Mat: Yeah, thank you for having me I appreciate you.
Check out Citizen on Instagram here and on Spotify below!