Phone Interview Matt Montgomery aka PiggyD (Wed13)

7pm EST 5/20/05

Matt was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule (on his week off the Wednesday13 tour!) to sit down and do a phone interview with me. He has a fantastic personality and is very intelligent as you will see by reading this interview. Matt has a very kind nature and you can tell he not only enjoys what he does for a living, but he wants to give something back too. That is very rare these days. And if you could hear his laugh! You just have to laugh with him, it is very contagious! Matt provided the photos above. The first one is just a casual shot taken at breakfast, the second one is of his beautiful cat, Radio, which you will read all about in the interview and the last one is an awesome shot taken by rock photographer Gary Lornie! It was such a pleasure to get to speak to him again and I want to thank him for making time for me! You totally rock Matt!!!

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 jo: What made you decide to pick up a guitar at age 11?

Piggyd: My parents played. My mom and dad actually had a band before I was born. My brother played drums, my dad played bass and my mom played a telecaster and they would play churches and stuff like that. My mom and dad both still play. But there were always guitars around the house. My brother had a full drum set in his room, which was next to mine. And he is a bit older and he had KISS posters and Van Halen posters all over his walls…Motley Crue and stuff like that so….

jo: So, you had it in your blood!

Piggyd: I had it in my blood, I mean the first record I ever got was Live at Folsom Prison with Johnny Cash.

jo: Oh really?

Piggyd: And um, I would listen to that and hear KISS Alive coming out of my brother's room. You know, it was a good mix and I still listen to both records a lot so…(laughs)

jo: No, that's good. It is good to be open minded and not boxed in to one type of music.

Piggyd: Exactly.

jo: You are currently on tour with Wed13. How would you describe your music to somebody that has not heard the band before?

Piggyd: It is like the perfect soundtrack for a good cheesy, 80's horror film. That is what comes to mind when I listen to it.

jo: Yea, that sounds great! That answers the next question which is what images do you think the music conveys? I would say horror movies?

Piggyd: Yea, it is a great Halloween party soundtrack, you know it is a fun record. A couple of semi-serious songs on it, but even those are tongue in cheek.

jo: A very visual band too. A lot to look at, a lot going on.

Piggyd: Yea.

jo: Describe a typical day on tour.

Piggyd: For me or for the band? (laughs)

jo: For you!

Piggyd: For me…pretty boring really…these days. You know, you wake up anywhere between 11 and 2. The first thing I do is find coffee, because, I am an absolute nightmare without it.

jo: Are you another Starbucks freak or any kind of coffee?

Piggyd: Any kind of coffee. I mean I will drink hotel coffee to you know the gourmet anything. As long as I have it in my hands and I can consume it without being harassed first…(laughs)…that's really the only complaint on tour is…whenever I'm a bitch, it's usually because I haven't had coffee. Other than that, I am pretty easy-going. Um, you know usually in the UK with Wednesday there is a lot of press to do or in stores, stuff like that. We sound check and then I usually sew and listen to music. I make all my own stage clothes and all my jackets and stuff like that so that is usually what keeps me sane is sitting their with my IPOD and some needle and thread…a bunch of old t-shirts. I like to draw, I like to read.

jo: I will switch to that question then. I did read on your bio that you like to paint and draw. What do you actually draw and paint? Anything in particular you like to draw/paint?

Piggyd: It depends. It really changes. I went through a phase last year where I painted a lot of orchids. I made a painting for my lady of her own orchid that I designed. I practiced a lot painting flowers and exotic stuff like that and it depends. Sometimes if I am working on something specific, like the t-shirt line I have out now called Batatude. All of those monster faces started out as paintings from vintage Halloween masks that I collect.

jo: Oh, that is great!

Piggyd: I went through a phase where I just pulled out all of my dime store plastic Halloween masks, like the ones you had when you were a kid and I painted them in watercolor and acrylic and they turned into a t-shirt line.

jo: They look great!

Piggyd: Thank you.

jo: I was going to ask you about that too!

Piggyd: Yea, I am really excited about that!

jo: And that just started now?

Piggyd: Yea, I did the artwork for it about a year and a half ago and there are actually 9 of them all together, 9 different monster faces and the first three finally got done thanks to Merch Monster. I did them through the Merch Monster guys.

jo: So it is strictly through Merch Monster right now?

