The Resonars | Interview | “Arizona’s best kept secret!”

The Resonars is a Tucson, Arizona based garage psych project led by multi-instrumentalist Matt Rendon since the early ’90s.

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The Resonars have been making some of America’s finest ’60s-inspired psych-spiked pop since the turn of the millennium. Led by Rendon, the band draws inspiration from The Who, The Hollies, and the cream of the British Invasion, channeling mod, proto-power-pop and pop-psych sounds into a consistently strong set of psychedelic garage-pop. Their concept? Staying true to the lost-era of analog recording. Matt Rendon handles all aspects of music making in a true DIY fashion. Recording and engineering is done at his own studio. Without a doubt Tucson, Arizona’s best kept secret!

“I just kept in my bubble, practiced, and listened to old music”

How did it all begin for you? Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

Matt Rendon: I was born and raised in midtown Tucson, Arizona, the youngest of four children. From an early age I was obsessed with sports and music because of my older brother Mark, who was not only the center and middle linebacker on his high school football team but also was a Beatles freak. He made me mixtapes of Beatles and Herman’s Hermits and I locked in to the energy of that music at a very early age. My parents got me a cruddy drum kit for Christmas when I was 10, presumably because I wouldn’t stop hitting an old Ludwig snare I got a few months before. I loved that kit but by age 12 it had completely disintegrated. Right around that time my Uncle Joe Robles brought me a solid body electric guitar he found in the trash (he worked for the City of Tucson) and I only made noise on it until it too fell apart. A little later Uncle Joe found a beat up acoustic in the trash and that’s the one on which I learned to play rudimentary chords until my folks got me an Alvarez guitar for Christmas when I was 13. I worked summers as a telephone contractor’s assistant and saved up for a Fender Mustang in a pawn shop down the street where I also got a drum kit soon thereafter. I never played in bands through high school, just practiced constantly to the Beatles, the Who, Troggs and Pretenders with James Honeyman-Scott, and wrote tons and tons of terrible pop songs! I had figured out a way to multi-track with two boomboxes and recorded a bunch of songs, and when I saw an ad in a guitar magazine for a Fostex X-15 4-track cassette recorder. When my folks asked what I wanted for a high school graduation present, I pointed to that ad, that’s pretty much where the Resonars begin.

What kind of records and fanzines did you have before starting your first band? What gigs did you attend?

When I was a little kid, and I would go record shopping with my brother, I pretty much was looking for haircuts. Any band that looked like the Beatles was good enough for me. The Byrds, Kinks, Animals, Yardbirds, Rolling Stones. Turns out it was a pretty good way to shop for records! Later in high school I started poring over the O’Sullivan & Woodside record guides where I learned the cool labels and obscure bands from the 60s. I still use those! I didn’t know any fanzines and I didn’t go to shows. There was a little music scene in Tucson but it was all downtown and that seemed like a million miles away. I just kept in my bubble, practiced, and listened to old music all through my teen years.

Was there a certain moment when you knew you wanted to become a musician?

Yes. The very second I first saw Keith Moon play. In fact he played with such sheer athleticism that it pulled me away from sports. I couldn’t believe you could approach music like that. Wow!

Let’s go straight to The Resonars and your debut album from 1998? Tell us about the recent remastered version of the album…

The first issue of the LP was a total DIY job. It was even mastered from a cassette tape using no compression and just a five band EQ. I had been wanting to do a reissue for several years so finally, early last year, I started remixing all the tracks from the original four-track cassette tapes. The sound quality of the tapes stood up against time pretty well. Also added were ‘Sleep Don’t Travel’ – the b-side of the first 45 and ‘Have You Heard The Prayer’ – an outtake from the sessions. The tracks were then sent to Patrick Haight at Spot-On Sound for mastering. All in all it sounds great! We’re doing a deluxe CD version in a few weeks.

Was ‘Tripping in Your Coffin’ a demo?

No. That was recorded by the original Resonars band (Dustin Moyer, Eric Royer and myself) in 1994 as a considered record. Eric Royer tracked that on an 8-track Tascam reel-to-reel.

This might be quite a task, but would you be able to share a sentence or two about each of the albums you released as The Resonars?

The Resonars – ‘The Resonars’ (1998)
The first LP came about when Scott Moody from Star Time Records in Tucson heard a tape of demos I made. From 1994-1997 I recorded nearly 100 songs so I picked what I thought were the best of the batch.

The Resonars – ‘The Resonars On Tour!’ (1999)
This was the album I was working on when the call came from Get Hip asking to put out a record with them. Has the same tone as The Resonars S/T with just a touch more fuzz guitar.

The Resonars – ‘Bright And Dark’ (1999)
The story goes that someone at the Get Hip warehouse was playing the first LP a lot during work, so much so that it caught the ear of Gregg Kostelich. He asked Scott Moody about the band and next thing I knew I was madly putting this record together. Like I said, I was working on something else at the time, but I figured that I should get something brand new going and that corresponded with the repair of my 12-string Rickenbacker, which had been in disrepair for a couple of years. Psychedelic, jangly and mixed in wide 60’s stereo, a decision I later regretted. It’s gonna be reissued by Get Hip with extra tracks very soon. Hopefully by spring.

