Relient K was started by Matt Thiessen of Canton, OH back in 1998. Since then, these Christian rockers have come into so much success that it’s amazing. They’ve had 2 albums reach #15 on Billboard list. Have had three golden albums and have sold over 2 million records. The Binterns were lucky enough to sit down with the founder and lead singer, Matt. Nicole: What is a necessity to have on tour? Matt: Food, water and shelter. Nicole: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing? Matt: I would, you know what. Even before The Mad Men show came out, I’ve always been intrigued by commercials. I feel like the jingles and all that are kind of like song writing, trying to fit a message into 30 seconds or a minute. And maybe someday I’ll get into that. Michelle: Do you have a favorite TV jingle? Matt: Jingle? There are a lot of great jingles out there. There was the one “Pizza Hut and nothing but” which was really catchy. It was Canadian. But there are so many good commercials out there, the one that I just saw the other day was the Wheat Thins commercial where the guy that’s stuck under the rock. With the helicopter that comes to get him and the guy comes down and then he points at him and he’s like “stay.” It’s pretty brilliant. Michelle: That is a good one. Nicole: What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done on stage or that’s happened on stage? Matt: Um, we used to get a bunch of Skittles thrown at us. We wrote a hidden track on our second record basically asking kids to throw Skittles at us. And it was my old bass player’s idea. So there used to be a bunch of packs of Skittles on the ground and we’d trip on them. And one day I tripped and fell and like snapped a peg off of a $2,000 guitar and it was kind of an angry show for the rest of the show. Ended up venting for a bit. But yah there was this one time where me and my bass player both accidentally fell on our butts like within 30 seconds of each other and they were totally not related. So we’re both on the ground looking at each other and laughing at ourselves. But nothing really crazy has ever happened to us. Nicole: Do you guys ever have any bras thrown at you? Matt: Twice, maybe. Yah, our fan based is pretty conservative and they know we’re not gonna get a kick out of it. I mean, everybody’s married except for me so, whatever. I don’t wear a bra. Nicole: What’s the strangest gift you guys have ever been given? Matt: Ooh, good one. Um, we had a woman give us a little robot one time. There was this woman who lives in Miami who I guess is loaded so she’ll give us the weirdest presents all the time. Just like boxes of health stuff, like coition silver which is silver that you’re supposed to ingest that makes you live longer. She’ll give us really obscure DVDs but sometimes she’ll give us cool stuff like a robot but it’s just funny to see what she comes up with. Nicole: Do you personally have any good luck charms or superstitions? Matt: I’m not really superstitious, I mean, I haven’t washed these jeans in like five months and I’ve worn them every day but that’s really just to see how far I can take them, how dirty I can get them. I don’t know. I feel like I’m too lucky to believe in luck. My life is too good. Nicole: And last question, probably the most important one: Peanut M&Ms or Regular or any variation? Matt: If we’re talking just deliciousness, then Peanut Butter M&Ms. And if we’re talking the best candy ever, we’re talking Pretzel M&Ms. But 5 grams of fat per serving, it’s like the most nutritious chocolate you can buy in the gas station. And I don’t know why they’re not marketing that. Michelle: See, the peanut butter and pretzel together. I don’t understand why they haven’t done that. Matt: What about Reese’s Cups stuffed with Pretzel M&Ms. Never mind, we’re getting carried away now. But Peanut M&Ms are good if you need some protein. If you haven’t had a meal. It’s probably not great for you, but you will get some energy out of it