By Elizabeth Merino
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Matt and Kim, the indie duo from Brooklyn, NY, enjoyed their experience at Hofstra as much as the up-close crowd seemed to enjoy their performance.
“The thing is we love it. I think that like, I mean granted where we love to play is where anyone wants to get wild and weird, and I’d say you know playing colleges, people tend to want to get wild and weird… and so yeah this is exactly where I want to be,” said Matt Johnson.
Since their last album release, “Lightning,” in 2012, the pair has been touring and recording. After the album dropped, the pair toured for about a year and a half, almost two, but couldn’t stay away from the road for long.
The duo’s creative process is encapsulated by their time spent on the road. They draw inspiration from their tours and shows, taking time between writing and performing to combine the two into one end piece.
“Starting in January we kind of stopped taking shows and went back home and started working on music. And then we started doing shows again because its tough, its like even though you know you need to take a break to work on new music we don’t,” said Kim Schifino.
Johnson and Schifino were loud and energetic throughout their set. Schifino climbed onto her drum set numerous times, pumping up the crowd with her hands in the air as Johnson sang.
They performed their hit song, “Daylight,” to an enthused crowd.“Daylight” was actually written in Johnson’s childhood bedroom in Vermont.
Unlike their albums “Sidewalk” and “Grand,” Johnson and Schifino have decided to incorporate the opinions of a few different producers on their upcoming album.
“We spent the whole year making an album and doing festivals and some colleges and stuff like that and then, I mean, this will be the longest gap we ever had between putting albums out. It will look like three years on paper and then we hope to release at the top of the new year some new stuff,” said Johnson.
Looking to the future, Schifino is also excited to release their fourth album and continue touring.
“I listened to the stuff we finished and I’m just like I want everyone to hear it… so new stuff will come out and we’ll do what we do, tour nonstop,” said Schifino.