Piggyd: Right now, I mean it's my own line, Batatude, is the name of the name of my line and Merch Monster stepped in and said "hey, we'll produce them!" Cause they kind of fit what they are doing anyway. Rock n Roll/Horror/Hot Rod kind of stuff so it seemed like a perfect fit.

jo: How about The Sunday Fires? Is that a new website to show your paintings and drawings?

Piggyd: Yea, the idea behind it is to basically give artists of all different kinds…photographers, painters, writers, fashion designers, cooks, people who like to travel and document cool places to travel and spend holidays. Whatever…anybody that does anything creative, it is kind of a meeting place for them. I like to showcase my own stuff and say here is what I am working on, what are you guys doing? It went up in the first week of March I think and we have got 150 people on there now. Some are kind of just hanging out and chatting and some kids are turning in some AMAZING artwork. (you could hear the excitement in his voice talking about this)

jo: That is great!

Piggyd: You know their parents probably aren't even aware of. Some of them are college kids and some of them are a little younger kids that happen to have the internet and they are taking great pictures and writing great poems and songs and all kinds of neat stuff. So it's inspiring to me to see other people doing creative  stuff. You know, and it just happens to all kind of be dark oriented art.

jo: That is great. Cool stuff. How about giving me a typical day when you are off tour? Just like any normal typical person (laughs)?

Piggyd: Um, pretty much, pretty much. You know I …depending on what is going on, I am usually up pretty early. Like you know 8:00 or so, 9:00. I like to answer all my emails first thing and stay on top of what is going on. Been working on a lot of music lately so usually camped out in my little studio room for a few hours. It really changes. Every time I come home it is a different story. Like this time, I've been home and we are in the process of moving to New Orleans. So there is no time to really do anything else (laughs). It is all packing and making sure the cable is turned on and we have electricity and all that stuff.

jo: Oh yea, you have to have cable and internet!

Piggyd: Yea, I mean. Normally when I am home, we've got three cats, two birds and a dog…

jo: Oh, see that was one of my questions!

Piggyd: So that occupies a lot of time, you know, hanging out with them. You know it's a fun way to live and it's a fun way to pass time.

jo: I love pets so at one point we had 10 different animals in this house.

Piggyd: Oh my god.

jo: Unfortunately, most have died. So cats are just cats, unless they are a special breed, but what kind of birds do you have?

Piggyd: We have two love birds. Named Herman and Lily.

jo: Oh, neat.

Piggyd: We've got one large black cat named Salem. We've got an orange Asian, like an orange tabby type cat, his name is Vincent Price. He is very handsome and he is a lady killer. And we have another, a little white cat named Radio who is mentally challenged…

jo: Really?

Piggyd: And um, Radio is a constant source of entertainment and inspiration. Because he has huge, huge orange eyes and his tongue hangs out all the time and he drools.

jo: Really, oh my gosh.

Piggyd: And he'll be quiet for about two days and not really do much. Just kind of hang out and eat and then all of a sudden he'll just go into a frenzy and just whips everyone's ass. And then he just sits back down. Never meows, never says anything, just kind of hangs out and picks his moment to raise hell.

jo: What kind of dog do you have?

Piggyd: We have an Akita. And he gets along with everyone great.

jo: I love those, what's his name?

Piggyd: Riley.

jo: You see, that's why I know you are a nice person, you love animals.   (Animal lovers are a special people, trust me here folk!)

Piggyd: Yea, we can't seem to get enough (laughs).

jo: No, that's a nice thing!

Piggyd: Yea.

jo: Ok, who is your favorite musician of all time?

Piggyd: It is actually a tie. Alice Cooper, probably…really kind of made me…it pushed me to decide I wanted to be in the music business…definitely. Um, as far as musicians go, technically Dave Mustaine from Megadeth was my biggest influence. The first time I saw him sing and play guitar I said I gotta learn how to do that. (laughs) And I am still working on it!

jo: Now I don't know much about what you write. Do you write both music and lyrics personally?

Piggyd: I do. Last year I spent a lot of time writing for other people. Just kind of, through circumstance, kind of got invited into different writing projects for other artists and there's some hopeful stuff that came out of it. Only time really tells, but…I kind of took a break from writing for myself, so now I am kind of back in the swing of things just as I am getting ready to start touring the world and move. (Laughs)

jo: What made you pick New Orleans?

