susong<\/a>, and their first EP, ‘We Are All In This Together,” got people’s attention for its emotional honesty and layered sound.<\/p>\nNow the brothers are back with their second EP out this Friday called “Matae,” a name that means “to give up” or “to surrender.” The brothers spoke with WFAE’s Nick de la Canal about their latest collaboration.<\/p>\n
On discovering music as kids<\/h3>\n
Nick de la Canal:<\/b> You guys have talked about how your dad was a big influence on you both and how he would bring home instruments for you guys to try out. Do either of you remember the first one that really clicked for you?<\/p>\n
Matt Susong:<\/b> He tried to get us to learn guitar, and wanted to teach us guitar, and it just never took until I went to a camp and learned ‘Glycerine’ from a friend of mine on an acoustic guitar and came home and was like, ‘Look what I can do!’ And then it kind of took off from there.<\/p>\n
Michael Susong:<\/b> Yeah, I took a little bit longer. … We had a piano at the house. He had an accordion or harmonium or whatever, which I liked to play around with, but again, I didn’t want to learn anything from Dad. But one day I asked Matt to teach me something, and he taught me, ‘Today’ by The Smashing Pumpkins … That intro was the first thing I ever learned, and I was hooked from there.<\/p>\n
And then we played music at the same time for many, many years, but literally never together, I don’t think, until after he passed away \u2014 like days after the funeral, we sat down and started working on a song together. And we were like, ‘Why did this take so long?’<\/p>\n
On their new single, “Maiden Name”<\/h3>\n
Nick:<\/b> Matt, you write the lyrics. What’s the story behind the song?<\/p>\n
Matt:<\/b> ‘Maiden Name,’ like a lot of the songs on the EP, is a bit about relationships as you get more mature … It’s very much about dominance in a relationship where we’ve all grown up with like a patriarchy of Mr. and Mrs. ‘the last name of the man.’<\/p>\n
But a lot of times, it goes both ways. There are dominant relationships where a female is more assertive in a relationship. So that was just something I wrote down. It was like, why not call it Mr. and Mrs. Maiden Name?<\/p>\n
On how they collaborate<\/h3>\n
Nick:<\/b> Once you have a rough idea for the song, you send it to Michael, right?<\/p>\n
Matt:<\/b> Right. I usually write the verse, chorus, get the bones together, and then I send a voice note to Michael.<\/p>\n
Michael:<\/b> I’ll listen to it a bunch of times, throw some of them away, pick a couple that are really, really good and usually there are parts in it that maybe I would move around. I’ll be like, the thing that you think is the verse is actually your chorus. And it just genuinely starts ping ponging back and forth, and it becomes this hilarious ‘version 39 most final cut.’<\/p>\n
Nick:<\/b> Yeah, the two of you have said that figuring out when a song is finished can be sometimes a lively debate. What does that look like and who usually wins?<\/p>\n
Matt:<\/b> Michael.<\/p>\n
Michael:<\/b> I would say you usually win too, which is funny … Usually, if I can close my eyes and I can listen to it and nothing annoys me \u2014 like nothing jumps out at me and says ‘that’s wrong,’ that’s usually when it’s done for me.<\/p>\nOn “You Can’t Stay Here Forever”<\/h3>\n
Nick:<\/b> Matt, this song feels like it’s about change and letting go. What was going through your mind as you were writing this?<\/p>\n
Matt:<\/b> This is more personal than the other three, I think, and it kind of taps into what I think is one of my best qualities but also one of the worst qualities that I have \u2014 or the worst quality \u2014 which is where someone is thinking, ‘I don’t care if I win. I only care if you lose.’ So that’s where the lyric says, ‘I’ll bring this house down on the both of us, and I’ll wait it out.’ It’s more about an exploration of self and what you don’t like about yourself.<\/p>\nOn choosing the title “Matae”<\/h3>\n
Nick:<\/b> The title of the EP, ‘Matae,’ is Japanese, I believe, for ‘to give up’ or ‘to surrender.’ Why that word? What does that mean to each of you?<\/p>\n
Michael:<\/b> Matt and I connect over movie quotes. We can almost speak entire conversations in movie quotes … and ‘Bloodsport’ was one of our favorite movies growing up.<\/p>\n
Matt<\/b>: Is<\/i> \u2014 is one of them.<\/p>\n
Michael:<\/b> Yeah, should be anyone’s top. But you know where he gets \u2014 in the final fight \u2014 gets the guy to submit by saying, ‘matae!’ And I hadn’t thought about it for years and years and years.<\/p>\n