In an article in Wednesday's Today section, two members of the Dave Matthews Band were misidentified. Boyd Tinsley is the violinist, and Leroi Moore plays saxophone.
The Sun regrets the error.
Dave Matthews is in a confessional mood.
He's not entirely sure why. "I don't know why I'm confessing all of this," he says, over the phone from his Nashville hotel room. "You're not my analyst."
Still, he feels the need to unburden himself about the indulgences of the day before. "I spent the day off yesterday just in my room, reading," he says. "I made a concerted effort not to go out. ... Aside from exercising, I stayed in yesterday.
"Which is rare for me. I'm trying to create a new habit of not going out and ending up, late in the evening, getting drunk somewhere. I'm trying to do that less. Not wipe it out completely, but just not [do it] as frequently."
Cutting down on his drinking, curling up with a book -- that hardly sounds like typical rock-star behavior, now, does it? Particularly when the Dave Matthews Band is one of the biggest touring acts in America right now, playing to capacity crowds from coast to coast (the group will be at the Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge Saturday and Sunday).
Nor is the Matthews Band's popularity strictly a concert-circuit phenomenon. "Before These Crowded Streets," the group's current album, has sold more than 2 million copies since knocking the "Titanic" soundtrack out of the No. 1 slot three months ago and shows no signs of slowing. Its predecessors -- 1996's "Crash" and 1995's "Under the Table and Dreaming" -- remain steady sellers.
The Matthews band has done this without the benefit of hit singles ("Stay," though seen on MTV, is nowhere on the Billboard Hot 100) and without sounding anything like the typical big-time rock act. Not only is there no electric guitar in the group -- Matthews sticks resolutely to his acoustic -- but its major instrumental voices are Leroi Moore's violin and Boyd Tinsley's saxophone.
Add in Carter Beauford's muscular, jazzy drumming and Stefan Lessard's supple, assertive bass, and you have a quintet whose sound draws on everything from folk to funk, and from fusion to African pop. "They're every bit as much [jazz/rock] Mahavishnu Orchestra as they are the Grateful Dead," says Wayne Isaak, senior vice president of music at VH1. "That combination has just made them unlike anybody else on the scene right now."
It's no wonder, then, that the 31-year-old Matthews seems such an atypical rock star. Thoughtful, soft-spoken and self-effacing, he conveys none of the arrogance or egotism normally associated with people who end up in regular rotation on MTV.
If anything, he seems slightly embarrassed at the extent to which his celebrity has grown. For instance, he turned up on the cover of Spin recently, above a cutline proclaiming him "the King of Rock." Is it good to be king, Dave? "I was very shocked by it," he says. "It was very extreme. 'King of Rock,' that was -- I don't know what to say about that. That had me dumbfounded.
"But I didn't read the article, because I can't," he adds. "I'll lose my mind. I don't know what it is, but I have some sort of embarrassment about reading quotes of myself."
It can be tempting to read Matthews' self-deprecation as a sort of misplaced modesty, an "aw, shucks!" reaction to the awesome popularity he has earned through a half-dozen years of steady touring.
True, Matthews can be quite self-critical. "We're all very critical of ourselves," he says of the band. "I am -- and justly so -- very critical of my own playing. I think my tendency to lean on the voice more is one of the reasons that I feel like I'm a little bit lacking as a guitarist."
Moreover, he freely admits that band mates can play circles around him. Get him talking about Beauford's drumming or Moore's violin work, and he sounds as much like a fan as anybody in his audience. "I mean, it's such an honor to play with all these guys in my band," he says enthusiastically.
At the same time, though, Matthews doesn't downplay his own strengths, specifically his ability as a songwriter to create the sort of musical context that inspires his band mates to play so brilliantly. "Different people have their forte," he says. "Some people are good at organizing things. Other people are great at playing. Some people are technically proficient, and some people are brilliant at improvising. I think there's greatness in every side of music.
"The sad part of music is where you get a mixture of arrogance and ignorance," he adds. "That's very dominant in a lot of the rock culture."
