|
|
|
Artists! Submit your material for consideration for review! Send your press kits and CDs to:
Music Monthly
2807 Goodwood Road
Balto., MD 21214
Phone: 410-254-6400
Fax:
musicmonthly@comcast.net
Natalie Davis
Make that happening- the Dave Matthews Band is the hot topic of conversation all around the media and throughout the music business. The Durham Herald-Sun,of Duraham,NC, called the group "...a jazzed-up,rocked-out tour de force...blessed with musical genius and a sneaky charisma on stage. The Washington Post had kind words for Matthews:"Imagine Michael Stipe fronting Blues Traveler." Raleigh, NC's The Spectator gushed after proclaiming one of the band's concerts as the best show of 1993: "They were stunning. All by themselves, they demonstrated that alternative rock is as cool, as evil, and as furious as rock has ever been." And the boulder weekly, of Boulder,CO, offered this bit of complimentary conjecture: "It's as if no one has gotten around to telling this South Africa-born Virginian that he's fronting probably the hottest club act in America."
The Dave Matthews Band didn't explode onto the music scene.The three year-old unit spent the great majority of its first two years criss-crossing the country, peforming in an upstart underdog politician uses a grass-roots approach to turn a small following into an election victory.It wasn't systematic or even planned for Matthews and his bandmates- it just happened that way. And it worked. After those two years, the group was signed to RCA Records. And just one year later, it celebrates the release of its major label recording debut, Under the Table and Dreaming.
How is Matthews celebrating? By working, of course. He calls me just after completing a soundcheck in preperation for yet another gig, this time Nashville,TN. He sounds exuherant,as if he's truly energized from the 'check,as if he's totally jazzed for the nights performance. And at first,at least,he's interested in discussing the land of his birth.
South Africa is, one could suppose, the starting point for the story of the Dave Matthews Band. The group's name-sake and founder was born in that country. He moved to New York as a child and returned to Johannesburg, where he spent his teen years." It's a wonderful[place]," he recalls fondly. "The whole country is full of wonderful people-I'm pretty crazy about the people-and beautiful scenery."
Matthews' love for his homeland did not obscure his view of the tragedy that threatened to split his nation in two, of the evil that is South African apartheid. He reflects thought-fully on the ever-changing, and with luck, ever-improving situation.
"I'm really hopeful. There's a really unusual positive, or at least thoughtful, feeling in this country that things can be worked out regardless of the differences. That's the popular opinion," he relates. "It' really hard to notice- there's the occasional, false euphoria, but to see how sensibly they're going about changing the country[to black majority rule]... They're not using the political bulls**t rhetoric that you often see in changing goverments, even when it's just a slight change,says, from Republican to Democrat.There is a realistic view, both politcal and social, in South Africa: it's going to be tough, but everbody thinks that they have to work and change the country by working. And that makes that hope possible. The more honesty that[South African president Nelson] Mandela and his government put out- which seems to be the direction- the better the country will be. Everything's going to be wonderful!"
The enthusiasm he feels for his native land spills over in many areas of Matthews' life, including music. Having the rare oppurtunity to split his fromative years between south Africa and New York was beneficial to the young boy- he got to grow up hearing and loving the tribal music of Africa, along with orchestral music and good old American rock and soul. Matthews says his parents helped encourage that love.
"Although I'm the first in our family to choose music as a profession, the family's always been very aware of music and its healing qualities." His passion didn't turn into a potential career choice until the mid-'80s, when Matthew started to focus seriously on his skills as a guitarist. He adds, "With a little confident motivation from people around me, I started writing [songs] in 1990."
By then, after a certain amount of youthful wanderlust(" A little bouncing around and traveling"), Dave was in Charlottesville, VA. He explains, "My mother had lived there before I was born, and she moved [back] there, so I followed her. I liked it, so I decided to stay." He found a job catering to the music industry- mixing and serving drinks at a bar in a local music club.
In 1991- yes, a year after he started seriously writing music- Matthews decided he wanted to start a band. The music club was perfect place to scout for talent, and it was there that the bartender-cum-neophyte songwriter encountered bandmates-to-be Carter Beauford, LeRoi Moore, and Stefan Lessard.
"These guys were,like,some of my favorite local musicians," he smiles, and you can actually hear what must be a wide smile over the phone lines. Then, he explains futher, "Although they weren't really local as far as what they've done. They all just happened to be in [Charlottesville] at the time I was working to put a band together."