The Resonars – ‘Lunar Kit’ (2002)
This one is a lot of people’s favorite Resonars record, particularly in Tucson. Another record that was recorded in a rush as I had made plans to move to Seattle. Good songs on there I think. Particularly like ‘Everything You Said’. Someday I’d like to remix this one. It’s a bit muddy.

The Resonars – ‘Nonetheless Blue’ (2007)
My favorite of the three Get Hip records. Perhaps because it’s the most obscure record in the catalog and got little to no hype.

It was recorded during a particularly happy time.

The Resonars – ‘That Evil Drone’ (2008)The first of two LPs released by Burger. Long story short – I was quite frustrated at the time because I thought of ‘Nonetheless Blue’ doing so badly, that whatever particular subgenre the Resonars were thrown in, perhaps that trend was over. I actually threw a bunch of records in the garbage because I was sick of looking at them. Right at that time Lee and Sean from Burger rolled up on me telling me they were fans and some girl in Wisconsin turned them on to the band, and could they put out a Resonars LP on the new label they were starting. I think it’s a good record. A lot of the Knockout Pills ev=nergy seeped into the recordings.

The Resonars – ‘Crummy Desert Sound’ (2012)
This was the album recorded during the transition from 4-track to 8-track recording. It was a lot of work and a lot of the songs were recorded 3-4 times. When the band started playing shows in 2012 the bulk of the material was from this album. We named our studio Midtown Island from the song.

The Resonars – ‘The Greatest Songs of the Resonars’ (2014)
A 14 track greatest hits collection compiled by Bill and Lisa Roe and myself. The first LP released by Trouble In Mind. That’s my Boston Terrier Benson on the cover. A pretty tight little collection I would say.

The Butterscotch Cathedral – ‘The Butterscotch Cathedral’ (2015)
A Resonars LP under a different name and the second LP released by Trouble In Mind. The only difference is that my friend Chris Ayers wrote the lyrics on side A. Oh, and it’s also wildly psychedelic. The idea was to tie together a bunch of pop song dreamscapes and I think we pulled it off.

The Resonars – ‘No Exit’ (2018)
The first Resonars record featuring other players, most prominently my friend Johnnie Rinehart on drums. The result of a songwriting dry spell through 2016-7. Suddenly all these songs started pouring out and me and Johnnie Rinehart would get together once or twice a week to track them.

The Resonars – ‘Disappear’ (2020)
The Covid LP. Recorded between March and June 2020. I faced the early days of Covid by creating a structure for myself that was based around three day time blocks. Day one – taking mushrooms and writing a complete song and perhaps getting a rhythm track. Day two – finish the track with all vocal and instrumental overdubs. Day three – mixing. I did this for four months and ended up with nearly 40 new songs but I shaved the record down to 14.

The Resonars – ‘Electricity Plus’ (202?)
The one I’m working on now should be out next year. I guess it depends on whether or not it’s gonna be a double LP.

How did the Vultures come about?

My friend Heath Hemmsbergen moved to Seattle from Tucson, got active in the scene there, got a band going, and asked me if I’d come up to join. The Vultures also included Matt Mayo and Matt Rempel. We played with people like the Makers and the White Stripes and we were a great live band, but all the recordings were shit, and nothing came out officially. I still keep in touch with Matt Mayo.

What about The Knockout Pills?

Knockout Pills were Travis Spillers, Jason Willis, Gerard Schumacher and myself. Love those guys. I suppose we were Tucson’s answer to the early Saints. Out of control energy. We never felt anyone could touch us. I left the band when I thought we were getting a little samey sounding plus I was just pooped. I play in Freezing Hands with Travis and Jason is a fantastic art layout/filmmaker. Gerard is an electrician in his original home Australia.

What currently occupies your life?

My life is occupied by recording Resonars songs, running a recording studio, playing in Freezing Hands and the Exbats, and hitting in the batting cages 3-4 times a week.

Are you working on something new?

Like I said above – working frantically on the new Resonars record and trying to make the damn thing coalesce.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favorite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

I would recommend the Retail Simps LP on Total Punk. They floored me at Gonerfest in September. Such great energy. The Eddy Current Suppression Ring first LP reissue is fantastic. This one isn’t really new but I would highly recommend either of the Toy Love compilations, particularly ‘Live At The Gluepot 1980’.

Thank you. Last word is yours.

Thanks, Klemen!

Klemen Breznikar

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Headline photo: The earliest photo of the Resonars. Coma Cave rooftop, 1991 (Matt Rendon, Dustin Moyer, Mario Cordova, Eric Royer)

The Resonars Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp

The Resonars – ‘Gold To Blue’ & ‘Little Grey Men’/’Bold Marauder’ (2021)