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Fonzie Plays It Cool

microphone.jpgBy Brian Fox | September 2005

Stefan Lessard Shows His Street Smarts With The Dave Matthews Band

090105.jpgStefan Lessard might have grown up in the scholarly college town of Charlottesville, but the University of Virginia isn’t where he got his education. For the past 15 years, Lessard has developed under the tutelage of his bandmates in the Dave Matthews Band. The “Doogie Howser” of the band, Stefan was only 16 when he enrolled in DMB University. Since then, he and his bandmates have released 13 multi-platinum albums and thrilled millions of rapt fans with their freewheeling, jam-heavy live performances.

As a teen, Lessard took music study seriously, playing upright bass in youth orchestras and jazz combos. But when the time came to take it to the streets with charismatic singer/songwriter Matthews, Stefan jumped at the chance. “I developed everything I have from being in this band,” Lessard says. “I’d had only a bit of instruction before I was thrown in, and ever since then I’ve been trying to keep up.”

Amid an international tour, and just a few days after the band’s performance at Philadelphia’s Live 8 concert, Stefan—or Fonzie, as he’s nicknamed—sat down to talk about the band’s new album Stand Up, how he works with producers, and what it’s like to play alongside singer/guitarist Matthews, drummer Carter Beauford, and touring keyboardist Butch Taylor, the core players in one of the most successful pop bands in history.

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2005, articles, interviews, magazinesdbtp
Dave Matthews Talks About Life on the Road

microphone.jpgMay 25th, 2005

Nekesa Mumbi Moody

davelife.jpgThe Dave Matthews Band is on road so much their tour bus has become their second home — so they've tried to make it just as comfortable as their real abodes.

Besides their instruments and gear, they also bring a caterer so they don't have to take a chance on strange cuisine. They also have decorations to make things aesthetically pleasing — and their spouses and kids often tag along for the trek.

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2005, articles, interviewsdbtp
Dave Matthews Interview

microphone.jpgMay 8th, 2005

Richmond Times-Dispatch

dmb4.jpgDave Matthews sat down with Times-Dispatch pop music critic Melissa Ruggieri for a chat early last week in Charlottesville, before the band embarked on its promotional duties this week for the "Stand Up" album, in stores Tuesday.

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Rockin' racket: Tinsley's tennis nets big names

microphone.jpgMay 13th, 2004

By COURTENEY STUART STUART@READTHEHOOK.COM

a051304.jpgIt's about an hour before midnight on Monday, May 10, before Dave Matthews band violinist Boyd Tinsley finds time to chat. But for Tinsley, rock star, husband, and father of two, it may as well be dinnertime.
"Our lives start at night," he explains of himself and his band mates, "and go into the wee hours of the morning."

This particular night, he says, has been special. He's just returned home-- tired and hungry, but happy-- from a reception at the Boar's Head Inn for the professional tennis tournament he sponsors. Last year's Boyd Tinsley $50,000 United States Tennis Association (USTA) Women's Pro Tennis Championships featured international hottie Anna Kournikova, who was booted in the first round.

This year, Kournikova will not take the court, but some of the brightest up-and-comers began competing May 8 to increase their world rankings. Sunday's finals take place at the Boar's Head starting at 11am. Entry is free.

Though by his own telling, he's a huge fan of the sport, Tinsley says the highlight of Monday's player and member reception was something less athletic: a performance dedicated to him by kids from the Music Resource Center, a nonprofit that the Dave Matthews Band has long supported.

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2004, articles, interviewsdbtp
The Devil and Dave Matthews

