Dave Matthews Band taking success in stride

September 8th, 1998

ATLANTA (CNN) -- For the Dave Matthews Band (DMB), the goal was not to become one of the most popular music groups in the world. Instead, it was to make enjoyable music that would respectfully cater to the wants of fans. Now, seven years after the band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, DMB is enjoying the best of both worlds: worldwide acclaim and sellout venues coupled with a newly released album ("Before These Crowded Streets") that was welcomed by the band's growing fan base.

"There's no plan, it's completely luck," says founding member Dave Matthews, explaining the band's talent of melding so many musical styles. DMB blends jazzy horns, acoustic guitar, unconventional percussion, and Matthews' sweeping voice to create a sound that is at once fresh and familiar. 'We didn't know what we wanted'

"There was no thought when we got together, 'Do we want to be rock, do we want to be heavy metal?'" says Matthews. "We didn't know what we wanted. We knew what we were going to do is, I was going to play guitar and sing, and Carter (Beauford) would play drums." Add Boyd Tinsley on violin, Leroi Moore on sax and wind instruments, and Stefan Lessard on bass, and DMB is revealed as a band that has learned to work well together. "We just enjoy ourselves and I think the tightness comes from just knowing each other," says Matthews. "No two takes in the studio ever sound the same either, when we're in there, so it's sort of the same thing. No two nights repeat themselves too much."

Success and simple things

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Dave Matthews Band: Growing On 'The Dreaming Tree'

April 14th, 1998

Allstar Magazine

Dave Matthews is a humble man. Even though the band's forthcoming album, Before These Crowded Streets, expands upon their trademark sound with interesting new twists, Matthews feels he's been "growing more with an equal lack of direction." And, while one of the songs on the album -- "The Dreaming Tree" -- is a track he is especially proud of, he somehow thinks it'll get slammed.

"I guess we're sort of growing in the same direction we have been going," says Matthews about the group's evolution from their debut album, 1994's Under the Table and Dreaming, to what will be release number six. "I don't know if it's the same way or maybe we're growing more with an equal lack of direction than we had. I'm just trying not to repeat myself -- trying to find rhythms that don't resemble the things I've written. And you know, I don't very often succeed."

On Before These Crowded Streets, Matthews and Co. -- Carter Beauford (drums, percussion), Stefan Lessard (bass), Leroi Moore (saxophone, flute), and Boyd Tinsley (violin) -- certainly succeed.

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Dave Matthews Explains New Single "Don't Drink The Water"

April 13th, 1998

Allstar Music

Ask Dave Matthews the meaning behind "Don't Drink the Water," the first single from the band's new album, Before These Crowded Streets, and out comes a long, passionate speech which reveals much about the singer's personal beliefs on a part of American history.

"There's some part of me that makes me wish that our guilt was less directed at the rules of our religion than the actual things that we've done," explains the South African- born/ Virginia- based Matthews about the song, which condemns the white man's treatment of Native Americans. Interestingly, the song is written from the perspective of a typical white man, who comes to a new land where he hopes his dreams can come true, only to find that there are people living there already that "don't fit into his idea of paradise, so he asks them to leave."

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Dave Matthews Reveals His Political Side on New Album

April 10th, 1998

Allstar Magazine -

Dave Matthews taps into his more political -- and at the same time, darker -- side on the band's forthcoming album, Before These Crowded Streets, due April 28 on RCA.

Some of the most compelling tracks on the album, which was produced by Steve Lillywhite, who also produced 1996's Crash and 1994's Under the Table and Dreaming, are the ones that veer off from the group's usual happy, infectious songs. (Not that there's anything wrong with upbeat tunes, of course.) "The Last Stop," the first single "Don't Drink the Water," and the revamped "Halloween" are among the songs that capture Matthews' more manic vocal presentation, in which on the former two he's practically screaming at the end.

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Matthews shows a darker side; RCA's "Streets" set departs from core sound

March 18th, 1998

_{By CARRIE BORZILLO - Billboard}

Dave Matthews may have seemed fairly mild-mannered on his band's previous albums, but with the April 28 release of ``Before These Crowded Streets'' on RCA, he gives fans a glimpse of his brooding, more intense side.

"Yeah, it's definitely a lot darker,'' says the South African born/Virginia-based singer/guitarist/songwriter about the project. "The only song that is happy is `Stay,' but it's still a desperate-sounding song."

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Carter Beaford Interview

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

As 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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