Interview with Reckless Sons lead singer Matt Butler

One of the coolest indie rock bands currently in the U.S. is The Reckless Sons from New York City. This four piece has been around now for about four years and are being credited with providing a throwback to the good old days of stripped down and true American rock and roll. The band has become huge in parts of its native city, especially on the lower east side which has really helped create a buzz surrounding this young group. Recently, The Reckless Sons finished up some touring overseas in the United Kingdom before returning back to the New York area for some gigs. Their debut album Don’t You Dare just came out a few months ago and so far has really found a strong indie rock following. Recently I was fortunate enough to speak with the band’s frontman Matt Butler. Here is what Matt had to say…

You’re currently touring over in the UK. How’s the tour been going so far and are you pleased?
Matt: It’s been great, right now we’re on the road, we’re in between Manchester and Wolverhampton right now.

Cool, what’s the crowd reaction been like over there?
Matt: So far it’s been pretty great actually, I think we’re the only band over here that’s really playing our kind of music so everything is going well, everybody is having a great time.

How did this whole UK tour come about in the first place? Is this your first trip over there as a band?
Matt: Ah really Jamie actually, Jamie and Brad in our office, we made some good friends with some British folks over at South By Southwest and you know, we just were able to find the right people who wanted to make it happen and finding the right people over here (in the UK) that wanted to bring a rock band over from New York. Really from the time between South By Southwest, you know a month or so before the summer started, all the blocks sort of just fell in to place you know?

Reckless Sons has been together for a few years now. How did this band come to see the light of day?
Matt: Well actually me and the guitar player were together in a prior band, but really we’ve only been together, this lineup for about three months so we’re pretty young actually. We got our bass player earlier this year and we just got our drummer about three months ago so we just sort of got together, we did a short tour in the States earlier and then this the UK tour is really the biggest thing we’ve really done.

So how did Reckless Sons come out of all of this?
Matt: Really, it all came from the fact that we all play in New York and the guitar player and I played in a band before where he was actually the bassist and that wasn’t really working and you know we decided we were going to move him to guitar and he and I write most of the material and we’ve just been trying to find the best rhythm section that we could. We finally got the right guys and kind of the first thing we did once we got the right band was tour and that’s how you really gel everyone together.

You guys hail from New York City, a city with a long history of helping produce great rock and roll music. What’s the scene like there these days?
Matt: Well it’s unfortunate, it’s kind of dwindled down, and the laws have changed and really started to be enforced at venues, they have to make sure that everyone is twenty-one or over so no kids really get to go see any shows. That’s become the big thing, it’s become really hard for venues to make any money I guess. A lot of the really famous places are done, CBGB’s is done, The Continental is done, so unfortunately the live music scene in New York is not much to speak of. Another reason why we wanted to tour as badly as we did is we wanted to get out some place where live music is a little more appreciated on the level our band is at.

On your official site it says that Reckless Sons is “getting recognition for bringing back true American rock and roll.” When you refer to true American rock and roll, what artists, bands or specific sound are you referring to?
Matt: That’s kind of one of those things we’re not so sure about, the label wrote it not actually knowing what that meant either because you know a lot of our influences are from British bands and stuff like that. So I think it’s more of just sort of less of a musical thing and more of the stylization of the band and a little bit of the bravado thing. It’s at a point where I think most music is a little too intellectualized or a little more classified like with emo music or indie music or whatever. Our music, you don’t really have to think too hard about it, you know what I mean, it kind of just is what it is. And I think that’s what people are paying attention to and if that means something about you know, true American rock; it’s easy for people to label it that here in the UK because we’re four guys from New York. But in general, I think it’s more to do with the state of mind that the music is written in.

What were your favorite bands growing up?
Matt: When I was little, probably Nirvana was the biggest thing; um that was a major influence. The Replacements were my favorite band from the ‘80s. But also Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, the Rolling Stones is really where Reckless Sons comes from.

Your new full length LP Don’t You Dare was just recently released. How do you feel about how the album turned out?
Matt: The album is great. We recorded a bunch of songs in Texas with Paul Soroski, our producer. The process of recording in Texas was a blast, we were really gung-ho and I think the album has kind of got a little bit of a cool lo-fi quality to it, or what appears to be lo-fi when compared to a lot of releases now. Every record has like tons of keyboards and lots of different production and stuff like that whereas this record is just sort of like guitar, drums, voice and so forth. I think that element of it is really cool, but as any band will tell you, especially when it’s been on the road for a while, we’re desperate to get back and record new things we’ve been writing. Especially now with the new lineup in the band because not everyone here in the band with me now was on the album so we’re looking to do our next recording pretty badly.

What was the writing and recording process like for Don’t You Dare? Were the songs all recently written or are these songs that you’ve had or been working on for years?
Matt: A couple of them, in one incarnation or another have been around for a while with myself. Some of them are brand new and I guess some of them have just sort of been morphed from older material and older projects, stuff like that. But um, in general there’s a pretty good, unified sound to them all, at least in the way they were recorded and the sort of ethos behind the recording. So regardless of when they were written, I think they all complement each other as a solid unit on the album.

You recorded this album with the help of Paul Soroski. How did you first get in touch with Paul and why did you decide to go with him?
Matt: Um, first time we met him was I met him down in Texas with a different band, but mainly just as observers, we were just trying to see what was going on and hang out and meet people. And he was one of the coolest guys we met down there and you know, you’re sitting with someone over a few beers and you’re like “yeah man, let’s record an album some day.” And it was one of the very few drunken promises that people make that was actually kept, we decided that summer to actually go down and make the record and everyone was really into it, it just really worked out. Paul was super easy to work with and we had a lot of fun.

We’re actually a Canadian based publication from Toronto, Ontario. Has the band been up to Canada to tour yet and if so what was the reaction like towards your music?
Matt: No not yet, but we’re hoping to get up there as soon as we can.

I was just wondering because we’ve got quite a strong indie rock scene up here.
Matt: Yeah that’s what I heard; we’d love to make it up north. When we get back, we get back at the end of the month and we’re sort of figuring out what the next move is in terms of touring because the guitar player and I are still actually in college so it’s tough to get out on the road, but I’d love to do a couple of weeks and make some runs up into Canada.

What’s next for Reckless Sons? What does the band have planned for the Fall and the new year?
Matt: First thing we’re going to do when we get back is do this, we have some TV shows to do and do some parties in the city for fashion week in September and then really just focus on the release of the album in terms of how it’s going to be marketed. As for what’s next, probably just get back out on the road as soon as we can.  [ END ]