Resents pigeonholing
Matthews, it turns out, really dislikes a lot of modern rock culture. It's not that he has anything against the music, although his own tastes tend more toward folk, jazz, worldbeat and other "alternatives to alternative and rock." But he actively resents the way that radio stations, record companies and rock critics have tried to fence in and define what's permissible in popular music.
"You have a whole industry with this incredible attitude of what's valid and what's not valid, that almost scorns anything that varies from it," he says. "So it's the promotion of mediocrity. And anybody who doesn't conform to that is not valid, or artistically wrong."
Being non-conformists themselves, the Matthews Band was *T quite frequently told it was not valid, or artistically wrong, particularly as it was trying to establish itself in the early '90s. Although the group had built up an impressive grass-roots audience on the strength of its we'll-play-anywhere attitude, its cheery, complicated sound flew in the face of the then-dominant grunge aesthetic. Both rock critics and record-company suits looked at the band and asked: Instrumental virtuosity? Sophisticated songwriting? Who wants that?
To their credit, Matthews and band paid no attention to those men behind the curtain. "We certainly never heeded the warnings of the industry or listened to the criticism," says Matthews.
"If we'd listened to the critics and to the industry initially, whether it was record companies or Rolling Stone or whatever, we would have been disheartened by their reaction and the stamp of ['garbage'] that they generally put on us," he says.
More than anything, what most irritates Matthews about the music industry is the all-too-widespread belief that the mass audience is incapable of appreciating anything that isn't spoon-fed and simplistic. "It underestimates the intelligence of the audience," he says.
Matthews knows whereof he speaks. Besides being large, the audience for Matthews' music is also astonishingly diverse. Matthews fans are both boomers and slackers, blacks and whites, MTV and VH1. "They hit on a lot of different levels," says VH1's Isaak. "Among the females in my department here, he could be their favorite artist. ... Yet to guys, this is an amazing group of musicians, and they love him, too."
Respecting the listeners
Part of the reason the band has such broad appeal is that Matthews has learned that listeners are more than happy to listen to music that doesn't talk down to them. It isn't as if only he and a few highbrow musicians appreciate the subtleties of a Matthews Band song, while everyone else just hears the catchy chorus. Truth is, the fans are every bit as into the jazzy interplay as they are the big sing-along sections.
"It's really heartening to me that the wonder that I feel when I listen to Leroi play, or when I listen to Carter play, or Stefan, translates," says Matthews. He mentions a discussion he had recently with Moore, in which the violinist remarked that what struck him most about their fans is how genuinely happy they seem when the band is playing.
"Whether it's a really screaming, demented instrumental section, or if it's the sweetest verse, he says the vibe in the audience is one that's listening and that's happy." Matthews laughs and adds, "God forbid that you should have music that makes people happy."
Dave Matthews, the fan
"I certainly am a fan of music, and different kinds of music," says Dave Matthews. "I find myself more attracted to obscure kinds of music. Or, at least, the music less televised." So what would Matthews recommend to listeners interested in being as adventurous as he is? Here are five of his suggestions:
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: A master of the sacred Pakistani qawwali music, the late Ali Khan also recorded with rockers Peter Gabriel and Eddie Vedder. " 'Devotional Love Songs' is something that I've been listening to a lot lately," says Matthews.
Abdullah Ibrahim: Matthews is a big fan of the South African pianist and recommends any of his albums, especially "Water From an Ancient Well."
Tim Reynolds: Guitarist Tim Reynolds "is such an influence on me I'd tell people just to buy whatever he does," says Matthews. His current album is "Tim Reynolds and TR3."
Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters: The fusion legends' latest release, "Return of the Headhunters," is a staple on the Matthews Band's bus. "A baaaaaad, bad band," says Matthews.
David Gray: "David Gray's incredible," says Matthews of the English songwriter. "He toured with us a little bit over here after my sister turned me onto him." Gray's latest album is "Sell, Sell, Sell."
Dave Matthews
When: Saturday and Sunday, 8 p.m.
Where: Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge, 7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow, Va.
Tickets: $31
Call: 410-481-7328 for tickets, 703-754-6400 for information
Pub Date: 8/19/98