Forget financial crises, crime and politics – MATT JOHNSON of New York’s premier punky keyboard pop duo MATT AND KIM is here to give TOPHER HEALY an insight into the life of a hard-touring, hard-working band with one goal in mind: to bring the party.

If between the finance news and (desperate) ads by luxury goods suppliers, you haven’t yet come around to the notion that ‘times are tough’, Matt And Kim’s Matt Johnson has some more bad news for you – despite nervous music industry types repeating ‘a recession doesn’t affect entertainment’ in a bid to keep themselves from the second floor window ledge, in America at least, things are looking shaky.

"We weren’t nervous about it initially", says Johnson from the Brooklyn apartment he shares with partner and bandmate-drummer Kim Schifino. "Because we thought, ‘how can the economic situation apply to punk rock shows of $10?’ But then our booking agency here recorded the lowest ticket sales across all of their bands last Fall…"

But if you’re worried this interview is going to be one of those doom and gloom discussions about crumbling economies and horrible things like Ashton Kutcher being the most popular person on Twitter, think again – this is Matt And Kim – a band whose reputation for good humour, fun and straight up party times is virtually unparalleled (unless your name happens to be Dan Deacon).

"But then again," he continues, "since our album came out here in January everything for us has been better than ever. So it’s brought my spirits up."

The album Johnson speaks of is Grand, Matt And Kim’s second full-length proper and a genuine giant leap forward from their nonetheless well-received self-titled 2006 debut. While Grand retains the thrill-seeking energy and spirit of the earlier album, it displays more mature songwriting, expressive lyrics, and proves – like Mates Of State before them – that the whole couple playing keyboards and drums thing can produce some really great pop music.

Johnson and Schifino formed Matt And Kim in 2004 while both were attending art college the Pratt Institute (the place Dan Clowes savaged in Art School Confidential, so maybe it’s better for musicians), and quickly made a name for themselves with frenetic local shows and a smile-packed attitude. The first album of shouty, gleeful keyboard-and-drums tunes had the bubblegum energy of pop-punk and the fashionable quirkiness of indie pop. This combined with an in-your-face live energy, like squeezing 30 Justin Timberlakes in an elevator, made them a popular touring and support act for a variety of artists. As Johnson says, "I think that’s what Kim and I have been really lucky with – we haven’t been pigeonholed into one category of music. Even though we play a sort of dancey punk stuff, we’ve also played with hip hop acts, we’ve played with metal bands – things that people want to go out and get wild to we tend to fit with.

"For example," he says, "we went on tour with the band Against Me!, and we still text them and they contact us and check what’s up all the time. We’ve made lasting friendships with tons of very different bands."

That’s the thing about Matt And Kim – they’re very likable in a world where it’s seemingly considered a virtue to be cynical or prickly. Of course, it’s not always enough just to be a nice person, so it’s a good thing they’ve come up with a second record like Grand.

With their first album recorded in a week, Matt And Kim this time around took "six weeks off from touring" – when Matt says it, it’s with a Protestant work ethic-informed horror – and relocated to his folks’ place in rural Vermont. ("No one would be calling us and saying ‘you gotta come out to this thing’", explains Matt of the decision to vacate New York for the process. The fact that Schifino once had a ringtone featuring the sound of gunshots at a local Brooklyn bodega might also shed some light…)

Unfortunately six weeks wasn’t quite enough, meaning the pair had to finish the process at home. "We had tours for the rest of the year, so we would leave for a few weeks and then come home for a week and knuckle down. By that point we were working mostly at our apartment in Brooklyn – we have an agreement with our neighbours that we can both be as loud as we want, and we don’t yell at each other. So when I’m like screaming lyrics in my bedroom, they never complain, which is nice."

Of course, working from home requires discipline, as it can all get a bit much when work is in front of you 24/7. "There was no, like, punching the clock. There was no checking out," Johnson says. "It was working, like, all the time … sometimes through the night on different edits, ‘cause I was always there and Kim was always there. But then on days when things were difficult and it was hard to focus, we could walk away and get a cup of tea, and look at a magazine, and then hours pass and you start avoiding it like the plague. So it was too easy to walk away sometimes. It went both ways.

"But as I’ve said before, we really made the album we wanted to make right now – I am more than happy with it. But, on the other hand, I do not have the desire to make another album that way again. I’ll get a little help next time. That said, it’s the things you work hardest on that you’re most proud of in the end, and we’re both really proud of this album."

With Johnson behind almost all of the vocals (Schifino sings for the first time on one track, Lessons Learned), you could be forgiven for thinking he’s behind the lyrics as well. But no, this is a true partnership, as he explains. "We would finish the songs, you know, musically, compositionally – and then we would listen to it and Kim would start writing down sentences that came to mind as she’s listening to it. Almost in a word association way. The sentences wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with each other, and then I would go in and start picking out lines that she had written that resonated with me. We put them together and started filling in the blanks … and then the song – and I know it sounds a little far out – but it would start writing itself. A meaning would start coming out of it.

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