Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503040028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER RICHMOND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Only this coronation didn't center on politics. Music was center stage. And the new king - Dave Matthews - wasn't the head of his political party. He was just a young Charlottesville musician who actually didn't see his coronation as much of a coronation at all.
"I kind of view it more as like a strange vacation or a strange trip," he said.
In essence, another gig.
Only: "You may notice that we've added a few people to the band." And they all wore tuxedos or formal dresses, which only underscored that his band's two-night home stand with the Richmond Symphony last month was a crowning event of some kind.
The setting alone was testament to that: Richmond, the city of statues and governors and the state's premier live music showplace, the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts.
By any measure, such a stand by a 28-year-old, still relatively unknown rock musician must count as an impressive arrival. In fact, the only other Virginia rock musician to enjoy a similar endorsement was Williamsburg singer/songwriter and occasional Grateful Dead keyboard player Bruce Hornsby.
Further, Hornsby himself only added to the legitimacy of the event by attending one of the shows in person. He could be seen in the audience bopping his head and grooving along with the rest of the crowd.
Of course, for The Dave Matthews Band, it wasn't always like this.
Not long ago, just three short years, and not far from the downtown grandeur of the landmark Carpenter Center, Matthews first performed in Richmond at a nightclub called The Flood Zone to a much different audience.
"Empty," he said.
The band was just starting out then, after forming in Charlottesville in 1991, and it really didn't harbor any grand aspirations to someday return as the toast of the town. Matthews talked about his band's musical ascension in an interview before the two symphony dates.
The son of South African parents, Matthews came to Charlottesville from Johannesburg where he was born and where he spent his high school years. In between, he lived in New York, just outside New York City, where his physicist father moved after being recruited by IBM.
He was 9 years old when he first started playing guitar. As a musician, he is mostly self-taught, and from the beginning, he was attracted to rock music. Early inspiration came from The Beatles, Pink Floyd and the other usual suspects from the 1970s and before.
Eventually, he broadened that horizon, but either way, he said music always served as a driving passion. "Definitely all my life I was into it."
Matthews returned to South Africa with his mother and three siblings when he was 13, after the death of his father.
Although his family has lived in South Africa dating back nearly 300 years, when he went back it wasn't like coming home. "We'd grown used to being Americans by then," he said.
Certainly, it was an odd pedigree, particularly for someone who would ultimately forge a career in American music. But it was also this odd pedigree that probably helped Matthews forge that career - and form the slightly odd musical style that sets him apart.
In South Africa, he was profoundly affected by a whole different musical and cultural sensibility, by not only the distinctive rhythms of African music, but also the easier, open air pace of African life. "There is a lot more time in Africa," he explained.
He remained under South Africa's influence through high school. Then in 1986, he followed his mother to Charlottesville where she and Dave's father had lived for a short time early in their marriage.
In Charlottesville, Matthews found a job as a waiter and bartender and sometime salad boy at Miller's Restaurant. Miller's was a nurturing place where the employees and clientele alike all seemed to be aspiring artists, writers or musicians. "I was exposed to a lot of really interesting people working there," Matthews said.
Miller's also featured live music. But Matthews said he didn't get a job there just so he could get a foothold on the local music scene. "No, I got that job because I didn't have one."
From there, he met and became friends with Leroi Moore, probably the best-known jazz saxophonist in the region, and Carter Beauford, another well-known regional musician who worked as the house drummer for Black Entertainment Television in Washington.
He also got to know a young bass player named Stefan Lessard who started playing in the clubs around Charlottesville when he was still in high school.
None of them knew, however, about Matthews' musical ambitions. He said that when they talked, they always talked about their music - not his.
In 1990, he started writing songs and played them for his surprised musician friends. "They were like, `That's cool. How long have you been writing?' '' he said.
Informally, he joined up with saxophonist Moore, drummer Beauford and bassist Lessard to flesh out the songs. Soon after, they added another musician friend, violinist Boyd Tinsley.
It proved to be a winning combination.
Appropriately, Matthews is quick to shower his bandmates with the credit they deserve, but haven't received because it's his name on the marquee. "All I did was assemble my dream group of musicians," he often says.
It is true, too, that the band's novel lineup has been a key to its success. The unusual combination of Moore's saxophone and Tinsley's violin as the group's lead instruments is like nothing else in rock music.
Meanwhile, Matthews accompanies them only with an acoustic guitar, again a departure from rock's norm, where the electric guitar typically dominates.
From the beginning, Matthews said he wanted to deviate from the screaming-guitars format, but otherwise he didn't have any preconceived musical vision. The band's unique sound just evolved, he said. "It was just lucky that it worked out."
At its core, this sound starts with Matthews' songs. In explaining how the group works, Matthews compared his songs to the sun, while his voice and the backing instruments make up the planets that circle the song. "The arrangement sort of builds and builds from there," he said.
The result is a distinctive jam-oriented style that is closest to the new crop of so-called neo-hippie bands like the Spin Doctors, Phish and Blues Traveler. It's a style that is loose, breezy and sounds slightly at odds with the musical establishment, yet doesn't wholly abandon the form either.
