Animal Flag have been making their way through the Boston music scene for some time now. Next week the band drops their self-titled EP. Matt Politoski, the brains behind the group, explained that if you’ve seen any of their shows in the past two years, you’ve probably heard all of these songs. Take it from me, that doesn’t make them any less satisfying.

I got the chance to chat with Matt and find out all about why he hates the songs on the EP (sort of), loves California and thinks bread pudding is sketchy. Check out the Animal Flag EP and read all about it.

Allston Pudding: So your self-titled EP drops next week. That’s pretty exciting. What differences can fans expect from this compared to your previous works?

Matt Politoski: I feel like it’s kind of like a totally new sound. I feel like the band has gone through a lot of weird changes. The first album we put out was folk and the second one we put out was electronic. This one is kind of just more representational of how we sound live. It’s more rock, there’s more electric guitar and feedback and stuff like that. So, yeah I feel like anyone that has gone to a show in the past two years has seen us play these songs. We’re just now getting them recorded. It’s kind of refreshing for me to get it off my chest in that way. Yeah, I guess it’s more like the live sound than the other ones.

AP: What were some of your influences in writing this EP?

MP: I guess with the songs on this EP I was listening to a lot of alternative country and late 2000’s indie rock like Ryan Adams, Pedro the Lion, Bright Eyes, Death Cab, stuff like that.

AP: What’s your favorite song on the EP?

MP: My favorite song? Huh? I feel like I hate them all equally because they’re kind of old at this point. I’m stoked on getting this EP out and doing the next stuff. If I had to pick one that I like the most, I feel like the last song. The last song is an acoustic one, there’s five songs on the EP. I feel like the last one is a song I’ll be able to sing for the rest of my life. But it’s the least exciting one on the EP because it’s acoustic. I don’t know. That’s a hard question to answer. You can just say I hate them all equally, you can do that!

AP: Well, alright. What do you want people to take out of the EP when they listen to it?

MP: My whole goal with the EP was to finally put something out there so when people left a show they could take home a CD that actually represented the experience they had at the show. For a while people would come to shows and they would see this loud kind of rock-band concert, whatever the hell you want to call it, but they would take a CD and it would be the folk album we did three years ago or the electronic album we did last year. We didn’t play any songs off of those. So I guess I’m just more stoked about people finally being able to hear something in their car the way they hear it live, which is pretty cool because it’s kind of a new thing for me. It’s funny because you think ‘oh, most bands should do that.’ It’s kind of like band 101, but I guess I caught on late to that (laughs).

AP: Do you write most of the songs yourself? Or is it a collaborative effort among the group?

MP: I wrote all of the lyrics and all of the words. I pretty much write all of the songs and I bring it to my guitar player, Billy. He writes his parts and fills it out. I guess you can say I’m the primary songwriter.

AP: That kind of answers my next question. Most of your lyrics are really poetic and thoughtful. So I guess the lyrics come first before the music then?

Sometimes, yeah. To me, I’m kind of in this phase, this period in my life going four years back and however long the future runs, where I’m really obsessed with lyrics and that’s the most important thing to me. I’ll always be writing stuff down. In my iPhone or if I have a notepad I’ll just write it down if I have an idea come to my head or a verse or even just a word that I like that’s appealing to me. I’ll just write it down. The way I think about it, this is going to sound kind of weird, but you know the lottery wheel? You know, when you throw the numbers in and they spin it and whatever comes out is the one that wins. I feel like when I sit down and write the music part, I write the music part and then just kind of spin the lottery wheel and see what lyrics that I wrote down comes out. So it goes on at the same time.

AP: You must be pretty eager to head out on tour. What stop are you most excited for?

MP: Um, hm, let me think. I love the West Coast. I’ve only been out there a few times. One was for an acoustic tour that I did I guess exactly a year ago. I’m just excited to be in California for a week. We’re playing a string of 5 or 6 shows all up and down the coast of California, so I’m super excited about that. California is the best state I think there is.

AP: I’ve never been, I guess I have to visit!

MP: Oh it’s the best and I’m totally unbiased. I’m from NY and Boston, so I’m a total Northeast person and I went to California for the first time and went back 2 more times. I was just like, ‘I don’t know why anyone leaves this place, it’s just so good.’ I’m excited to go out there.

AP: Awesome! I imagine there’s a lot of waiting and travel time while you’re on tour. What’re your favorite albums to kill the time?

MP: I’ve been really obsessed with this album from Emily Haines. Do you know Emily Haines?

AP: I personally am not familiar.

MP: She’s the lead singer of Metric and she’s also in Broken Social Scene. She has this album called Knives Don’t Have Your Back. For the past four years on bus rides or whenever I’m on tour, any long rides mainly at night, that album I can just repeat it and repeat it. It’s really entrancing. So there’s that album. I don’t know. I pretty much only listen to five bands, so anything by Bright Eyes or anything by Ryan Adams. But that one Emily Haines album is just something I’ve been stuck on for three or four years now. I’d say that’s the one that really gets me.

AP: Obviously you have dedicated fans in Boston and New York, but what is it like to be a local band on tour to all of these other places?

MP: Most of the time it sucks, honestly. Well, that’s not true. It’s nice coming to NY and coming to Boston and even a place like Nashville where I kind of have a lot of friends. There are some cities that you go to and you know the show is going to be great. You know people are there and you know 50 or 60 kids that are going to come out. It’s going to be fun. The other half, my experience has been that it’s like a 50/50 shot in cities where you play and don’t know anyone. It could just be a total shit show. The local bands don’t promote or there are no local bands and two people are there and you’re playing and people don’t give a shit. Or you get really lucky and you happen to play with a band in that city that has fans and bring people out. Best case scenario they’re stoked on your music. They’re like, ‘oh this is sick, you’re great!’ Those nights are awesome. It’s kind of weird being on a DIY type tour thing, especially being a band that doesn’t have national recognition, just local stuff. It’s a 50/50. It’s a cross your fingers and hope for the best type thing.

AP: Last question for you – if you had to eat one type of pudding everyday for the rest of your life, what kind would it be?

MP: Oh, shit! Um, I don’t know. I only know that there are two. Chocolate and vanilla. Are there other kinds?

AP: There are so many other kinds! You’ve got bread pudding, rice pudding, tapioca pudding…

MP: Bread pudding? What is bread pudding?

AP: You’ll have to check it out. I can’t describe it to you.

MP: Okay. Bread pudding sounds really sketchy, so, uh, I’d say just not bread pudding. I don’t know what that is and I’m afraid of change.

AP: Okay, so chocolate or vanilla?

MP: Chocolate or vanilla? Definitely chocolate.