The Rentals (1999)

Originally published on Swizzle-Stick.com

Matt Sharp began working on the follow-up to 1995’s Return of The Rentals over two years ago. With frequent trips to Barcelona — by Sharp’s estimation, twenty-five in the last five years — he was able to channel the energy he found in the Spanish city’s nightlife into his songwriting, often using the situations he was in and the people he was hanging out with as subjects for his newly-penned songs.

The result is a Euro-popish fifteen song CD known simply as Seven More Minutes that takes a step past the simplicity of The Rentals first album and includes cameos from a slew of Brit-pop superstars from Sharps’ past — Damon Albarn (Blur), Donna Matthews (Elastica), Miki Berenyi (Lush) and Tim Wheeler (Ash). Also, coming back for round two was former That Dog member Petra Hayden who supplies some inspirational and spine-tingling backing vocals to the whole affair.

While sitting in the editing bay and watching footage shot in Spain that will be used in the “Getting By” video, Matt Sharp took a few minutes to talk to Swizzlestick about his experiences in Spain and the making of the new Rentals album. The following is a portion of that interview.

I think I read somewhere that you were going to record some of the songs in Spanish.

Yeah, probably. This record took a little bit longer than we thought it was going to. We were supposed to do it last week. We were going to do a few things, but we’re probably going to put it off for a little bit. But, absolutely. For me, it’s like, after all the pretentious bullshit, this record, for me, is an incredible excuse to get together with friends and celebrate. For me, I don’t want to alienate the Latin community, because if anybody knows how to have a good time, it’s my friends over there. The more people welcomed, the better.

Do you feel more homesick when you are in the States or when you are in Barcelona?

Well, I don’t really consider L.A. a home at all. L.A. for me is like this — I’m having a blast here now but the big lesson I learned for either place is not to dictate a certain lifestyle. To impose the lifestyle that I have in Spain on L.A. when I’m here would just be impossible and ridiculous. I’ve tried that before and it gets you very much like, “Get me out of here.” Because you can’t do the things here that you do there. And, the same works the other way. L.A. is so much about the music industry and my record label and those kinds of things. I can’t even think about those things in Spain. It just has no place in my life there. I just don’t like dealing with it. And, the same thing here. When I’m here, I go out to dinner. Every restaurant isn’t open at midnight and the nights don’t last until 9 in the morning here. The city is not set up that way.

So is that a way of life in Barcelona?

What? Staying up late?

Yeah, being up and out all night.

Yeah, for me anyway. A majority of this record was inspired by and written in the midst of an absolutely enormous celebration between the hours of 5 and 8 in the morning. A lot of the energy comes from those times and between those hours. Going from place to place in taxis, or in discos, or in bathrooms, or wherever that stuff comes out. That’s where a lot of this record was born. And in the midst of a lot of traveling and being surrounded by a lot of really good people.

Would it be fair to say that while most people consider the hours between 5 and 8 in the morning as waking hours, you consider it the prime hours of the day?

In certain cities, maybe there, yeah, that’s definitely true.

With all the people that guest on the album, did you do the recording in Spain?

No, we recorded the record in London. That’s why they are all limeys on the record.

What about Petra? Did she fly over?

Well, the main people that recorded the record, the guys that did it with me are all Americans and are good friends of mine from here in L.A. Petra is probably the most talented singer I’ve ever met in my life. She’s one of these people that when you see her live — not when she’s playing with a band, but when she does her solo concerts — she’s just one of these people. I’m not putting down anybody else that sang on the record, but she’s just one of these people that when you leave the room, you’re elevated. When she sings, she makes everybody better that’s in the room. She’s just so inspiring, I just don’t know almost any singers like that. I saw Bjork play at a couple of small places, I thought she had that sort of thing that you’d get the chills for days off that. Petra had a couple of days off from doing this and that and I asked her to fly over. She came over and worked with me for a couple of days. Petra is just an incredible human being.

Because I’m from Columbus, Ohio, I have to ask you about the Columbus reference on “Keep Sleeping.” Did you just randomly pick it or was there something about it that inspired you?

Well, that lyric is just telling this person in my life that anywhere in the world . . . why not Columbus? It’s like Paris, Columbus, Pittsburgh, wherever. I just want that person with me.

Do you have any touring plans in the works now?

Yeah, we’re starting rehearsing. We don’t have any specifics on who we’re going to play with. We start rehearsing in a couple of weeks. I think it will probably take us a little bit to get it together. This record is more complicated than the first one to figure out. I just like the jump of energy from the first record to this new record. It’s the same thing that I think we’re going to make live. I think this record, Seven More Minutes, is the best record I’ve ever been a part of — making it and recording it and singing it and writing it. I have a feeling that same thing is going to reflect live and we’re going to put on better shows than we ever have before. I think this record is just such a great excuse to get everybody together and have a place where people can come and leave all the bullshit at the door — and the cynicism and sarcasm — and just celebrate for a while and let loose and get off our heads and have a good time. For me, that’s what the road is about. That’s what this record is written for. I think it’s going to be pretty amazing.

Will it be the same band on the road as the one that recorded the album?

No. It’s probably going to be a much bigger band than I’ve ever done anything with before. Because I wanted to have that feeling . . . I just want to have a party. I just really want to host an enormous party this year. So, the more people the better. Just like the record was recorded, it was surrounded by people that I really love — all those people that sang on the record. Just like it was written, it written surrounded by all these people that that had an enormous impact on my life. And the same thing with playing shows, I just want to go out with friends and let loose.

Didn’t you advertise looking for people to go on tour with The Rentals?

We were looking for girls . . . we are doing things a little bit different this year. We’re approaching things from a different way. It’s kind of like everything else, we threw out a bunch of different ways that we could go about touring on the road. We sort of said, “Let’s just throw out everything and see if we can find the right way to do it that will represent the record right.” And that way did not work. It was a bit of nonsense to just start searching out that kind of stuff. I just let them do it because it was like “Let’s look and see what happens.” In the end it’s just going to be people I know.

So you will be the party host?

I certainly will.

Is that the way it always is, are you always the host, the leader of the pack?

In this thing, absolutely. Working in the Rentals is actually a much more collaborative experience than anything I’ve ever done. It’s not a dictatorship. In the end, I always have the answers of all the things that we throw up there, what we should be using. The same thing with this, it’s just throw everybody in the room, but in the end I feel like I know what we should do, if that makes any sense.