Piggyd: I am from Houston originally, so I will be really close to my family and Gabrielle really is drawn to it kind of like I was drawn to Boston several years ago so I understand how you feel like you're not really home when your home? So hopefully this will give us a fresh start and we're not real big fans of L.A. we are going to miss our friends, but we have friends down there…it will be a nice fresh start and so much inexpensive to live down there compared to Los Angeles.

jo: Plus you can always fly to visit friends.

Piggyd: Yea, definitely, that is what planes are for anyway.

jo: This may be a tough question. If you could put together the ultimate band including yourself, who would you include dead or alive.

Piggyd: WOW! That's a really hard question. I don't know that I would even want to be in the band. I would just want to see it. Um, ha ha. I would like to see Alice and Dave do something together sometime. I know Dave covered an Alice Cooper song, but I would like to see them write together at least. Um, I think Nikki from Motley Crue is an amazing writer.  Writes just great, classic rock n roll, punky-attitude stuff and um, is a mother fucker on stage. I don't know, those three in a band would be pretty deadly and I guess I would just have to pick a drummer. I'd say…

jo: I could tell you who my favorite is, but…

Piggyd: Who?…(laughs)

jo: Charlie Benante.

Piggyd: OH MY GOD!

jo: He is a friend of mine, but I think he is just awesome.

Piggyd: He is such a talented guy. He can do anything. He is definitely one of my favorite drummers. I think the last two Anthrax records have been amazing. I dunno. I really like Mike Warden a lot, from Faith No More and he plays for Ozzy now. Mike Patton too. I am a big Mike Patton fan. Anything that guy does, I buy because you never know what you are going to get. (laughs)

jo: What cd's are you listening to right now, or what do you have on your IPOD? What bands?

Piggyd: Um, listening to a lot of Melvins. Big Melvins fan. The last few years I have been getting back into them because there is so much material and every time you buy a Melvins record, you don’t know what you are going to get. It is kind of like going to those 25 cent prize machines at a grocery store and everything looks really cool in the window and you put your quarter in and you have no idea what you are going to get. It is like…I love the art of the act of going to the store and buying the new Melvins record because it is such a crap shoot. You could get an hour of noise with crickets, which you fall asleep too or you can get the most hard to listen to car accident of an album. (laughs)…A lot of Melvins. Um, been listening to a lot of old Ministry lately, all the 80’s stuff that I really like a lot. And uh, Killing Joke. Lots of Killing Joke.

jo: Killing Joke? I have to check this all out. That is how I learn about new stuff, well not new stuff, new to me.

Piggyd: Things you haven't spent time with.

jo: Yea. If I ask you to give me one word to describe yourself, which word would you use?

Piggyd: Hmmmm.

jo: Not necessarily appearance, could be personality.

Piggyd: ha ha, weird, I guess. Not in a controversial, "oh look, I am so weird", kind of way, but you know, I'm…people meet me and think they've got me kind of figured out, and they really don't, really. Some people are easy to read. I dunno. I guess I am saying I am kind of weird…ha ha ha.

jo: If you were given one "do over" in life, would you use it? If so, on what? If not, why?

Piggyd: Hmmm. I would probably have stopped myself from running into Kid's bass in this last tour.

jo: Yea, I saw that! OW!!

Piggyd: Breaking my nose, ha ha ha.

jo: Did you break your nose?!

Piggyd: Yea, I've got two big old scars on my nose now.

jo: Oh, crap!

Piggyd: That is kind of vain though. That kind of shit used to happen all the time in Amen and I didn't care. Um, I dunno. I don't really…I know if I went back and did stuff over I would probably be in a different place right now and I don't wanna be in a different place right now.

jo: Ok, that is a great answer.

Piggyd: Cause every action has a reaction. You think sometimes, man I really wonder what would happen if I hadn't done that, but man I am glad I did. That makes you smarter too when you fuck up a lot, and I have. (laughs)

jo: What do you feel is your best quality?

Piggyd: I am honest. I think the older I get the more honest I am too. I don't know if it comes from being impatient or I don't know. I think sobriety has a lot to do with it (laughs) in my case. I used to get away with murder telling horrific lies and I can't do that anymore because I have nothing to hide behind. So...right now? Today? Honesty. (laughs)

jo: What is your worst habit?