microphone.jpgJanuary 22nd, 2004

By AUSTIN SCAGGS

rs9401.jpg "That's right, Kitty. You're beautiful, but I'm not going to touch you. I don't know where you've been, and I hope you're not related to the devil." These days it's hard for Dave Matthews to trust anything, not even a small black cat desperate for attention. He doesn't need any more bad luck. "Trouble, get behind me now," he sings on his solo debut, Some Devil. "Trouble, let me be." He acknowledges that his best album with Dave Matthews Band is five years behind him and says no God gives a shit about him and that suicide crosses his mind more often than you may think. "I've been in situations where I haven't been able to see how I'll get by," he says. But Matthews also says he has a "pretty solid sense of joy." He is happily married, his two-year-old twin girls, Grace and Stella, worship him, and, as he puts it, he makes "an exorbitant living," estimated to be north of $20 million annually. In order to stay out of a lunatic asylum, Matthews has resolved to distract himself with projects, big and small. There's the solo album, which expands on Matthews' constant themes of loss, death and love; a craft project that involves designing and hand-painting a deck of cards; a president he vows to remove from the White House; the winery he operates on his Virginia estate; and ATO Records, the label he oversees (David Gray, Ben Kweller, My Morning Jacket and five others are signed to ATO). "I want to, as desperately and joyfully as possible, fill my life with unusual experiences -- make my life full of challenges and accept them," he says. "Change is like a vacation." What's taking over his fantasies at the moment is the thought of writing the next DMB album at the band's brand-new studio complex in Charlottesville, Virginia. "It's, like, my crazed ambition."

In Thibodaux, Louisiana, a bayou town fifty miles southwest of New Orleans, Matthews, who will turn thirty-seven on January 9th, has diverted his short attention span to acting. Sporting a full beard, he's on the set of Because of Winn-Dixie, directed by Wayne Wang. Matthews plays an ex-con drifter who arrives in Naomi, Florida, and settles in as the owner of a pet shop, where he imparts his wisdom to a young girl. He'll also contribute new songs to the soundtrack. "I always said that if I ever do a part in a movie, I would refuse to play music," he says. "But I realized that this is the perfect part for me." His character, Otis, has trouble stringing thoughts together without a guitar in his hand.

The day after the movie wraps, Matthews races back to his home in Seattle -- where the family is living while his wife, Ashley, studies holistic medicine -- to begin rehearsals for a tour supporting Some Devil. The beard is gone. In the kitchen of Studio Litho, where he spent seven months recording the album, Matthews welcomes guitarists Trey Anastasio and Tim Reynolds. They spend the afternoon listening to potential covers, playing along to Little Feat's "Spanish Moon" and the Band's "Up on Cripple Creek."

"This song is eerily appropriate," says Anastasio, as Paul Simon's "American Tune" blares through the monitors.

Matthews begins singing along: "And I dreamed I was dying." Two creases form between his closed eyes, and a large glass of Scotch and a cigarette are nestled in his right hand. "And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly/And, looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly."

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2004, interviewsdbtp
Dave Matthews Talks About "Because of Winn-Dixie"

microphone.jpgJanuary 1st, 2004

From Rebecca Murray

i010104.jpg Singer/composer Dave Matthews stars as an introverted loner who charms animals with his music and becomes close friends with a lonely girl and her dog in "Because of Winn-Dixie," a family-friendly film directed by Wayne Wang ("Anywhere But Here").

Matthews did some acting in Virginia before turning to music to fulfill his creative urges. But Matthews gets sent a lot of scripts and likes to keep his foot in the door when it comes to movies. Asked why he chose this particular role Matthews explained, "I was drawn to this project because I’m a big fan of Wayne Wang’s work. And I didn’t want to play a musician. I sing just a little bit in the picture, but I liked the chance to play an interesting role in a rich ensemble of characters."

INTERVIEW WITH DAVE MATTHEWS ('Otis'):

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2004, articles, interviewsdbtp
Dave Matthews: Dear Superstar

microphone.jpgOctober 1st, 2003

By David Keeps - Blender, October 2003

dave202.jpgIs he a good hugger? Can he recommend a decent bottle of red, and how often does he “shoe the mule” — or masturbate, for that matter? The 36-year-old South Africa native was good enough to answer all your questions — even the ones about spanking!

If you think Dave Matthews’s concerts are generous in length, just try interviewing him. After an hour spent sitting on the balcony of his room in the superswank Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, Matthews has made it through only half of his Dear Superstar debut. Currently out on the road bringing home the bacon for his twin daughters and wife, Matthews has to finish the interview from his tour bus between gigs a week later.

“I’m on a cellphone, watching trucks go by,” says the 36-year-old native of Johannesburg, South Africa, who, when not touring, now calls Seattle home.

Not content to make hit albums, play sold-out stadiums and rake in millions of dollars — “I keep trying to get rid of it, but it keeps finding its way back to me” — Matthews is taking the bold step this month of releasing a dark solo effort, Some Devil, his first CD without his fabled band. It’s an apt title for a record by Matthews, a self-effacing, surprisingly sharp-witted guy who refers to himself during our afternoon together as a “sad bastard” and a “painful little prick.”