Lyrically, Matthews offers up a conversational flow of words that are strangely solemn given the bouncy nature of the music, and his own boyish, decidedly anti-grunge appearance.
As a singer, his delivery reflects his South African influence, sounding at times other-worldly, especially when compared to his pure American speaking voice.
At first, the group didn't know what to expect. People who remember the band's first shows at Miller's in Charlottesville describe them as rough.
Moore, Beauford and the others all played in other groups at the same time to keep regular paychecks coming in. Even Matthews continued his bartending job for more than a year after the band first formed.
Eventually, though, the group began to connect with an audience. Initially, it was college students. In fact, most of the band's fan base today still comes from the college ranks.
Early on, the group played mostly fraternity parties and other college events where the money was generally better than in the clubs. Then, once the band established a following, the group moved to the clubs where the audiences followed.
Matthews said this was a deliberate strategy that he calls "milking the cow to the bones." It also flew in the face of the conventional music business wisdom of hustling for a record contract - and for heavy rotation on MTV. It was much more grass roots.
In Charlottesville, Matthews and company soon landed a coveted spot playing every Tuesday night at the club Trax, where they impressed the club's owner at the time, Coran Capshaw.
Capshaw, in turn, booked them in Richmond every Wednesday night at The Flood Zone, which he also owned. He became a sort of informal manager, helping them schedule other shows along the east coast.
Soon, their weekly gigs at Trax and The Flood Zone became regular sell-outs. "It went from 20 people to 200 people to 400 people," Matthews said.
That gave them a steady income and allowed them to become more adventureous on their weekends, playing shows maybe for less money, but for greater exposure. Word of the band quickly spread.
In time, it became common to see fans singing along with the band's songs - amazingly before the group had even released a record.
Naturally, the major record labels came calling. By then, Capshaw had become the band's manager on a formal basis, and he helped convince the group to wait before signing any contracts.
Instead, in 1993, the band self-produced and distributed its own album, titled "Remember Two Things," some of which was recorded at Flat-Five Studios in Salem.
The theory was that the group estimated it already had a loyal audience of 100,000 people, Matthews explained. So, why let a big record company come along and cash in on what they had worked so hard to establish?
Why not do it themselves?
The move paid off. Mostly at their shows and by mail-order, the band sold more than 100,000 copies of "Remember Two Things," an astounding number for an independent release. The band also set up a profitable mail-order Dave Matthews merchandise business, which continues today.
All of this only enhanced the group's bargaining position with the major labels, allowing Matthews and Capshaw to call more of the shots.
Matthews signed with RCA Records and spent two months last summer in the studio in New York recording its RCA debut, "Under The Table And Dreaming."
The album was produced by heavy-hitter Steve Lillywhite, who has worked with big name acts like The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, U2 and Peter Gabriel.
"Under The Table And Dreaming" entered the Billboard album chart at No. 34 when it was released last fall. Since then, it has sold some 300,000 copies, and the group's first video for the song, "What Would You Say," is currently a buzz clip on MTV.
In addition, the band was featured on last summer's H.O.R.D.E. tour with Blues Traveler and The Allman Brothers, among others.
Perhaps the best proof that Matthews has arrived, however, came the week after the two Richmond Symphony dates when his band performed on David Letterman's show.
But that doesn't detract from the sweet triumph of playing with the symphony, an event that had been in the works for almost two years.
Bruce Hornsby acknowledged that playing with the symphony does mark a certain rite of passage for a Virginia musician. At the same time, he added that performing for the first time at William and Mary Hall in Williamsburg, a mile from where he grew up, was actually more personally rewarding.
"For me, that was really huge," he said.
Matthews, while repeatedly acknowledging what an honor it was to work with the symphony, also downplayed its significance. "It's not so much of a thing that we've gotten here," he said. "It's just one of the bizarre scenarios that come along with this life."
Matthews said he doesn't want to let all the attention and accolades make him "daffy" and "wigged-out."
He has vowed never to hide behind sunglasses on stage, and his mother is still the first person he plays a news song for. When not on the road, he lives with his sister, and he described himself as a homebody who likes to read and cook and sleep. His girlfriend goes to Sweet Briar College.
For now, he plans to remain in Virginia. He said he likes the way Virginia smells.
Musically, he only hopes to remain adventurous, something he fears will be more difficult now with his newly found success. And he hopes to remain friends with his band mates, whether they are working arenas or sweeping floors.
"Fashion is fickle," he cautioned, "and we may become boring with greater haste than imagined."
But don't count on it.
In the end, the knowing glances he exchanged with his fellow band members as the orchestra swelled behind them and the audience danced in the aisles said everything. This was something special.
When he turned that same knowing expression to the crowd, Matthews was even coy about it, much the way a politician gets when he poses a question that he already has the answer to.
"Is that all right?" he asked.
Listen to Dave: For a sample of The Dave Matthews Band, call InfoLine.
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Category 7625 (ROCK)
by CNB