What's Matt Pryor Doing on His Winter Vacation?
By John Sewell
Matt Pryor finds himself performing an unexpected balancing act. Since his Kansas City, Mo.-based outfit Get Up Kids first appeared as a blip on the underground horizon in the mid-'90s, the band has become a fixture of the scene, following an uncompromising indie path and creating an archetypal sound for emo devotees everywhere in the process. The Kids' last album, 1999's Something to Write Home About (Vagrant), has sold more than 70,000 copies without major-label distribution; add high-profile tours with Green Day (just completed) and Weezer (this spring) and you have the makings of a mainstream pop crossover--and that success has caused causing scheduling obstacles for the Kids' other projects, such as Pryor's New Amsterdams. Some guys have all the luck.
It seems that no indie band can continue for more than a couple of years without spawning spin-offs and side projects, and the Get Up Kids are no different. The odd thing about the Kids' side projects is that they both feature lead singer Pryor--yet only one of them is "his" band. While Pryor serves as lead vocalist (and therefore gets the brunt of listeners' attention) for Reggie and the Full Effect, that keyboard-powered crunch-pop band is actually the brainchild of Kids guitarist James Suptic. No couch potato, Pryor also felt the need to build his own vehicle, and the New Amsterdams were born.
"The New Amsterdams is kind of my outlet, whereas Reggie is all James'," says a bleary Pryor after momentarily postponing an interview to get his first cup of coffee and to expel "my morning phlegm." "James writes all of that stuff [for Reggie]; I just sing on it. I wanted to do something that was more acoustic and that was more just my deal--not anybody else's."
The New Amsterdams debut, Never You Mind (Vagrant), presents Pryor's musings in a quieter musical context. Stylistically, the album could be compared to Elliott Smith's either/or period or Mac "Superchunk" McCaughan's solo outings as Portastatic. Within the more subdued settings, Pryor is free to expose his vulnerability on songs like "Drama Queen," a standout track that employs lush keyboard work. The only song that even approaches the Kids' power pop is "McShame," a track that was mistakenly not even listed on the album cover. Volume, tempos, and energy levels are restrained throughout the album, giving Pryor room to prove his worth as a songwriter and storyteller while avoiding the teen-angst clichés found in much post-emo pop. Stripping away the Kids' power-chord veneer spotlights the nuances of Pryor's voice and allows listeners a clear interpretation of the emotionally charged lyrics.
The current New Amsterdams tour, which makes a Baltimore stop Feb. 3, comes on the heels of the Get Up Kids' stint with Green Day. The Kids had planned to take a hiatus in 2001, but opportunity knocked in the form of high-exposure tours that were just too advantageous to turn down. Pryor views the Amsterdams junket as more of a working vacation: "The New Amsterdams tour is kind of a decompression for me because I just don't want to be on tour right now. So this tour is gonna be kind of like my vacation with my wife. We're just gonna drive around for a week."
Pryor enlisted a few friends' help for the recording of Never You Mind (including Kids' bassist Robert Pope), but that group was never more than a studio assemblage. The nine-day streak of East Coast appearances billed as the New Amsterdams will primarily be solo acoustic shows for Pryor, abetted by Vagrant labelmates Hot Rod Circuit for a handful of songs.
"I've only done three New Amsterdams shows before," he says. "And I haven't really worked with a full band. We haven't really had time for any rehearsals, so they're just gonna learn the songs from the record."
Pryor says the New Amsterdams are just another facet of his personal musical expression, one that doesn't compete with the mothership. "Whenever the Get Up Kids aren't on tour, I just have a lot of free time," he says. "It's a lot more productive to be in a few other bands than it is to sit around and watch TV all day. I just plan to keep doing the New Amsterdams at the same time as doing the other bands."
Asked if he realizes how popular and influential the Kids have become in indie-rock circles, Pryor laughs--"That sounds like a set-up for an old joke"--before answering.
"Honestly, [the Get Up Kids] have already accomplished everything we set out to do when I started the band," he says. "So anything beyond this point is just like icing on the cake. We could be no bigger than we are right at this second, and I would be completely happy with that."
