This article is from a recent article in Genre Magazine (for gay men).

Sweet Talk
by:John Polly

Ever since he charged onto the scene with the release of his awesome CD
Girlfriend, back in 1991, Matthew Sweet (above) has been the golden boy of
sincere, searing powerpop. His latest effort, the recently released
BSoM(Volcano), is a killer compendium of perfect pop nuggets which celebrate
the need to love and be loved with honesty, humor, and a foot-stomping
attitude. We tracked down the Nebraska-born-and-raised Sweet on the road the
get his take on singing along to Barbara, shopping with Cher, and trading
love notes with Madonna.

You are considered a great powerpop musician. What makes for a good pop song?

MS: Having a memorable melody is a big part of it. And a spirit of optimism.
And if it's powerpop, it also has a certain kind of volume factor and
strength to it. You know, jangly guitars and such.

Part of your appeal to gay people may be that you and your songs are
generally free of macho rock posturing. Your work seems very open.

MS: I can see that. Early on I used to write more specific songs where I
would say "girl" or "honey" all the time. I'll still do that some, but I've
tended towards making my music more universal, more about "me and you" than
about "guy and girl." I guess that reflects my personality. I have lots of
friends who are gay and lots of friends who are straight, and it's always
been inexplicable to me why anyone would think twice about it. If there's one
thing we should grant other people it's the ability to do what makes them
happy and be who they are. Like, how hard is that?

Your songs are about longing, yearning, and disillusionment. Do you have a
happy personal relationship?

I do. I have a really good relationship with my wife. But that doesn't mean
my life is devoid of anxieties or that I don't have mood swings. That's how I
tap into my ideas. I tend to write when I feel excess emotion. If I get down
enough, I'll write songs. Or if I'm excited enough or happy enough, I'll
write songs then too.

Ok. I'm going to throw some gay diva names at you--tell me what comes to
mind. Barbara Streisand.

I think of her in terms of her movies. I've never listened to her music a
lot, although I remember my sixth grade class sang "The Way We Were" at our
graduation.

Cher.

Gregg Allman. When I think of Cher, it's always about her period with him.
I've heard she's a really nice, cool person. A trainer I know became friends
with Cher on some luxury yacht in the Mediterranean and she went shopping
with his wife. His wife found a pair of shoes she loved, but they were too
expensive so she wouldn't buy them for herself. Cher bought them, and when
the guy and his wife were leaving the yacht, Cher left her the shoes as a
gift. I thought that was a really nice story.

Madonna.

When I was recording GF, Madonna was recording upstairs. I had a dream that I
had talked her into making a really organic folk record, which became her
biggest success ever. So I wrote her an elaborate note about it and bribed
the studio manager with a joint to take the note to her. She supposedly read
the whole thing, put it in her coat, but didn't really say anything about it.
Afterwards we found a piece of paper on her music stand on which she had
written my name  and sort of doodled around it. This document took on great
importance and became known as "The Madonna Document." So I put a note in the
credits for GF:"Hey Madonna! You never wrote me back."

Ok. Liza Minelli.

The first thing that pops into my head is how sad the Judy Garland story is.
Liza's such the classic offspring of a star. But she's allright. She's got
alot of spunk!

Now one that's a little more obscure--Dusty Springfield.

I have a tape that my drummer made for me and it has this song of hers on it
called "What Do You Do When Love Dies?" that I just love. She's great.

If you were going to sing a love ballad with another guy, who would it be?

Oh, God...(laughs). Who do I think is great? How about Tom Petty? Or Neil
Young? Maybe George Harrison.

So you like older men. What kind of car do you drive?

I have a 1970 Dodge Challanger. I could definitely pick up the cool guy in it
(laughs).

Where would be the ultimate place for you to play?

I have fun anywhere I play. In certain ways it's more fun playing really
weird, out-of-the-way places where nobody ever goes, because the people there
get really excited about that.

They're just excited to see anybody.

And that's my kind of crowd (laughs); the kind that's happy to see anybody.