Piggyd: Hmmmm.

jo: You don't look like you do, but…

Piggyd: Aside from little crap like biting your nails. I guess…

jo: Yea…

Piggyd: I don't eat my boogers or anything.

jo: That's good!

Piggyd: Yea, I am doing pretty good on that.

jo: How about a silly one. If you were a cartoon character, who would you be and why?

Piggyd: (laughs)…I think I would probably be Daphne from Scooby Doo. Just because she was so hot!

jo: Ahh, that's funny.! (lmfao)

Piggyd: that was my first crush when I was a kid.

jo: (Still laughing)…Really?

Piggyd: Yea, but I don't think I would ever leave the house if I was Daphne…

jo: Oh my god, you are funny!

Piggyd: Or wear clothes.

jo: Or wear clothes, Oh that is great! If I could grant you three wishes, what would they be?

Piggyd: Hmmm….I would like to ah (really laughs a lot)…I will keep this G-rated.

jo: Ok, well, we can always fix it later!

Piggyd: This is a strange one. I would like to have lunch with Bob Mould...

jo: With who?! Bob Dole??

Piggyd: (both of us are really laughing now) No, not Bob Dole. I wanna take that fuckin' pencil out of his hand. Bob Mould from Sugar, Husker  Du. I've had this strange dream that I am sitting in Bob Mould's kitchen wherever he lives, in Connecticut or New York or something. Drinking coffee and eating sandwiches on like this old like 1950's Formica table. It is the strangest thing. I am a huge Bob Mould fan, but I don't have dreams about having lunch with Alice. I hope it happens. I'd like to have sandwiches and coffee with Bob Mould and if you could make some calls that would be great. I would like to…I am in the process of starting a website to raise awareness for challenged animals. Part of owning Radio has opened my eyes to how inspiring it is to have an animal that is less fortunate and can't really take care of themselves, but still enjoys life and has a blast. They are always the first ones to get euthanized when they go into shelters and once the website is up and we can get people sharing their stories and pictures and stuff, I would like that to make a difference somehow.

jo: That is good, that is nice.

Piggyd: I would like to set up some type of a program with different shelters in different cities where they are aware of the site and aware of the community that we can maybe get them to put into plan some kind of a kickback program or some kind of an incentive to let them bring it to our attention and say "hey, I am in Cleveland and there is a dog with three legs that needs a home that is really sweet, he is not aggressive, he is great with kid",  whatever. I would like for that to get going once we get it off the ground and it really be something.

jo: (I explain a website for adopting older dogs to Matt, how I found my dog)

Piggyd: They never get adopted either. They stand a little more of a chance, but not by much. The kids come in with their parents and they want a puppy or a kitten. Which is great, it is better than nothing, but…as far as that third wish goes. I think, when you are a kid and you dream of doing the stuff I have gotten to do it is all kind of started to happen the last several years. You know, I would just like to be happy the rest of my life regardless of what I do. I am not going to be able to play music forever. Unless you are the Rolling Stones and you can pull that off.

jo: Yea, but you have a lot of other stuff going on, which is great.

Piggyd:  Yea, there is so much stuff I wanna do. I hope that I can live long enough to, you know, give it all a shot.

jo: That's great! You seem like a well rounded and grounded person.

Piggyd: (laughs)...Thank you.

jo: Seriously, you do. I have another funny question for you. I won't keep you too much longer. Do you take it as a compliment when you are told you look like Acey's younger, cuter brother?? (laughs)

Piggyd: (laughs)…Acey yea! Acey I take as a compliment. He is a good looking guy and he is a sweetheart too.

jo: We were all just talking about that last week. How much you look like him.

Piggyd: It is funny too and I won't mention any names, but other people I get compared to that I am told I look like they are usually followed up by a negative experience. You look like so and so, I saw them when they came through with so and so. God that guy's a dick! Or whatever. You never hear that about Acey.

jo: No you don't.

Piggyd: You always hear how nice and sincere and honest he is and in rock n roll that is a damn rare thing right now.

jo: Yea I know.

Piggyd: You know even if people walk away from him, not liking him for whatever strange reason, which I have never experienced personally. You still have to respect the guy. Cause I mean he sweats rock and roll. A friend of mine called me today and he said I just saw a picture of Acey on your website. God that guy looks like a rock star. Well he is!! Ha ha, he is the real deal and there is very few people that can walk the walk and talk the talk and are cool on top of it.

jo: Yea, I threw that in since we were just talking about that recently. I think you have similar personalities. Obviously I don't know you that well, but like I said I met him and I was drawn to him he is a very nice person. Not typical.

