They have one of those names that makes you wonder what the heck they were thinking when they chose it but in actuality it fits them very well. The catchy jittery unrestrained songs that come from a happy jittery unrestrained singer that you can’t seem to well…. “cage,” seems to be popping up all over the place. Your ears will definitely perk up once those in-your-face speaking-my-mind lyrics start scrolling across your brain. Known for being a smart ass “always”, Cage The Elephant lead singer Matthew Shultz gave Glide a quick call from Nashville recently to talk about his band’s brand new CD titled Thank You Happy Birthday: an eclectic follow-up to their 2008 self titled debut.
Formed around 2006 in their home state of Kentucky, Shultz and his guitar playing brother Brad, along with school friends bassist Daniel Tichenor, drummer Jared Champion and guitarist Lincoln Parish, went to London when a production deal offered them one hundred percent control of the recording they would make and ended up pulling a Jimi Hendrix. In other words, they went across the pond to become famous.
Gearing up for the publicity onslaught a new CD will ignite, a non-smart ass Matt Shultz talked excitedly about Thank You Happy Birthday, his penchant for not thinking when he’s performing and how two versions of “Shiver” are better than one.
You have a new CD just out called Thank You Happy Birthday. Can you tell us about who produced it, where you recorded it and was it different this time than when you recorded the first one?
Well, we recorded the record with Jay Joyce, the same producer who did our first, and I don’t know, I think … well, on the first record we didn’t really have a budget for the record so we kind of had to record it as fast as possible. We recorded it in ten days, which is really kind of Jay Joyce’s style anyway. He likes to just capture the natural full song and likes to work real fast. That’s what I love about Jay. It’s kind of like to go for gut instinct kind of approach. But this time around we still had that same mentality starting off but then kind of went back and spent a little more time paying closer attention to detail. So we spent about a month in the studio this time … and it was kind of spotty. On the first record we spent ten days straight, on this one it was, you know, whenever we were off the road. Like a week here and a week there.
It’s a very eclectic sounding album. You can’t pigeonhole it into one category.
Yes, for sure. It’s kind of like to an obsessive compulsive kind of point. We don’t like to repeat ourselves. So anytime we were kind of going in a similar direction on the song that had been before, we either changed the song if it didn’t like compromise the song at all or if it was going to, you know, end up taking the song it replaced that wasn’t as good as it was before, we just stopped writing the song altogether and started on something new.
.jpg)
Most of the songs are very blunt. You have a way of just spitting it all out there. Have you ever gone back and censored something you wrote because you were like, wait a minute I went a little too far?
Not really. Normally, well, most of the songs … lyrically I write all the songs. On this record, more so than on the last record, I wrote all the lyrics in the studio. So I didn’t have a lot of time to go back. I’m kind of a procrastinator by nature (laughs) so it works out.
Were you like that as a kid? Always spouting off and speaking your mind?
Always (laughs).
Let’s talk about some of the new songs. One of my favorite tracks is the first song on the CD, “Always Something”. It’s very surreal sounding. What can you tell us about that one?
Well, it was a song that we didn’t really think was going to make the record. Me and Lincoln had written that song previous to recording it, it just wasn’t coming together. It sounded like some kind of like polka, eastern European dance song (laughs). I guess it isn’t necessarily a bad thing if that’s what you are going for but it wasn’t sounding that great. It kind of sounded like that mixed with an Irish jig (laughs). So we kind of were planning to scratch that song and I actually ended up showing up late to the studio one day and while I was absent, the guys kind of got together and just laid down the music for the track and when I got there they were like, “Why don’t you try the vocal melody over this”, which was totally different than what it had been before. And that’s kind of how that song came together really.
“2024” reminds me of The Ramones.
I don’t know if that was a direct influence for that song but it’s definitely a band that has been very influential on us as a band. We’re huge Ramones fans and actually a couple of summers ago it was the only thing I listened to. 
For “Rubber Ball”, I read where you said it was influenced by Woody Guthrie.
Actually I don’t know where that came from cause it really wasn’t inspired by Woody Guthrie (laughs) BUT I am a huge Woody Guthrie fan. Also I’ve been a huge Bob Dylan fan which I discovered Woody Guthrie through Bob Dylan. I mean, not personally from Bob Dylan; he didn’t tell me personally to check him out (laughs). He was one of Bob Dylan’s influences so I checked it out.
“Right Before My Eyes” has kind of a story behind it, started off with another title or something?
No, actually, we recorded that song several different ways. Originally it was written to be an acoustic song, like with just acoustic guitar and vocal. I don’t know, when we recorded it it just didn’t, it wasn’t like, didn’t have the same … because I had done a recording of it, I did a live thing for like some online zine or something like that and they had posted it on YouTube and I don’t know, we couldn’t capture the same sound that was on that recording for some reason; it was always seemed lifeless. So we started trying other approaches and nothing really worked. There were two cuts actually. “Right Before My Eyes” and “Shiver” are the same song. So that’s kind of how that came about. We just recorded so many different versions trying to get something that felt right and those were like two of our favorite so we just decided to put them both on the record.
“Shiver” sounds like the more depressed sister of “Right Before My Eyes”.
I’m actually a bigger fan of “Shiver” honestly.
Why did you pick “Shake Me Down” to be the first single to represent the new CD?
I don’t know, I honestly didn’t think it would have the success that it has had so far on radio. We figured it would be somewhat of a flop (laughs). We just wanted to pick a track that would kind of represent more our growth as people, not so much as like trying to have a hit or anything. And then it did very well. So it was very surprising to us honestly. We were trying to sabotage ourselves (laughs).
You guys are great in concert. I saw you at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans back in October and you just go all out, all over the place. Do you have a body part left that hasn’t been scraped, scratched, bruised or broken?
(laughs) All of them.
So you don’t think when you perform?
Oh no (laughs). I think I just gear to spontaneity and just kind of like do everything in the spur of the moment, especially the way we like to perform. We just don’t want to become something where it’s planned out or choreographed. I hate that kind of stuff, unless it’s done extremely well, then it’s terrible. There’s a band I love called Let’s Wrestle that sometimes does these funny like choreographed like typical rock moves but it’s normally like making fun of that kind of stuff so that’s why it’s so great. But we really like to just to improv.
You’re a very visual band. Do you like making the videos?
I do really enjoy that, that aspect. When we do videos it’s weird. I love the people that we’ve worked with on all the videos but I guess because I’m involved with it, I’ve never been a hundred percent happy (laughs). Maybe I should take myself out of the equation and then I can actually enjoy the videos (laughs).
So what’s up for 2011?
I think we’re releasing a record …Yeah, on the eleventh. And then we’re probably going to do some touring around it. I know we’re doing the Letterman show on the eleventh [of January] and then there’s like a couple of shows that we’re doing with The Black Keys and beyond that I don’t know (laughs). I’m terrible with our schedule.
When did the band get together?
2006, I believe. We all went to high school together.
And then you went to England. Did you like it over there?
I loved it. It really opened our eyes to a lot of things for sure.
So do you think that was the best thing for you guys? I mean, Jimi Hendrix had to go over there to “make it”.
I think it was definitely the right move. The label that we signed with was the only label that gave us a hundred percent control.
Which is important to a new band.
Definitely.
