SCOUTING FOR GIRLS

You know it’s been a pretty good year when you can count ‘playing to 70 000 people at Wembley stadium…’ as one of the highlights so far. But when you’re playing keys with pop group of the moment Scouting For Girls - that’s already in the bag.

Here we catch up with Matthias Simmons about how the Korg SV-1 and M3 fit into the live set up.

K: It's been a crazy year for the band - what for you has been the highlight?

MS: Well, we’ve been having a great time on tour and played some fantastic gigs so there are loads really but I suppose the main one would have to be when Roy (Roy Stride – lead vocals) thought it would be a good idea to do a cover of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ off the back of the success that the TV show Glee gave the song. It worked great. I used the Mixed Scat Patch on the Korg M3 to give it that “Glee” edge; it always went down a storm and was the highlight of every show. Then we played the Capital Summer Ball at wembley stadium and it was in the set! So yeah, playing the first 32 bars solo with 70,000 people singing along in wembley stadium, that's it!

K : What are you up to at the moment?

MS: Personally I’m mainly back in the studio now doing some remix work and forever trying to write that ‘HIT”!!

K: You have been using the sv-1 live. What is it that drew you to this piano and what are your favorite features?

MS: I’m a massive Fender Rhodes fan/geek and I own an mk1 73 and an mk2 88, so of course any Rhodes emulation that gets made has my full attention immediately! I’m always looking for that Rhodes sound and feel in something that is portable and
doesn’t need constant servicing.

I really love the SV-1. The sampling is fantastic and you can really manipulate the sound to get pretty much any Rhodes sound you’ve ever heard! (Eq, in line fx and amp modeling). I love using the Vox wah effect and driving the tube hard. You can give any guitarist a run for their money with this.
The best thing for me though has to be the key touch in the SV-1. The action is the closest thing to a real Rhodes action, which completely dictates how you play…

K: Which songs does it work best on?

MS: Mainly on the more ballad type tracks where the sv-1 fills in with a luscious slow stereo tremolo Rhodes i.e. Air Plane Song, Keep on Walking and Glastonbury. But also on some of the new tracks like Little Miss Naughty and Good Time Girl in which there’s a great distorted Rhodes line that the SV-1 is all over.

K: Do you plan to use this in the studio too?

MS: Definitely! It’s actually very inspirational, every time I’m mucking about on it I find something I like.

K: You've been using an m3 for a while. How does this fit into your set up? Do you use this live aswell as the sv-1?

MS: Yeah this fits in great, it’s just such a useful keyboard!! Any sound you want – it’s there (Scat patch for Journglee..) On a couple of occasions I’ve been asked to ‘fill in time’ for broadcast purposes and having something so powerful on hand is just a dream. I also use it to trigger samples from the album.

K: When did you start playing piano/keyboard?

MS: My whole family is musical and we had four pianos in the house in which I grew up, so I was bashing away at a really young age.

K: Who inspires you musically?

MS: Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Prince, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Winton Kelly, Joe Zawinul, Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, Beastie Boys, The Meters, D’angelo, Me’shell Ndegeocello, Trevor Horn, The Invisible, Little Dragon……….

K: What's next for scouting for girls?

MS: Various festival appearances over the summer (really looking forward to these!) And European showcases. Looks like the year is set to carry on like it started!

The current album, “Everybody Wants To Be On TV”, which was the second from the band, was released in the UK in April with the first single “This Ain't a Love Song” going straight to number 1. For more live dates and info go to: www.scoutingforgirls.com