Lamia Larkin: How long have you guys been together? How did the band form? Basically, give us some background info.
Matt from Matt Kollar and The Angry Mob: Our first record “Farewell Adventure!” came out about 8 months ago and that’s basically when the band as we know it now was formed. However, the story starts long before that far across a cold, lonesome, dark sea. Down the cobblestone boulevards of the city of lights. Yes my friends, Paris. Ryan,Elizabeth and myself were actually orphans at the orphanage “l’enfant ignore” until one fateful day the building went up in flames and we were sent on a boat to a new land of opportunity. A place of milk and honey we were told. Then, by a twist of fate the boat crashed and we landed in Huntington Beach. Oops.
LL: Please tell us more about each member of the band.
MKATAM: I’m the Matt Kollar in Matt Kollar and the Angry Mob. Which means I have to keep my outfit of angry scoundrels under control. I also have a lovely singing voice.
El Capitan -Matt
I sing play, weird instruments, and I’m learning how to yodel. I sometimes play the drums with one drum stick. I also have a gap.
Gap Toothed Woman – Elizabeth
I play instruments that have strings and instruments that have a wonderful combination of black and white buttons. I correct peoples’ grammar – and spelling.
The Grammatician – Ryan
I play 4 and six string instruments but mostly the 4 ones, I sing and I see through f-stops.
Evan “The Terrible”
I play drums/ flowerpot in this mob. It’s fun.
Jason (the Face) Kaiser
Mike Wilson also plays drums with us every now and then, our friend Lilie Frandsen sings, and Gabrielle Harris does promotion work for us.
LL: Lets talk about the title of your band; I get the Matt Kollar part, but who is the angry mob?
MKATAM: Everyone else. The great thing about the angry mob is that because of the nature of the name it is an evolving thing, which is awesome because it keeps the music fresh and changing. The angry mob ranges from 2-8 people. We’ve done shows with only a few members that consist of us playing acoustic instruments, stand up pianos and pump organs. Then we’ve done louder shows with thrashy electric guitars screeching B-3 and multiple people.
LL: How about your music, how would you describe it?
MKATAM: Mom was an accordion player that slept around with a man named Jack, he was a jazz piano player. On the side she loved this grizzled old cow boy named folk music, but also had the hots for the American blues.
Piano rock, folk, blues. We’re really mixed up and distraught now. –Matt
Funk – Elizabeth
A combination of sound waves calculated to impart certain emotions to our listeners, not least among them among a dear and cherished love for Matt Kollar and the Angry Mob. –Ryan
Soft and pretty-Evan
I’m going to take Ryan’s answer, because it’s better than mine. -Jason
LL: What separates your band from all the others? Why should people listen to your music?
MKATAM: I believe we’re one of the only bands around right now with a belly dancer. I think we might be the band with the best sense of humor in Orange County as well. Well… at least we like to think that. If you come to one of our shows I guarantee we will entertain you. It’s not your average get up and play a few songs on the electric guitar kinda deal. It’s more of a perverted vaudeville folk show including puppets, belly dancers, slide shows, roller bladers and megaphones. –Matt
Also we’re very ethnic, we hail from Honduras, Canada, France, and the highlands of Scotland. -Elizabeth
LL: Who are your biggest influences?
MKATAM: (Name drop city!) I’m a huge Eels fan, I think Mark Everett can do no wrong. He just keeps rocking harder and harder. Tom Waits is probably in the top two best live shows I’ve ever seen. Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlins, Ben Folds. The outlaw Jesse James of course. -Matt
Regina Specter, Audrey Hepburn Mama Cass, Ella Fitzgerald, Weird Al and Julie Andrews. I really admire that they each carry themselves in a unique way. –Elizabeth
All the major badasses of the past and present have exerted some swell influence on us: Messieurs Guthrie, Dylan, and Waits; Brian Wilson, Thelonious Monk and Stachmo, Leadbelly and Dr. Dre. Also John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway and e e cummings, Kafka and Camus, James Joyce. –Ryan
Stephen Jenkins and Jack Kerouac-Evan
Buddy rich, Paul McCartney (RAM), Brian Wilson, Motown, Tiny Tim. – Jason
LL: Matt, I heard a rumor that your guitar was made from the scraps of wood from the orphanage that burnt down. Is that true?
