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~*~*~*~ 2021 ~*~*~*~
Jimmy Kimmel was a show that Matty was pretty excited for. Last time the band were back on tour in 2019 he’d been asked to do The Late Late Show with James Cordon, and whilst he loved James, Matty was a sucker for a change of scenery.
Maybe that was because he was a nosy person, or maybe it was the fact he and the band hadn’t been to Jimmy Kimmel since 2016. A lot can change in 5 years, and Matty was keen to see what had.
So yeah, it was the fact that he was nosy that made him excited.
Before he knew it, soundcheck had been and gone with the lads, and all of a sudden he was sitting in the infamous Jimmy Kimmel chair next to the large desk. Few nerves ran through Matty’s body as he sat there and Jimmy introduced him to the audience.
But thankfully after a brief introduction and Jimmy telling them all about Notes On A Conditional Form, Matty fell into conversation pretty easily. Pleasantries were reexchanged that had already happened backstage an hour or two ago, but for the camera neither party minded recapping.
After that though, the conversation obviously turned musical.
“Congrats on releasing your fourth album” Jimmy smiles and Matty can tell it’s genuine.
“Thank you, thank you… Yeah, it’s amazing that this is the first stop on the tour and it came out over a year ago” Matty says, a little reminiscent of the day it dropped.
Jimmy smiles and leads them both into the topic of how gigs had stopped and how the tour had been cancelled due to the pandemic. It carries on for a few minutes with Matty talking about the struggle of him thinking doing tours was basically him set for the rest of his life until it all came to a grinding halt.
Jimmy obviously asks how he personally found the isolation and being forced to take the break. Matty tries to be as earnest as possible with his answers, but he also talks about the positives and what creativity the break inspired.
He and Jimmy talk about the different artists, bar his band, that Matty assisted during lockdown and it was really nice thinking back to those times too. Matty couldn’t believe how fast but also slow the past year had gone.
Matty couldn’t stay in his head for too long and think about that though, because Jimmy moved them back onto the topic of Matty and his own music.
“So how long have you been doing this stuff for now? Because you’re thirty-two right?” The host asks the man who once again had curls at the top of his head.
“Yeah, wow. That’s a wake up call… That means I’ve been doing this for almost twenty years of my life” Matty says a little wide eyed.
“Wait what?” Jimmy pauses looking shocked at that news, “Your band’s been together for twenty years?”
“Yeah” Matty nods, “We started this band when I was fourteen… Like it’s been me George, Hann, and Ross since I can remember”
Jimmy asks, leaning towards Matty, obviously interested, “So you were friends in school then?”
“Yeah, Hann’s back then girlfriend came up to me and was like ‘Hey, my boyfriend wants to start a band. Are you interested?’” Matty explains and he starts grinning thinking about when it happened.
Jimmy is smiling at him encouragingly but the curly haired man has no problems carrying on.
Matty chuckles as he says, “And I was like ‘Yeah sure, but get your boyfriend to come ask me himself’”
The audience and Jimmy laugh along with him and Matty already knows that Adam’s going to kick off at him later. Adam’s argument always being, ‘Yeah, I was shy at one point but I literally go on stage every night with you. Things change.’
After Jimmy’s laughter subsides, he says, “That’s amazing though… You’ve been in each others lives that long”
“Yeah it’s really good” Matty nods in agreement, crossing his legs and tilting more towards the hosts desk, “They are my family honestly, I’ve spent practically the last ten years in the same room as them. They are my brothers I love them”
Matty smiles thinking about all the things his friends had done for him over the years, all the memories that they’d made and how much they meant to him. He definitely wouldn’t be here without his friends.
“That’s honestly so nice to hear, like you’re not afraid to say that you love your friends” Jimmy smiles picking up on the singer’s admiration towards his friends.
“No” Matty shakes his head, still smiling, “I’ve got no reason to”
Matty continues to tell everyone, “It’s important to me that I make people feel included and, like, supported my music, you know? Because I was sorta of an outsider when I grew up… I was reading these books like Vonnegut and he literally just tells it as it is and I like to think I do that in my songs”
Jimmy wants to confirm for both his benefit and the audiences, “You write them all, right?”
“Yeah I do the lyrics and that and George is the sort of the main musical one, but yeah, the lyrics are pretty much mine” Matty smiles looking from Jimmy to the smiling faces of people in the audience.
The host grabs his attention again and asks, “And you speak about the people around you a lot right? Like you’ve done a song about your Mum and your Nana in the past, and on the last album you did a song with your Dad, right?”
