New Dave Interview

[Elliottman]

Courtesy of http://www.proudestmonkeys.org

In America, Dave Matthews is as big as Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and R.E.M., who he went on tour with three years ago for the ‘Vote for change’ tour. He has sold over thirty million records, ten million concert tickets, and he has not one but two flavours of Ben & Jerry’s named after him. In his country of origin – he was born in South Africa – he is often called the American Bono. Matthews, who is very much politically engaged, returns to the Farm Aid stage every year, just like Neil Young and Willie Nelson. And, oh yeah, Dave gets to call Dylan ‘Bobby’.

If you’ve never heard of Dave Matthews before, there’s no need to be ashamed. In England, his record label once introduced his promotional campaign asking: ‘Who the hell is Dave Matthews?’

The Dave Matthews Band makes ultra light pop music, vaguely resembling Counting Crows or Hootie & The Blowfish (another one of those weird American phenomena). Their lack of success in Europe is easily explained: in America, Dave Matthews Band performs in every major city, year in and year out. But they’ve only been here a handful of times.
On March 9th, Matthews visited the AB in Brussels with his guitarist Tim Reynolds. On May 27th, he will bring his whole band over for a concert in Vorst Nationaal. Just before his AB concert, we managed to slip him a couple of questions.

HUMO: That’s twice in three months you’re playing Belgium. Is this a sign that we should start making room in the ‘D’ section of our cd shelves?

MATTHEWS: Don’t make a big deal out of it, I just love to play, and play often. Going on the road with the band – especially outside of America – demands a lot of logistic preparation, and because I couldn’t stand the wait any longer, I decided to pay a solo visit first. That is, of course, me and my good friend Tim, who insisted on coming along when I told him I was going to Europe. No problem, I love playing different set-ups. It allows you to make mistakes, and that’s what keeps concerts interesting. When I go to a concert, I concentrate on the bad notes. So I fuck up all the time (laughs). That’s my responsibility.
HUMO: Which question do you ask yourself the most?

MATTHEWS: (pondering) “Where am I (laughs)?” “What am I doing here?” To be completely honest, I often get the feeling that I’m in way over my head when it comes to music. Writing songs, setting up a show, it will always be a battle. But for some crazy reason I’ve put most of my hours awake into music. And all the rest, the success, the monster sales, was a combination of timing and dumb luck. I met the other guys of the band, we went off to play, and there just happened to be an audience for us. Not a small one either.
HUMO: When was the first time you realized you could write songs?

After I’d written my first song, “I’ll Back You Up”. I used to go and play covers in coffee houses, and one night I decided to include my own song in the set. Afterwards, a lady came over and told me she’d burst into tears hearing that song. I was like “hey, I can bring people to tears without having to hit them over the head with a baseball bat (laughs)”. “I’ll Back You Up” was a love song. If I’d written my first song about a cowboy who has nothing else to do but eat beans and fart all day long, my career would’ve probably taken a whole different direction. It could have happened, you know, I’ve always been a huge fan of Zappa. I just loved the indifferent, almost agressive lack of emotions in his lyrics. Zappa could get to you with a song about farts.

HUMO: You once wrote a song about oral sex yourself, “Hunger for the Great Light”. Are you going to tell me you wanted to bring people to tears with that as well?

MATTHEWS: (laughs) No. Love songs don’t always have to be sad. I could easily make something sound sweet, but… Sex is a big inspiration. Sex, love and death, when you combine those three into one song, you’ve got the perfect storm (laughs). Then you’ve got something that could possibly revive Johnny Cash. Killing and fucking and crying, that’s the inspiration to every song.
One of my solo records has a song called “Gravedigger”. I just found out that my good friend Willie Nelson has plans to record it. I was over the moon. Willie is one of my all-time favourite songwriters.

HUMO: Does that kind of recognition from other artists boost your confidence?

MATTHEWS: Not really. If you want to do what I’m doing, you should be a bit egocentric by nature. I have two personalities: one Dave Matthews just wants to make music, the other says: why? What’s the point? Up till now, my positive side has always conquered over the pessimist, because even the pessimist in me has to admit that this is the only thing I’m remotely good at (laughs).
HUMO: Time to ask you the question I just can’t get around: how is it that you’re huge in America, yet we’ve barely even heard of you over here?

