The Nation Blue

When he’s not rocking out with his cock out in the Nation Blue, Matt Weston travels around the world talking to geeks who make and collect expensive-arse toys. He then produces low-budget documentaries about said geeks which fog other nerds’ collective black-framed glasses over.

While in Tokyo earlier this year interviewing people with names like ‘Bounty Hunter’ and ‘Sir Geekalot’, Matt dropped the nerd shtick for an afternoon to talk to some Japanese music writers about Damnation, the Nation Blue’s not-so new album. I talked to him about talking to Japanese cats about his band that maybe five people in Japan have heard about.

M+N: I noticed that during the interview you spoke in what sounded like a Pakistani accent.

Matt Weston: Yes, Jap-istani. It’s a form of English where you drop most verbs and speak very slowly in a clipped accent that sounds like you’ve been studying ESL very badly at the CAE.

M+N: Why? It comes across as sounding very condescending.

MW: What do you mean ‘why’? YOU taught me everything I know about it!

M+N: How do interviews in Japanese compare to those in English?

MW: The first interview was surreal – in that it was the only one I did [ha!], but I had been on a 12-hour flight. I sat at the airport for an hour then took a two-hour bus ride having not slept for two days. I met our record label guy who doesn’t speak very good English and then did an interview with a translator. It was all a bit bizarre. It was also weird because we haven’t really done any interviews for Damnation in about a year. He was asking questions I hadn’t thought about for a long time, and I’d forgotten all the made-up stories we usually answer questions with. But funnily enough, out of all the interviews we’ve done this was probably the best researched.

M+N: What about the male journalist wearing makeup?

MW: See, I didn’t see that. I think you made that up or were secretly wishing he WAS wearing makeup or something.

M+N: Who are you supposed to look at: the translator or the writer? Or do you just look down at your feet and mumble?

MW: I tried looking at the writer but it seemed like he didn’t seem too interested in looking at me.

M+N: That’s fair enough. I also noticed at the beginning of the interview the journalist was addressing you as ‘Matt’, but towards the end I was hearing less ‘Matt’ and more ‘cock smoker’.

MW: It was actually ‘cock smokos’.

M+N: What was it like being the sole Nation Blue representative in Japan?

MW: The magazine requested the bandleader, and because I was already conveniently going to be in Tokyo, I said, “Yes, that would me.” It was also good telling them that I help Tom with his guitar parts and that I in fact taught Dan everything he knows about the drums. And the best part? The interview will be published in katakana so they will have no idea what I actually say!

Catch the Nation Blue as they play in front of heaps of people sitting patiently and buying merch while waiting for Dave Grohl and company on the upcoming Foo Fighters Australian tour.

Damnation is out now on Casa Del Disco records.

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