Matthews does not limit his barbs to himself, either. “What a fucking moronic question,” he cheerfully responds to one reader’s query. Hey, he said it, not us…

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Everyday Interview

microphone.jpgJanuary 1st, 2001

 

i010103.jpgThe Dave Matthews Band's first live public performance was at a small concert on Earth Day, 1991, in Charlottesville, Virginia. They played outdoors. The audience couldn't stop dancing. And they had a lot of fun together. Little did they know then that ten years later, those same three elements would become a way of life for them. The big difference now, of course, is that they play in stadiums, such as they did in January at Brazil's massive outdoor "Rock in Rio" concert; their audiences now number in the hundreds of thousands; and not only do they still have a lot of fun, but they make a great living from it, too. While Matthews, drummer Carter Beauford, bassist Stefan Lessard, saxophonist LeRoi Moore and violinist Boyd Tinsley are considered one of the hottest live acts in the world, their record sales and chart success are equally impressive. Their first RCA album, Under the Table and Dreaming, is certified four-times Platinum; their second album, Crash, debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and their last studio album, Before These Crowded Streets, debuted at #1, ousting the Titanic soundtrack's extended run.

By mixing folk, rock and jazz and playing it to feverish effect, nurturing a loyal grass roots following through their web site www.davematthewsband.com and committing themselves, through their own Bama Works Foundation, to charitable works at home and abroad, DMB have gone from being a quintessential college band to being an international sensation. Upon the release of his band's fourth RCA album, Everyday, Matthews talked to Playback about his new producer, Glen Ballard, his songwriting development and why he decided to create his own independent label, which launched the U.S. success of singer/songwriter David Gray.

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2001, articles, interviewsdbtp
Backstage with Acoustic Rock's Power Duo

microphone.jpgAcoustic Guitar 1999

davetimguitar.gif On this crisp spring afternoon outside the Berkeley Community Theater, there's no mistaking the preparations for the ritual called the Big Rock Show. Roadies are unloading a truckful of gear through the closely guarded stage door, and teen- and college-age fans—some of whom have traveled from several states away—are milling around, hoping for a glance, an autograph, or a photo op with the Big Rock Star known as Dave Matthews.

The show tonight marks the end of Matthews' and Reynolds' latest acoustic tour, following the release of their double CD Live at Luther College, recorded in 1996. With two acoustic guitars and Matthews' alternately wailing/whispering voice, this duo brings to life the knotty, intense songs that have made the Dave Matthews Band such a compelling and surprising force in contemporary rock.

As Matthews and Reynolds grab guitars and sit down with me to talk and play music, it's immediately clear that despite their surface differences, these are very close friends and partners in crime. Reynolds has played on all the DMB albums and frequently joins the band on stage, in addition to pursuing his own projects in freewheeling solo guitar improv, rock, and funk. In conversation, Reynolds and Matthews feed off each other's kinetic energy and quick humor (sly and urbane one moment, locker-room adolescent the next), and when Matthews starts playing something on guitar, Reynolds locks in with him in a microbeat.

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1999, articles, interviewsdbtp
Carter Beaford Interview

microphone.jpgCarter Beauford: Revisited by William F. Miller
This interview was excerpted from our September '98 issue.

138.jpgAs an MD editor, I've found myself in some pretty interesting situations. One particularly memorable moment occurred last summer during the taping of Carter Beauford's DCI video, Under The Table And Drumming. On the first day of taping--scheduled as the performance day--Beauford was cruising, offering up blistering new takes of Matthews tunes. (He was playing along to drum-less album tracks.)

Unfortunately, a few hours into the shoot the production hit a snag: Due to the fact that there was no audible reference point during the odd-length intro of "Say Goodbye," Beauford had no way of telling when the tune segued from the open intro to the verse. Also adding to the confusion was the drummer's wish to play a massive four-bar, 32nd-note, single-stroke fill around the toms, a measure longer than what's on the original recording. (No question, the man has some serious chops.)

It was suggested (I knew I should have kept my mouth shut) that the only way to make this happen was to give Carter a visual cue. Someone was going to have to crouch on the floor in front of the drumkit, just out of the view of cameras, count several measures, and give Beauford the nod. (I was volunteered.)

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1998, articles, interviewsdbtp