Matt Layzell from The Matinée and I compared our tattoos when we spoke last week.

The lead singer said he and his bandmates all have really interesting tattoos and some that are a little obsessive.

“We’re all Lord of the Rings fanatics and [guitarist] Geoff [Petrie] had to take it one step further. He had Mordor on his arm and he got Gollum on his forearm,” Layzell told me. “He’s been asking people if they want to kiss Gollum.”

Layzell said the band’s even gotten tattoos while on tour.

“[Guitarist] Matt [Rose] and I took an eight hour ferry ride off the coast of B.C. for a tour of the island and we were joking on the way over that if there’s a tattoo parlour on the island, we would get one,” he said.

“We found a woman there who brought us to her house and tattooed us in the basement.”

We talked about music as well.

Currently, The Matinée’s opening for Electric Six on a tour from Victoria to Montreal.

It’s been going relatively well, he said.

“First day of the tour, our tires got stuck in the snow and we had to get towed. We ended up paying $1,400 for winter tires,” he said.

The band’s past tours have also had a few mishaps, Layzell said, including one that resulted in the cops being called on the band for loitering.

“On our way to Thunder Bay, our van caught on fire. So we stopped at the edge of town at a Canadian Tire Garden Centre,” he said. “We passed out there, and were woken up at 7:30 in the morning when the staff called the cops on us when they saw us [in the Garden Centre].”

Through the crazy tour stories, the band has been playing together since they were young, growing up within blocks of each other.

Drummer Peter Lemon’s mom taught each of them how to play music and as a band, Layzell said he would describe their live performances as being extremely energetic.

“We’ve been known to bust out all of the drums and percussion we can fit onto one stage and have a big jam,” he said. “We’ll bang sticks on anything that’ll resonate noise.”

The band’s favourite song to play on their current tour is their newest single “Young and Lazy.”

Layzell said the song is a play on his and bassist Mike Young’s last names.

“My nickname’s Layze, and Mike’s last name is Young. I thought it could be a bar name, but we were doing a writing session with Steve from Hot Hot Heat and he said it would be a wicked song name.”

Coming back to Kingston will be great, Layzell said, since The Matinée does a lot of their writing at his family cabin in Gananoque.

“We’re just excited to get back to Kingston and make sure we walk over to Tir Nan Og for some poutine.”

The Matinée plays The Mansion on Thursday at 9 p.m.