Local or not, Matthews couldn't have found a better nucleus for his band- Carter Beauford was already in quite well-known as a jazz player. At that time, he was the house drummer for Black Entertainment Television. LeRoi Moore had made quite a name for himself on the jazz scene over the years; he was probably one of the best-known saxophone players in Central Virginia- and many would argue that he was the best. Stefan Lessard may not have been as professionally experienced as Beauford and Moore(he'd only started his pro career a year before),but at age 16, he was highly respected as a prodigious player of the upright bass and electric bass.
"They were the first people I asked and they all said yes- not necessarily knowing what they were getting into," laughs Matthews.
His first three bandmates, in retrospect, agree that the oppurtunity looked a lot like the final frontier.But they all say they saw and felt a creative genius coming from the songs of Dave Matthews. And they wanted to be a part of the process that would bring those songs to the world.
Initially, the idea was to form a band primarily for recording purposes. Matthews the group to do a little bit of performing,"to get things tight." But once the quartet found its way to the road, it decided to stay there and play a spell. Soon after, the foursome became a five-man unit fwith the entrance of Boyd Tinsley, who joined when one of Dave's new songs required strings. Tinsley was already known for hi electrifying performances on the electric violin- after sitting in with the band for a few shows, he accepted an offer to join the group full time.
"The way the band came together is the way that the music became what it is,"explaind Matthews. "I loved the way Leroi played and I'd tell him to play anyway he [wanted]. Same with Carter. And then I liked Stefan's energy and spirit; he's way beyond years in talent. Boyd, too- he plays with such passion. It was a real mutual appreciation society- we all appreciated what the others did. So, when I brought new song to the table, we'd all work on the arrangements together."
The resulting music was a mixtures of different styles of people playing from their hearts, a true collaboration. According to Matthews Band stems from the fact that the song arrangements are cooperative efforts between five seperate individuals. The influences reflected in the songs are as varied as the men in the band.
" I grew up listening to classical and African music," explains Matthews."LeRoi listened to straight-ahead jazz, and Carter [loved] fusion. Stefan listened to punk and hard-core, but also played jazz. Boyd grew up with classical and rock. We all come form different experiences-we're all from differnt socila backgrounds. What brought us together was our individual music, and the result is what we play.
"Each song, I try and write something that doesn't sound like anything I've already written," he continues."I do most of the writing, but the arrangement- which is a very big thing- is done as a group. There are also collaborative songs and jams. By no means have I eveer come in saying, ' This is the song and this is how it's gonna sound.' I come in and say 'This is the song. What the hell is it going to sound like?' 'Cause I have no idea."
The band's sound could be called a amalgamation of genres. The song structures and arrangements would comfortably fit into various radio formats- there is a certain something familiar in the music that can be discovered by all sorts of fans. Jazz sounds mix with world music sensibilities, rock, and folk influences, all of which is backed by funk and dance rythyms.
Several other things make the Dave Matthews Band stand out from the pack, too- the things the musicians play between the lines of the arrangements, the diverse instrumentation, Matthews' unique method of vocalizing, and hios striking orignal songs.
The original plan was to focus on recording a demo and shopping the resulting tape for a record deal- the idea was rapidly relegated to proverbial back burner.
" We enjoyed playing together so much that the focus changed. We decided to get on the road and play," says the bandleader." Eventually, we knew we wanted a contract, but it stopped being our main focus. Instead, we concentrated on writing and playing and getting the music out to as many people as we could."
At this point, the band was playing every Tuesday nigh- first at the eastern Standard resturaunt, and ,later, at Trax. Charlottesville's main club. It didn't take long for word to spread- before long, Trax was packed to the gills every Tuesday night. And soon, the Dave Matthews Band was making new friends in the cities throughout the Mid-Atlanic. Packed houses in Northern Virginia led to positive buzz from people who'd seen them perform, translated into jobs up and down the East Coast.
With each performance, each new town, the band's following grew. A stint playing for the fraternity circuit led to gigs at colleges and night clubs in a number of states. The word soon spread westward- naturally, the band followed and won support throughout the rest of the country, particularly in Colorado and Seattle,WA. Bootleg recordings started appearing seemingly everywhere. And the pattern continued- clubgoers would see the group perform and then pass the word on to their friends, who would come to see a show and then tell their friends, on and on.
Matthews continues the story. "Rumors started getting out about the band-about the bootlegs and stuff and the fact that we were filling clubs up and down the East Coast and all," he recalls. "Record labels started paying attention to us then."
It was 1993. The group finally took sometime from the road to record its first LP, Remeber Two Things, an independent release on its own Bama Rags label. RCA Records made its pitch around the same time. It took about seven months for the band to say yes.
