THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995 TAG: 9512270259
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
A LITTLE MORE than three years ago, a music-business type was raving about the great new band he'd discovered. One of the most exciting acts he'd ever seen. You've gotta catch 'em.
As 1995 ticks off, it turns out manager Coran Capshaw was absolutely right about Charlottesville's Dave Matthews Band.
``Under the Table and Dreaming,'' the group's double platinum, major-label debut album, has sold more than 2 million copies. Their concerts Saturday and New Year's Eve at Hampton Coliseum are expected to sell out. The second night is being carried live at 10 p.m. on about 150 radio stations around the country, including WKOC-FM (93.7) and WROX-FM (96.1). A self-released 1993 CD, ``Remember Two Things,'' not only has sold 300,000 copies, it led to the band's contract with RCA, where it's the company's most popular act in years.
Still, Matthews, whose lilting, fiddle-and-saxophone-laced rock has been a favorite of East Coast concertgoers since the early '90s, professes some surprise at the level of acceptance, which runs from teens to fans in their 40s and 50s.
``I don't think we predicted the media success, the industry success, that we've had,'' he said. It was just before Christmas and Matthews was speaking from a hotel room in New York, where he's working on vocal tracks for next spring's follow-up album.
``We didn't have the ambition to say that. We all thought we would do well, based on the response from first-time crowds, but we just didn't have the guts to say we'd be this big.''
By way of explanation, Matthews alluded to the consensus among hipsters, many of whom dismiss his sound as bland. Details and the Village Voice are two publications that have dissed the group.
``We didn't think there was necessarily a place for us. But there's always a place if the categories get a little wider. I'm glad we did well, because I get a little tired of `what's good and what's bad.' I'm glad that the happy music we play did well at the same time Green Day was big.''
Is that happiness, then, at the root of the Dave Matthews Band phenomenon?
``I dunno,'' he said. ``I think there's a certain sense of celebration in what we do. I have a great time when we play; I love to play live.
``It seems like when that happens, the crowds get off, too. That's what's infectious, even if we're singing a song about addiction, if we're singing a song about suicide, or if we're singing a song about springtime.''
Matthews, a native of South Africa, credits the band's rise to its inner circle, which includes many of the same people who started its management and merchandising organization several years ago.
``I only have to look at the people who are involved. I'm amazed in a way,'' he said, ``but I feel like it's happened almost without me. We've had 30 people or 100 people working. What's good is that as it grew, it wasn't too overfed; it wasn't too big for itself. I guess that's the luck of not being signed (to a major label) right away.
``We had a Christmas party, and there were all these people there! It leaves me kind of winded, 'cause I never thought - I didn't see myself as being at the center of something that supports so many people.''
At the same time, manager Capshaw has helped the group do smart business. It doesn't license merchandise like T-shirts and computer mousepads, instead handling it in-house. And the band kept the rights to ``Remember Two Things,'' which insures a higher profit on the disc than if RCA had re-released it.
Ambrosia Healy, the band's publicist for about two years, acknowledged a debt to the Grateful Dead's style of intelligent business management.
``The similarity was that (Capshaw) knew how the Grateful Dead's business was set up,'' she said. ``The important thing is that they have a manager who believes in doing it yourself. Why should you give merchandising up to someone else? It makes good business sense.''
Singer/songwriter Matthews' outlook is down-to-earth.
``We try and keep the sense that we're on, like, a hayride,'' he said. ``Speaking for myself, I try to keep my perspective a realistic one: that things pass. Any illusions of grandeur will eventually slam into our faces, whether it's 10 years from now, four years from now, or next month.''
He laughed. ``It's just self-preservation, so that when I'm back to bartending, I won't be smashing my head against the wall, going, `I've been mistreated.' I'm going to be maggot food one day.''
For now, though, Matthews will continue to enjoy having 2 million friends. He expects to play a good bit of the next album's material in Hampton. And he promises that the band will attempt the unexpected, to ``try some fun things and hope they work,'' on New Year's Eve.
After that, a February acoustic tour is planned with his friend Tim Reynolds, a regular guest on the band's albums. The group will return to the road in April in support of the as-yet-untitled third CD.
``Hopefully, we haven't alienated the original fans, because I don't mean to,'' Matthews said. ``Though it might drive people crazy hearing the songs'' on radio and TV all the time.
``There's no compliment that's better than the fact that someone just goes out and buys it, and goes out and sees it. There's a lot of, I don't know, sort of verbal petting that goes on. It means more that someone is listening.
``I try to keep a sense of reality and not to believe that there's some sort of power to stardom.'' Matthews put on a mock-British accent. ``It's a bunch of garbage, really.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Charlottesville's Dave Matthews Band has a double platinum,
mamor-label album and is packing huge concert halls
by CNB