The Head and The Heart’s Matt Gervais - STAGE THREADS Ep. 5

They're just coming apart, you can see how many times, how many shows have been played in these. It has to be breathable and flexible. When I married her, I knew fully well I was also marrying a personal stylist. So, we're here currently in the summer of 2025, in support of our most recent record that came out a couple months ago, called Aperture, which is, in many ways, a return to the roots for the band, and a way of approaching songs in a fresh way, that just feels like these songs have always existed. There's a unique blending of things that we've learned along the way, and also knowing what our lane is, and figuring out how to become the best at this particular version of songwriting that we love to do. It's been really great, we've been touring all over the place, and everyone seems to be enjoying the new songs, and singing along to these songs, and they're very meaningful for us. It's been really nice. A couple years ago, we had the luxury of being in a band that was capable of bringing along wardrobe cases. We used to just cram everything into a backpack, as you have to, because you're rolling down the highway and there's not room for a lot of stuff. Many of us, and some of us, I'm sure, as you've spoken to Kenny, he wears the same t-shirt every day, which is a great approach. It means packing is easier. But also, you have the option, like we do in this situation, it's no secret that Charity and myself are married, so her and I share a wardrobe case, and 99% of the stuff in here is actually Charity's. You might think that I have some kind of elaborate costuming, and in some senses I do, and most of it comes from Charity as well, because when I married her, I knew fully well I was also marrying a personal stylist. And so, many of the things I would have never purchased for myself. I have a head-to-toe snakeskin jacket and pants. It's not real snakeskin, of course. Kenny always jokes whenever I wear one of these items, that I'm a snake killer, which I'm not. But anyway, I would have never purchased that if it weren't for Charity Rose stealing as well. Same thing goes for this beautiful, lovely pink jacket, which I have worn on occasion. But what I've found is that when we're summer touring, I wear, it has to be breathable and flexible, because I'm moving around on the stage all the time. And so, one of the most breathable things that I wear are these pants. These are actually probably the most expensive thing we have in here, but they're also the most workable and durable articles of clothing that I have, and I wear them all the time on stage. They're Issey Miyake pants, and it's basically like wearing no pants at all. And so, when I'm playing, it gives me the ability to run around on stage and kick my legs and do all this stuff that you get caught up doing in the moment when you're playing songs that you love, and you're feeding off the energy of the audience and stuff. Again, these summer shows, it's like minimal clothing. There's one over here that I have in this bag. I always got a day bag of things. If you've been to the shows a couple of times, you've probably seen me wear this thing. I don't even know what you call this, but my brother and my sister-in-law brought this back for me when they went on a trip to Mexico. And again, it looks like a blouse or something. I think every time I've worn it around my friends, they're like, oh, are you wearing a blouse today? And I'm like, well, I guess I am. But it's like a, I don't even know what you call this, but it's extremely breathable and it just fits that requirement for me to just feel almost as if I'm not wearing anything and I can just move on stage. It's really awesome. So anyways, if anybody's watching this and knows what this thing is or what it's called, let me know because I could use a few more of them. So we're talking about if we're not performing on stage in a blistering heat, which we usually are in the summer, we're playing in theater or something like that, some sort of indoor clothing or indoors environment. I have like, one of my favorite things is another one that Charity got for me. It's just an Army-Navy surplus jacket. But it was outfitted by this amazing designer named Christian Joy who created this beautiful iron-on bananas and just sparkly abstract patches and just kind of makes this jacket have its own unique flair. And it just, like many vintage military articles of clothing, it fits really flatteringly and I just love the fit of it and it just feels cool. So I wear this one all the time too. But yeah, this is Christian Joy. And Charity hit me up to Christian Joy. Apparently, carrying an oak from the AAS gets a lot of stuff from them. But yeah, this is a cool jacket. Similarly, I still keep very breathable pants during the show no matter what season it is because you gotta have that. I have some nice little boots that I like to wear that are just like zip-on, easy, free-flowing. These ones are a newer version of ones that I had before that I actually had that I love so much that they're just buried in here. But they're just coming apart. You can