"THey really had to provew themselves to us," Matthews say matter-of-factly. "And they did- they showed us that they were really interested in us and really behind us. And around the time we signed, they still allowed us to put our first album on our own, plus the EP that followed.[In a unique deal, RCA permitted the band to keep ownership and marketing right to Bama Rags recordings. In fact merchadising the quintet's debut RCA release.] Other companies approached us,too,but RCA seemed the most sincere. We believed they could focus the most on helping us get our music out to people."
Not that they necessarily needed that much help. All by themselves, selling the disc to one store at a time from their tiny headquarters in Charlottesville, the Dave Matthews Band have so far sold nearly 100,000 copies of Remember Two Things. The CD debuted on the CMJ charts as the highest independent character of November22, 1992. The follow-up EP (actually,a five song CD sampler), Recently, also met with success.
Matthews says he's also pleased that RCA didn't seem hell-bent on changing the band's hard-to-categorize sound. "They pretty much left it to us to decide what to put on [the record]. If there was a difference in opinion and we were adamant, we won out. A nice relationship of trust has developed."
Of course, the record company didn't have too much to worry about. For production, the band was left in the capable hands of music veteran Steve Lilywhite, who's known for his work with U2, Talking Heads,XTC, and many other modern rockers.
"He was very keen on us when we sent him[a copy of] the EP," says Matthews. "He came out to see us, and I can't tell you how many times he said he was the man [to produce] the album until I finally said, 'Yeah, I guess you are.' We were really happy worhing with Steve. We've become pretty good friends-I'd love to work with him again.
Dave is equally enthusiastic in recalling the recording sessions, which took place at Bearsville Studios(yes, the one formerly owned by literate popster and Utopian Todd Rundgren) in upstate New York.
"It was great! We had the best time! For so long,we'd been wanting to have the time to record our music in a studio and put it on a recording .And it happened, to be working with someone as likable and brilliant as Steve Lilywhite and an engineer as wonderful as Chris Dickey- it was just great. We got some real focus and super energy going."
That super energy also revitalized the groups performances once went back on the road. Says Matthews, "The troubles that we had are the same, but they don't seem as big as they used to. We love playing live, but being on the road all the time - especially if you're on the road for two or three years, as we were, driving a van-becomes a real workout... a real drain. Going into the studio gave us time to find each other, as individuals and as a band,again. Having the time to see each other and work together in a calm, still settling was really good for us. Our motivation is back again."
And the new CD shows it. Under the Table Dreaming is a collection of songa that utilizes varied dynamics and numerous genres to create a brand of modern rock that is vibrant and unique. Featuring Matthews' clipped,percussive way and rock influences of the other band members;and primarily acoustic instruments, the music is exciting, innovations, and absolutely irresistible.
With the new disc saely on the shelves of your local music store, the quintet is back on the road. RCA is targeting the band to mondern rock, album rock, and even rythym and blues radio stations in an effort to win airplay and find an audience. And everyone's banking that the 'tell a friend' method will continue to keep the buzz around the nation.
In order to reach the public, RCA is targeting the band finished its gig with the third annual H.O.R.D.E Festival. which included Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and the Allman Brothers. Right about now, it should be finishing up a well-deserved break and getting back on the road for a stand that should run up until Christmas.
And after that, says Matthews,"The band's focus and the business around us-our relationships-should be about sticking together and playing music as best we can. We don't want to throw too much into the future as to where we would want to be in two years or five years or 10 years. If you put too much of your heart into that, and it doesn't pan out or is completely different, you'd be dissapointed. So rather than having a specific long-range plans, we're just trying to keep us all together and happy."
That doesnt seem to be too much of a problem. After all, whatever occurs now, The Dave Matthews Band are already succesful. Using their own talents and ingenuity, this five-man unit has attained a good deal of success and a huge fan base. And without needing help from a record company or management firm or booking agency.
What worked for this band? Several things-talent, hard work, creativity,diligence, and,most of all, excellent music. It was the music that pushed its first fans to tell their friends' and their friends' friends. The sound started a chemical reaction wherein the initial fan base mulitplied exponentially with every performance. It's a good lesson for up-and-coming artists.
Of course, Dave Matthews views himself as being lucky, more than anything else.
" With our band, everything has progressed in such a nice, natural way that there's never been a leap-'Whoooooaa! We're out of control!'- or a stagnation point where we're sitting at one level for too long and wind up bored with each other or bored with the music. Everytime we get to a point of'What's going on?'-boom! Something happens to lighten our souls. It's been really nice, I feel really[blessed] with that.
"We just keep on working and, hopefully, it'll unfold into whatever it unfolds into-and whatever that is, I'm sure it'll be something we enjoy."