MATTHEWS: People tend to think that in America there’s this gigantic promotional machine behind the band, but this is totally untrue. We’ve scored our hits, but that was generally long after the songs were released. I’m with a record company, but it’s like a dead object to me. They don’t really know what to do with us. So we promote ourselves by playing an immense amount of shows. From day one we started touring America like madmen. Mouth to mouth advertising, that’s always been our biggest asset. The reason why we’re not popular in Europe is simply because we’ve barely ever been here.
One of the last times we were here, they had these banners printed saying: “America’s Biggest Band!’. That’s stupid, because that’s not the way we did it in America. Anyway, I know I’d never go and see a band calling themselves ‘The Biggest’. I’d rather be the underdog, at least that way you get to catch people off-guard. By the way, tonight’s concert is sold out, just for me. That’s not bad at all, right?

HUMO: A quote I picked up from a gig report on Dave Matthews Band: “You could hear a pin drop, if it weren’t for the whole audience singing along.”

MATTHEWS: (roaring with laughter) That’s the best one I’ve heard in a long time.
HUMO: I like this one even better: the driver of your tour bus emptying the toilet on top of a bridge, literally covering a marriage taking place on a passing boat in shit. You’ve had to apologize in public for that one, but I assume you were laughing your ass off behind the scenes?

MATTHEWS: When I first heard about it, I was on a plane with some friends. I read it in a local Chicago newspaper and was indeed laughing my ass off. My friend said to me: “Would you laugh as hard if it was your tour bus?” – a fact that of course wasn’t stated in the article. I said “Of course not, that would be a disaster”. Two hours later, I got the call (laughs). Worst part about it is, I’ve been telling my drivers for years to not drop our shit. The irony of it all!
HUMO: When you’re playing Farm Aid, don’t you have to be careful of not sharing too many joints with Willie Nelson?

MATTHEWS: Depends on the time of day. I’m not as good climbing on stage stoned, like Willie. He’s got it in his blood. The first time I was doing Farm Aid, I ignorantly stepped onto Willie’s bus. My mistake (laughs). That was an experience I’d rank in my top five of being the most high. It just didn’t stop, one after the other was passed on. Willie is a great host. Whenever I’m on the verge of losing all faith in America, I just try and think about Willie Nelson (laughs).
HUMO: Do you often lose faith in America?

MATTHEWS: America’s arrogance is what bothers me alot. There is always some country in the world that’s sucking most of the tit, but we’ve been sucking on it a bit too much these last few years. I love America, but this is taking it too far. There can be no forgiveness here. After 9/11 they had a chance to make the world a better place, but they did just the opposite. By the way, if I told anything like this to an American newspaper, they would accuse ME of ruining the world. It wouldn’t be the first time.
HUMO: Have Bush’s people tried to contact you yet?

MATTHEWS: No, they just ignore us. Do you remember what they said when I was touring with Neil Young, Willie, Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen for Vote For Change? “Shut up and sing!”. Those were Bush’s actual words “Shut up and sing”, and “Hollywood Hatefest”. None of us are related to Hollywood whatsoever. Bush is a big, stubborn, mean bull, and he’s not nearly as dumb as the media would have you believe. He’s very good at diverting attention, and the use of correct metaphores. If you cleverly use God and guns in your speeches, you can go a long way in America. And if America was anything like the country the newspapers say it is, I would be too afraid to even walk down the street.
It’s a crazy world, and that’s why I love to go on tour, come to Europe and find out that not everyone’s insane.

HUMO: You’re welcome.

Pretty cool interview i thought.

[paulaitchison]

good stuff good stuff.

[mdel21]

There was some really good stuff in there. A little more open and frank than other interviews.

[sfmartins]

good stuff good stuff.

[Cor]

Cool interview.

[markTR]

Thanks Dale, cool stuff

[Yakko]

Ditto, good interview.

[littlefriend]

Wow. Willie's gonna do Gravedigger? Sweet.

[Elliottman]

Wow. Willie's gonna do Gravedigger? Sweet.

yeah, thought that was pretty cool too.

[DJR]

good find indeed

[Grachi]

thanks for the find, good stuff

[taparoo]

That interviewer is great . That was really cool, thanks

[lakerhoc1121]

i want to see the first farmaid and see how stoned he actually appeared...

[dmfollower]

That gravedigger should be sweet!! Good find, thanks for the up

[bense27]

Sweet article. I like what he had to say about Bush.

"If you cleverly use God and guns in your speeches, you can go a long way in America"