“Yeah and that was an amazing experience” Matty nods, “Like because I’ve sort of done everything now… I’ve written songs about girls, I’ve written my girlfriend a few songs… And yeah, like you said, with my Nana and my Mum, and now I get to do one with my Dad on my fourth album. Like it can’t get better than that. There’s nothing more meaningful.
Jimmy noted that Matty grinned at him mentioning his girlfriend, so he decides to pry a little, “Please tell me if I’m overstepping by asking this, but you just mentioned your girlfriend and how you’ve written songs about her before…”
Matty nods not minding Jimmy asking, so the host continues, “and I’m just wondering what’s that like? Do you let her listen to it first? Do you ask if it’s okay to release? Does she like them?”
Matty grins at the array of questions, you coming to the forefront of his mind. God you were gorgeous and he loved you so much. Matty finds every excuse to talk about you in general, so he was elated about the fact he could talk about you with Jimmy.
“Ah well, Y/N is really supportive with everything I do, has been for years” Matty is grinning like an idiot thinking about you as he continues, “She’s seen me at my worst and at my best and we’ve been together for a long while so when I first got with her she knew what I was about… She knew I put myself into my songs and apparently that’s something that she likes about them, that they’re truthful or whatever”
Jimmy nods at this and he can almost feel the love Matty feels for his girlfriend. It was like he was bursting to talk about you and what you were like.
Matty finishes a little whilst saying, “If I’m honest, I don’t even know why she likes me but were five years down the line and were still together”
“You’ve been together five years?” Jimmy asks, his eyes going wide.
“Yeah, almost six” Matty nods correcting himself, and then he goes back to the previous questions, “Honestly though, with the song writing thing, she’s always said to me that I can release whatever I like”
The curly haired brunette laughs when he tells everyone, “She even told me to write a song after an argument we had once because it’d have been good lyrics”
The audience laughs then and so does Jimmy. “Really?”
“Yeah man, she’s crazy” Matty chuckles and then he falls into another spell of talking about you.
“But I do let her listen to the ones that are about her, like the song called Mine that was on A Brief Inquiry, she listened to it for the first time and just cried afterwards telling me I was cute” Matty grins at the memory, he can’t help but tell the world “I just love her and sometimes the best way to tell her how I feel is through a song”
“That’s so amazing” Jimmy grins.
“She is amazing” Matty nods and he has to say, “I honestly don’t know what I’d do without her”
The audience coos him then and Matty can’t help but smile, blushing a little. He truly did love you with the whole of his heart, you were everything to him.
The conversation moves back to the tour they were now finally doing, and Matty becomes very interested in once again. He’d truly missed his job so much, he was so happy to be doing shows again.
After being forced to stay inside for so long, Matty didn’t even mind doing the mountain of interviews anymore.
“How is it back over here touring and everything now? Because you obviously had to cancel your 2020 tour, right? Because of Corona?
“Honestly it’s been a bit weird, you know? Because everything’s the same but different” Matty finds himself awkwardly explaining, “I know that doesn’t make much sense but the shows are the same in a way, but say you see some people with masks on in the crowd and people are a bit more spaced out and that’s fine, that’s good, I’m glad people are being sensible. It’s just a little strange to not see people singing along like they used to… But I’m just happy they are all there and seeming to have a good time and I can hear them still so it’s all good”
Matty continues to say, “And tour itself everything seems a lot cleaner in a way, but yeah, I’m enjoying it. We’re all really enjoying being back on the road”
“That’s good, that’s really good to hear” Jimmy says.
He also follows up with, “Do you notice anything different to your shows over here to back in the uk or is everything pretty much the same?”
“Most of it’s the same, but this time I’ve got my girlfriend on the tour bus with me and let me tell you she’s loving it being back over here”
“Your girlfriend’s from here?” Jimmy asks a little wide eyed, tapping his finger on the table trying to signify America.
Matty grins and nods, “Yeah, ‘across the pond’ as it were, but we live together back home”
“Ah right” Jimmy smiles, somehow feeling a new attachment to the singer as he is sure everyone in the audience does too, “How’s that? Living with one of us”
“It’s great” Matty chuckles, “She means a lot to me and I secretly think she loves the fact that we’ve gone back on tour because we were stuck in our home for so long last year that we were like trigger happy to get out”
“Weren’t we all?” Jimmy laughs and Matty nods.
