Interview: Matt Sharp of The Rentals on Lost in Alphaville and the cult of Pinkerton

What do you like about working with female vocalists? Is it easy for you to write for someone else’s voice?

You know, it’s interesting. When we were working on Lost in Alphaville, I had a friend of mine who had done some vocals on some of the original early versions of these songs; I told her I was looking for something really specific for the way we’re going to make this album. So I started looking for the right voices to kind of be the last part of the album, the icing on the cake kind of thing. The sweetness to kind of go against the barbaric aspects of the record, and it took me a very long time to figure that out. I ended up being fortunate enough to meet Jess and Holly [of Lucius], who I’m so crazy about. I adore them to pieces. And their first record is just such a stunning, stunning album. When we had an actual opportunity to meet, I just sat on a plane and two seconds later was in New York, basically just to have the opportunity to be able to sit in a room with them, just to play them songs from the album. And from that, I realized what you’re asking me about, which is how important that chemistry is. I just enjoy that interaction, that idea of chemistry and how much it changes by the people that you’re surrounded by.

I guess that really all started with the Hayden sisters, when I started working with Rachel first, on the very early versions of the songs on The Rentals’ first album. And then we kind of shelved that for a while, and ended up going back with her sister, and working with Petra on violins and vocals. And since then, I’ve had that limited work I’ve done with Tegan and Sara, just out of pure admiration for them as artists, and just an opportunity to be with them is something I always cherish. And after that, working with Jess and Holly, and countless other really super talented women. On this tour that we’re doing, I’m working with Radiation City, and they are just totally a whole other thing. I guess it just has to do with curiosity about chemistry between people.

When Return of the Rentals started taking off, how difficult was it to be in The Rentals and Weezer at the same time?

Honestly, that was an extraordinary time, as far as just moving from one thing to the other. Literally being in the studio with Weezer, going on the road for a bit, playing some shows—the second I got off the road I went into the studio with The Rentals, then Weezer would go back out on the road, back into the studio with The Rentals. We did that back and forth for a while. And the two things were completely different experiences. Weezer was a completely traditional, couldn’t be more traditional in my way of looking at it, type of band. Like four guys, who are all sort of coming up at the same time, in a little garage, some guitar, bass and drums and vocals, and off you go. And so, we weren’t inventing the wheel with that kind of stuff, we were doing this really traditional thing, which I loved doing. And when it came time to do stuff on my own, I was already in a band like that, so I didn’t have any interest in re-doing or trying to re-create that with other guys. We had our special chemistry, whatever that was between the four of us, and I was never looking to re-create that with somebody else. I was writing songs, and thought like, “Who am I listening to now? Who are the bands that inspired me?” And at that point, we’re talking about That Dog, which was a band that was like the main band I was really into, and always tried to bring them out on whatever tours we were doing. I loved the way the three women in the band sang together. They were a band I looked up to, and was a huge fan of. And so the first Rentals album came out of that kind of thing, and then later on with the second record, I was spending more time in Europe, I had fallen in love with a woman from Barcelona, and I had a lot of friends that were making music over in England at the time, so it was like, “Alright, I’m going to go to Europe and work on a record there!” Because Damon Albarn was an inspiration to me, for the songs he was writing and the way he approaches music, and so to go there and have him sing on a song, and with my other friends in bands that were living in London at the time, it gave me that freedom to do that.

How do you feel about the continued fascination with Pinkerton?

I’m extremely proud of all those—we only made two records, but I look at those four records as being inter-linked—The Blue Album, Return of the Rentals, Pinkerton, and Seven More Minutes. At the time, I think when you’re right in the moment, and you’re looking at things super close up, each one of those seems like very, very, different experiences, and I probably wouldn’t have thought so at the time, but with a little distance you can see similarities between those records, and the way that they influence each other. And I’m proud of all that music from that time, and Pinkerton is definitely something I’m super proud of. It’s just kind of something that feels more and more … unique is not the word, but it just seems much more unbridled than the way a lot of records are made today, because technology has changed the way you look at stuff. So that record is really like the four of us in a room. We were putting everything we could into it, we put a great deal of care into that album for sure, but it doesn’t seem so precious that its like, lost its spirit, you know? It’s so easy to fix everything now; they make things kind of perfect. I don’t know if you saw that South Park where the character is actually Lorde? It shows him working in Logic or Pro Tools, one of those systems, and that’s funny because it’s kind of the truth, right? You can sort of do that now. And that’s what I like about Pinkerton, is that it’s not that.

This is kind of a nerdy question, but are there any plans to release those first two Rentals albums on vinyl?

Yeah, you know, I’ve been trying to do it for some time now, we’re trying to figure it out. The problem is that the first two Rentals records were done on Madonna’s label [Maverick], so it was under the umbrella of one of these huge corporations. And if you can imagine what it’s like trying to get a bill passed in government, it’s like all this weird … it’s impossible, it’s like going to DC and there’s a million people, and that’s what it’s like dealing with corporate entities. And so for us to get the record out of there is so daunting, but we’re trying, and I think we’re going to be able to do it. I just actually got a message from somebody [about it], so we’ve got some progress. The first one I definitely want to do. The original intent of Seven More Minutes was to have it be a longer record than it is. It’s already long, [laughs] so I was trying to figure out if we would actually release some sort of like, “Director’s Cut,” a version of the album where there’s like three or four more songs. So that could be fun to look into as well. But it’s the same thing—it’s trying to figure out who to talk to.

What’s up next for you and the band?

Well, I’m trying the best I can to figure out how to bring as much attention to this album as possible. It’s something that I care deeply about, and we put in an incredible amount of love into the record, and you just hope that you can share it with as many people as possible. And that is where we’re at now, that’s what we are in the midst of. So hopefully, playing and playing and playing, in front of as many people who will listen.

The Rentals with guests Rey Pila and Radiation City play Toronto’s Lee’s Palace on May 19 and Montreal’s Theatre Fairmount on May 20.