MKATAM: It in fact is true. After our Orphanage in Paris burnt down I scrapped some of the ashes and burnt rubble into a little orphan ruck sack. Years later when I began writing songs with the help of dear friend and sound engineer for Matt Kollar and the Angry Mob, Nathan Bowers and I constructed a guitar out of some of the leftover wood from the burnt down orphanage. Every time I play it now I can hear their little orphan ghostly voices singing their hearts out. –Matt
Yes, that nasty rumor you’ve heard is indeed true, although incomplete. Matt’s guitar was indeed made from the remains of our beloved home in the City of Lights. But so was my accordion! It’s wood hails from the stairs we trod each and every morning, on our Odyssey from the dormitory to the gruel room. The brass for the reeds came from, in fact, the very kettle our gruel was warmed in. And the leather for the straps came from the leiderhosen we used to wear whilst performing manual labor in the orphanage grounds. -Ryan
LL: Who writes the songs? Is there a common theme with your lyric choices?
MKATAM: I’ll write the lyrics and usually the general structure of the songs. Then everyone adds their bits which usually change it completely and make it better. There’s actually quite a few new Kollar/MacLeod songs though. I try not to bore myself with the lyric choices. Hopefully in doing this it doesn’t bore other people when they listen to it. I like to listen to songs that take you on a road trip, or at least a trip to the park down the street.
It’s important to note, also, that Kollar/MacLeod sounds a lot like Connor MacLeod. There can be only one.
LL: What kind of instruments do you guys use?
MKATAM: “A kitchen sink blend” has been said. We use whatever we can get our hands on generally from basic guitars, pianos, accordion,to flower pots, pump organs and ribbon controllers. Slide whistles, trombones, trumpets, clarinet. I’m a big kazoo enthusiast; I really think it’s coming back in a big way.
We’re really big on musical instruments, for the most part. I think we’re all of the opinion that a lot of those dental instruments just look painful. The same with a large majority of surgical instruments.
LL: Do you have any goals for the future of the band? Any changes you would like to make?
MKATAM: Of course, were always busy working on new things. In fact we have an EP finished that’s going through post-production right now. It should be finished in a few months or so. While were talking about changes I’d like to make an open call to all your readers and ask if there is a fiddle player in the house. Were seeking one and one love to have you. Hit us up at mattkollarandtheangrymob.com if you can hook it upp. Theres also a lot of fun videos in production right now that I’m pretty excited about.
LL:What’s your most recent band news? Any juicy gossip OCAC should know about?
MKATAM: Elizabeth Messick has been going through some very peculiar changes recently, I cant really speak of them right now. But when the new EP’s out you’ll understand what I mean I think. Things are getting pretty hairy for her.
LL: What do you guys think about the Orange County music scene. Is it easy to break into, or is it difficult?
MKATAM: I think there are a lot of good people (bands, promoters, magazines,etc) who are really trying to make something good out of all the new music that’s coming out of orange county. And that’s very hard because there aren’t that many music venues, at least all ages ones to work with. I really think there needs to be, because people of all ages love music not just folks twenty-one and up. As for breaking in I’m dumbfounded, and that either means were already in or on the outside looking in.
LL: Are you signed? How many albums are there?
MKATAM: We are not signed. The first record “Farewell Adventure!” we recorded and published and released about 8 months ago on “Katt Mollar Studios” our homemade record company. Were definitely not opposed to the idea of a record deal, but I really do love creating all the content and handling it by ourselves. It’s a pretty cool feeling seeing a record go from the bare songs to the finished product and doing it all by yourself. But the reality is, it would be 10 times easier if we had someone working with us.
LL: Where can we hear your music?
MKATAM: mattkollarandtheangrymob.com is a good place to start for all your angry mob needs. Were taking a little summer break to work on a slew of new projects. But will be back late summer/fall playing non-stop again. You can also pick up and hear “Farewell Adventure!” at one of your many(few) orange county record stores such as “Fingerprints” and “The Electric Chair”.
LL: If those kids from the orphanage could hear you guys now, what do you think they would say?
MKATAM: Pierre would probably be wondering if I could buy him a new pair of shoes yet. Sally still longing for a shiny new glass eye. -Matt
Can we get a new flavor of gruel? –Elizabeth
Oh hi Ryan, do you remember when the orphanage was caught up in a great conflagration? Man! That sucked! –Ryan
There are a lot of indie bands in the Orange County music scene at the moment, and to stand out from the newest, coolest, hippest thing since last weeks show at Avalon is respectable if not down right amazing at this point. One band among the ranks of musicians playing here that I can almost guarantee will impress you, or at the very least get your attention during their live set is Matt Kollar and the Angry Mob. With the energy of a toddler drinking red bull, and the playfulness of… well, a toddler drinking red bull, Kollar and Mob display true showmanship with a dancing line of tambourine ready back up vocalists, floating harmonies, and the sweetest of melodies!