Piggyd: Yea, hang on to those shiny pennies you find, they are few and far between.
 

jo: I know! Message for your fans?

Piggyd: Anyone that is creative or has anything to share, you know, I hope that they continue to hit the site and join the board and let everyone know what they are up to and what they are doing. Cause I think it is inspiring for everyone, like I already said, to see what everyone is doing in the underground. And I am really grateful for being through everything that I have been through in the last couple of years with prior bands it is nice to see that people are still willing to… that people are still open minded to say "Oh well you are playing in this band now, I will check it out". That is really cool that makes me feel really good. When people say "Oh well you left that band, oh that really sucks, I liked that band a lot, but what are you doing now?" I mean that is so easy to write people off like that and I feel really lucky that that hasn't happened.

jo: I heard about you last year when you were with Amen, but that is why I went to see Wed 13 because I wanted to "see Matt and meet Matt" and that is just through hearing about you through other people.

Piggyd: That is great!

Now for some MATT STATS!!! 

Matt Montgomery

DOB:  11/16/75

jo: Height? Piggyd: 5…I think I have shrunk actually! jo: Really? Piggyd: 5' 9" now, ha ha!

jo: (repeats his answer) I think I have shrunk…how about weight? Piggyd: Ahhh, I think  I am around 135, 138, around there. jo: Alright, that is what I guessed, I am good at this.

jo: Are your eyes hazel? Piggyd: Yes

jo: Shoe size? He starts with an awnry deep laugh…jo: Don't you love it? The girls love this question. Piggyd: A 3! no, 9 and 1/2!

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Matt's Favorites!! (jo's question in white text/his answers in purple text)

Favorite Food? Piggyd: Um, seafood and sushi. jo: Eww, you guys with the sushi. Piggyd: laughs…

Color? purple

Scent? pumpkin pie

Drink? Coffee? Piggyd: (laughs) YEA!

Fave movie? "Ed Wood"

Fave place in the world? Boston Mass

Fave curse word? There is that awnry deep laugh again…ahhhh, I don't know if it is a curse word, but it is a derogatory name. CHOAD.  CHOAD? How do you spell that? C-H-O-A-D. What does that mean or do I have to look it up? You know, I have heard different meanings and I am sure they are all true. It is kind of like…that guy's a choad. It is a funny word, it makes me giggle just saying it. So…You don't really laugh when you say fuck or dick or ass or anything like that, but choad just insinuates a reaction.

Fave Star Wars character or could you care less about Star Wars?  Oh no, that is a great question. I don't know, Darth Vader still kind of scares the crap out of me.Yea, I went to see the movie last night and I loved it. How is it? Awesome! Yea? Yea! I can't wait! Very very dark! OHHHH! Halfway through I was like choking with the…it is just very very dark. OHHHHH, I can't wait. I would probably say Darth Vader.

How about your favorite tattoo? How many do you have anyway?  3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 um, probably, well it's definitely the bats on my right hand.

Favorite gift from a fan?  Hmmmm good question. Someone, oh man, that's really tough. (laughs) Hard to pick a favorite! Ok, well you don't have too. A friend of mine, a fan/friend whatever, she is more of a friend than anything, made me a scarf recently. That is probably my favorite.

Favorite cartoon? Scooby Doo is up there, Scooby Doo is old school. Home Movies on the Cartoon Networks' Adult Swim.

Do you believe in...

Karma? Absolutely!

Ghosts? Yes

Love at First Sight? Yes

Aliens? Yes

Supernatural? Yes

An Afterlife? Yes

De ja vu? Yes

Soul Mates? Yes

Everything Happens for a Reason? Yes

Well as you can see we both had a great time doing this interview. Be sure to stay on top of all things Piggyd at his official website and check out the links provided throughout the interview for some really cool stuff! As I mentioned, Matt is a very talented person and he has a lot going on, so don't miss out on his clothing line through Merch Monster called Batatude (click on images below to purchase through Merch Monster!) and his website for artists called The Sunday Fires. I am sure he will be doing a lot more in the near future and I suggest that you catch him on stage with Wednesday13.