see how many times, how many shows have been played in these boots. And there's no traction in them at all. And like, it's almost painful. Well, it became painful to wear them anymore because there's just no padding whatsoever. But they're perfect for a stage because I like to slide around a little bit. And the less friction you have on that, the better and more flowing you are on stage. Yeah, these are by Ofacine Creative. Again, I learned all this ---- from Charity. Same thing with these. Kenny has a pair of these too. These are like kung fu shoes, which on certain days... I don't even know how you say the name of this brand. And these ones are disgusting. If I wear them and I activate the sweat, they're so terrible. But on stage, they are similarly just... You can fly in them. There's so much bend in them. So it's basically like wearing no shoes at all. And I love these things for that same reason. So that's a good indoor thing. Charity can show you these. She'll tell you the story of these. I'm not going to go into it. She might not, actually. She just received these. But these were given to her by Grace Potter, which is really cool. So we keep these in the thing. If I could fit them, I'd definitely wear them. But our four-year-old daughter loves to slip these on and play dress up in the green room when we're hanging out. Daytime fashion versus stage fashion. For me, I've tried to make the transition as minuscule as possible. So during the day, I'm wearing breathable linen pants that are just drawstring, which is basically a cheaper version of what I wear when I'm on stage. And it just flows. It's easy. And that way, when I'm going to and from stage, I'm not thinking about it very much. I'm kind of like Steve Jobs-ing it. It's like, okay, well, I'm wearing a black tank top or some version of that concept. And that way, every day when I get up in the morning, I'm not like, hmm, what am I going to wear today? I have a certain thing that I like, and it's taken me a long time to discover it. And then once you do, you're like, oh, okay. Now I just have this certain handful of things. And I think going forward, it's going to make it even easier for me to pack because I'm realizing, oh, god. I go on tour, I have to pack all this stuff, and then I only wear three or four things the whole time. So it becomes pretty straightforward. Yeah, these shoes. So these are called Floafers. And again, I have a personal stylist by the name of Charity Rose Steele. And she discovered these. These are basically just like the perfect tour shoe because I just live in them. They're waterproof, which is perfect for me because I love to tromp around in the water if we happen to have a show that's near a body of water, whether it be a river or a lake or whatever, the ocean. You can take them to the beach, but you can also wear them to a nice restaurant because they're just innocuous enough that they kind of can fit with anything you're wearing. And then you don't have to put on socks or worry about tying your shoes. So when you're going in and out of a venue in the middle of the night, you can slip them on and walk to the bus to go to bed or whatever. Or sometimes you're crossing the border in the middle of the night and you don't want to fuss with your shoes. Boom, there they are. They're just ready to go. Of course, that's a summer thing because it's just tis the season. Keeping with the breathability, I have this shirt, which is a need supply. And it's just a nice little flowy silk shirt. I'll wear this sometimes. Same reason. Really, all of it is for the purposes of being free and flowy. I like this jacket a lot. Again, I don't really wear it unless it's an indoor show. I might wear a jacket for the first couple songs and then take it off when I start to get sweaty. Then you try to avoid it looking like you're trying to do some striptease. Try to be less flashy about it. But yeah, when you have a great jacket, why not wear it? Let's see, what else? Yeah, there's a few different pairs of those kind of things. A lot of this stuff is Charity's and she'll go into it. She's the fashion guru for sure. I think I wore this jacket on the Today show. This was technically Charity's jacket but she loves to buy oversized jackets and stuff like that so it fit me perfectly. I'm wearing this today on our television performance instead of you, okay Charity? That's the benefit of having a wife who's very dialed in and very tuned into this thing. And being in a band, it gives you the license to not really care that much about what people are thinking. Maybe wear something that my younger version of myself would not have been comfortable wearing but now I just don't care anymore which feels good. It's very liberating. Well, this has been a joy for me. Thanks for coming along and perusing this fashion warehouse we have set up for ourselves. My name is Matty and it's been a pleasure. Thank you for listening to the new record too. It came out back in May. It's called Aperture and if you haven't listened to it yet please do so. It's one of our favorites that we've ever released so far and it would mean the world. Thank you very much.