“Yeah, I guess we were”
Jimmy reverts back to Matty’s girlfriend, “So you can truly say you love us American’s then”
“I suppose yeah” Matty chuckles, and then honestly adds “She does drive me up the wall though”
“In what sense?”
Matty grins as he says, “Her spelling… We argue about the way you lot spell things all the time”
Matty chuckles as he explains, “She’ll text me asking me something about ‘what we’re having for tea’ or whatever and, say I’m making it” Matty points at his chest, “I’ll text her saying ‘I’ll have it done for when she gets home’ and she’ll reply to me saying ‘You’re my favorite’ and I’ll be like ‘I think you miss a U out of that word, Love”
Jimmy laughs then enjoying a little watching the curly haired man get so worked up over it. The audience laughs too even though some of the fans in there already know about the rivalry that’s taken place on live streams over the past few years.
Matty adds, “Like it drives me up the wall” He chuckles, telling Jimmy, “Half of our texts are us correcting the others spelling.”
“Really?” The host laughs.
Matty nods, getting very into the conversation now, “Yeah, it goes on for days, like we can talk to each other in the day on a phone call or something, but then one of us wants to text the other and the conversation is still there from before and we just carry on the spelling argument… Even when we think it’s done and either Y/N or I will type ‘I apologise’ and then we have an argument over a Z then too. Like I’m sorry but there’s not a Z in apologise”
Jimmy finds himself very amused by all of this, as he’s chuckling when he asks, “So you’re essentially always at each other’s throats about American spelling versus British?”
“Always” Matty laughs, “But it keeps it fun and it’s been going on six years so I think it’s just going to carry on until we’re old and grey”
Matty chuckles and corrects himself, “Well until we’re old and she’s grey. I’m already heading that way”
The host then watches the singer lift his curls to the top of his head, exposing the shorter hair on the side and it’s clear that some greys are coming though.
“That’s the stress of doing four albums in less than ten years and the arguing over American and British spelling” Jimmy chuckles, making light of it.
Matty laughs then and he nods agreeing with Jimmy, “Yeah, it probably is”
The interview finishes a few minutes after that and he and the boys then perform If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know) for Jimmy and the audience. Then after pretending it’s night for the past few hours, Matty is a little dazed when he goes back outside and it’s mid-afternoon.
Him and the lads made it back to the tour bus which was parked outside the venue they were due to be performing at the following day. As soon as Matty makes it onto the bus he immediately searches for you, knowing you’re around somewhere.
He leaves the other lads in the front lounge whilst Matty heads to the back where he can just about hear your music coming from. Hozier is playing as Matty walks into the room and sees you lay across the sofa at the back window of the bus and you’re on your phone.
It’s like a breath of fresh air seeing you again. Matty grins as he walks in the room, “Hey Babe”
“Hey Honey” You glance at him and abandon your phone. You get yourself up and hug your boyfriend asking, “How’d it go?”
“Great thanks” Matty tells you, hiding himself into your neck breathing in your scent, “Spoke about you a bit… Hope you don’t mind”
“Never” You tell him kissing the side of his head before you let your fingers run through his curls a little.
“Come on” You grin when you let go of each other, “I wanna go get that very late breakfast you promised me”
“Oh right okay” Matty grins, very happy to be escaping with you without the other lads.
You’re both very happy to be leaving out of the back door of the bus and you’re walking down the street when Matty asks you, “What do you fancy having?”
You ponder for a minute until you get a craving for a delight you’d not had since you’d last come back home. So you tell your boyfriend as you walk down the sidewalk, “I’m thinking biscuits and gravy”
Matty had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, but he doesn’t stop himself from muttering, “Not a biscuit”
You obviously hear it and your head snaps around to him, saying, “It is”
“Not proper gravy either” Matty shakes his head grinning, knowing exactly what he’s doing.
You press your lips together for a second before trying not to bite back, “Matthew, I’m not starting this debate again”
“Neither am I” Matty shakes his head, agreeing that, “There’s no debate”
You grin, having the upperhand right now, “You’re right, we’re in my neck of the woods now. Can’t come for my food like this”
“Course not Babe” Matty grins, grabbing your hand as you walk down the road, “Just as long as you know what country you actually live in and what proper English is when you’re back home”
You have to bite your tongue because you know he’s trying to get a rise out of you. You just sending him a knowing look whilst shaking your head, “I hate you”
“I love you too” Matty grins before pulling you into a kiss.
~*~*~*~